The following 6 minute short film is about a girl who loves a boy and a boy who loves his bike. The film took first place in Tropfest Australia 2008, “the world’s largest short film festival.” It has me thinking about how we raise our children, from toddlerhood.

Consider: a girl ensconced in pink is obsessed with changing herself to attract a boy rather than being happy with who she is. Doing things to attract the attention of the other sex is one thing, but she changes herself for him (learning to ride without training wheels by herself) and changes her possessions (removing pink doodads from her spokes, and later painting her bike black with a pen).

Meanwhile, the boy shrugs and ignores the girl for being a girl, and rejects girlish things (her pink spoke doodads, and the color and style of her bike).

The message conveyed is that it’s good for girls to change themselves for boys and for boys to eschew girls and girlish things unless they become boy-like.

I’d be okay with the film if it ended with the girl’s triumphant jump from the boy’s bike ramp, leaving him in the dust. But no, after the credits roll, we learn he reluctantly accepted her pretend/fantasy marriage. Translation: her efforts paid off.

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