On Pirates and Princesses

For about the last nine months, Max has been obsessed with pirates. Gone were the train discussions he had loved for so long - it was now all about Captain Hook, ships, and a rallying "Yo Ho!" cry. TV shows, clothing, songs and books all featured pirates prominently. He rushes home from school to create his own treasure maps, and turned bookshelves in the winter and the swing set in the summer into his own pirate ship. He often wears his pirate costume, and sleeps at night with his sword by his side - you never know when you might run into an evil pirate.

Max's preschool class "studied" pirates, and while the girls in his class were eager to move to other topics, many of the boys haven't been. Max tells me that they still regularly pretend to be pirates on the playground. He says the boys all love his new skull 'n crossbones rain boots. Instead, the girls want to talk about princesses.

Ah, the princess phase, which I remember so well from Hannah's glowing adoration of plastic high heels and endless viewings of Cinderella. In recent years, there has been a lot of hand-wringing over the princesses and what they might be teaching our girls. But what, exactly, are pirates teaching our boys?

There's a lot about pirates that we've obviously tried to shield him from, but like I said, he sleeps with his sword. Pirates are violent, to put it mildly, and it's been a challenge to not glamorize that fact. He thinks "cannonball shooters" are really cool, but I don't think he gets that they're used to sink other ships and harm people. He doesn't know about the "rape and pillage" aspect of pirates...just like Hannah didn't clue into the "I need a man to save me!" aspect of princesses.

I deliberately used the word "phase" above, regarding the princesses, and I know the pirates will be a phase too. While Hannah may have only worn dresses for over a year, she's definitely against anything too frilly or pink now. To her, the princess obsession was just a fun way to learn something more about the world, and not something to get swallowed up by. Hopefully, soon Max will move on to something else too.

Just not before we get to go on this pirate ship together.

Thanks to Abby Glassenberg for helping me realize this was something I should discuss here.