New Revelations On Winnie-the-Pooh

I love having a blog! It's this wonderful place where I can put all my random thoughts and revelations and serendipitous moments where they don't need to be at all cohesive or have anything at all to do with each other. :-)

I've always been somewhat bothered by the fact that all the characters in the Winnie-the-Pooh stories are male, except Kanga - the sweet, doting, overprotective in her words but not in her actions... (I am speaking not from the Disney interpretation of the stories, but the original A.A. Milne books.) Well, this morning I had a thought about that. Mr. Milne wrote these books for his son, Christopher Robin. He wrote them as a memorial to him, and to express the world in a way that would appeal to a little boy. Well then it makes perfect sense. As I thought about how my children engender their stuffed animals and dolls.

It's important to note that both Yoram and I are very aware of not masculinating or feminizing our children. Netanel's baby doll, which is a Cabbage Patch doll that my IL's bought him and wheres a pink and purple sleeper, is a boy baby named (affectionately) Uncle Hillel. Uncle Hillel (the doll, not my brother) has super powers to fight bad guys.
Odeliya will pick up just about anything small (seeds, sticks, dolls, bouncy balls, toy cars, etc...) and wrap it in the nearest blanket, napkin, tissue... and cradle it and call it her baby.

So in my limited experience, I would think that A.A. Milne, writing for Christopher Robin would imagine all his toys to be male. And in his make-believe world there would only be one female. The loving, doting, kangaroo momma, a depiction of his own wife, and CR's mother - embodied in Kanga.

That's my totally random thought for the day!