I find it ironic that after a lifetime of envy of Mary's golden hair, Laura has at last turned the tables.
Wendy is a blonde-haired little girl, you see. And this hasn't bothered her a bit. But it bothers me -- not that she's blonde, but that in the land of Laura Ingalls Wilder, she's discriminated against for being blonde.
Case in point. Laura look-alike contests. Several of the homesites have them annually. But... what do little girls do who don't have brown hair? They can't possibly look as much like Laura as those blessed with chestnut locks, now can they? Do you see what I mean about Laura turning the tables on all the little golden-haired girls of the world?
Well.
Owning a prairie dress and all, I thought that Wendy might -- just might -- be interested in participating in one of these contests, but I also knew it was unlikely she would win because of her hair color. I went back and forth between not telling her the contest was even taking place and informing her and letting her make her own decision.
At last, I decided to ask and see how she felt about the matter.
"Wendy... if there were a Laura look-alike contest, would you want to be in it, or not?" I asked.
"I want to be in a Mary look-alike contest," she responded, without hesitation.
You see? Seven years old, and she instantly recognized the discrimination she would face for her blonde hair!
"There's not a Mary look-alike contest," I said. "It's Laura or nothing."
(Not fair, not fair!)
"Then no," she decided. "Because I don't want to dye my hair brown."
Laura sites -- please sit up and take notice!!! Could it not be possible to have a, "Look like a Little House character of your choice" contest!?!?
This is sad. Very sad.
Monday, September 14, 2009
Brown Hair... or Golden?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
At the Genesee Country Village this past Summer they had "Laura Ingalls Day" and you could enter as any character you wanted! So basically the people entering made up the categories.
Of course the biggest category was Laura & then Mary. My best friend brought her 3 year old and she was the only one who entered as Carrie, and thus won. Another woman was the only person entered as Ma and she won as well! It was a cute way to do it!
See?? I like it. And then they could take a picture of the winners and have the whole Ingalls family, how darling!
I have a plan to get around the prejudice. We'll see if Wendy goes for it or not. ;)
At the Anne of Green Gables Day, at Westfield Pioneer Village, while 95% of the contestants were little Annes, there was another category for any other AoGG character, so there were a few Dianas, Gilberts, Rachel Lyndes, and even a Miss Stacey one year. Red hair not being nearly as common as brown of course, not too many had the advantage of being born with the right colour!
Post a Comment