Our house was packed with five and six year-old girls yesterday, celebrating our daughter’s sixth birthday (on Monday). Needless to say, it was pink all over, with Bratz and Littlest Petshop gifts.

After all, there’s no denying it: Girls that age adore everything… well, adorable and sweet, but a few things have changed over the last couple of decades (if you know my native tongue, here’s something I posted on the matter last summer).

Among the youngest (say the four year-olds), Cinderella, Barbie and Disney’s Little Mermaid remains a factor, for yet another year – tops. Beyond that it’s High School Musical and Hannah Montana all the way.

During a short break in games, disco and other activities, the girls sat down for a 15 minute High School Musical DVD session, during which I had ample opportunity to observe. Before long they decided on who’s Gabriella and who’s Sharpey (seen in video clip below) – two of the lead characters, the two most glamorous at that, if I need add.

It also struck me that the three fair- and long-haired among them, of whom, I must admit, my daughter is counted, have made an alliance. Which I’ve known for ages, but it struck me, seeing how appearances really matter, how that trait may well be the trigger.

Call me a male chauvinist pig, but I’m perfectly all right with the pink sweetness and some of the indisputable feminine qualities (hell, we even bought her the pink camera seen above), but highly uncomfortable with my daughter and her two fair-haired friends’ appearance-driven conspiring, prompting me to ask if it’s all down to genetics or if we forge them into it, by force-feeding them pinkness in abundance.

I know we haven’t, even though we have given in to her and her friends’ peer pressure. Still, we have to acknowledge that the origins are somewhere, on TV, in magazines and toys, and yet, I’m inclined to ascribe some of it to sheer nature.

Some would argue that’s why we still need feminism. I’d say it’s not. It’s a problem for humanity, however minuscule, or for parenting, perhaps. But puh-lease don’t offer hardcore feminism as answer to the problem.

Having said that, the party was a huge success. As the icing on the cake, as it were, our daughter even lost her first tooth on her very sixth birthday (the day before yesterday).

All in all a huge success.

Our daughter lost her first tooth – on her birthday.

Top photo: Our daughters pink Samsung S860.