Letter: Adults perpetuating stereotypes on children
In response to Barbara Stark’s April 9 letter, “Female athletes are young, proud women,” and comments from Dixon Cider and Randy Marsh on my April 5 letter, “Girls must ditch stereotypes to be successful players in sports and life,” let me clarify:
When adults are directing children into stereotypical poses for sports (and other) pictures — specifically, the girls were all directed to pose with a knee popped and hands on hip while boys were posed in a more traditionally “masculine” manner (definitely no knees popped), those adults are perpetuating the “girly” or “masculine” stereotypes on our children.
I absolutely agree with allowing our kids to pose however they want in sports pictures — I am advocating for us to not make the decision for our kids.
The photography company took an extended comment and description from me and thanked me for my longtime support and feedback, by the way.
Yvonne Levardi, Richland
This story was originally published May 24, 2017 at 12:52 PM with the headline "Letter: Adults perpetuating stereotypes on children."