Well, that's what it is when adults foist there preferred roles onto children through the types of play they encourage them to have.

Again it's a matter of cultural outrage, usually by the middle-classes with respect of what they perceive as the delinquent and morally corrupt working-classes - or Chavs as such people are generally dehumanised here on Mudcat. No one is foisting anything onto anyone. A middle-class associate of mine was once outraged to see working-class parents having their kid's ears pierced - even going so far as to call it child abuse. Talk about a gulf of class-condencension! Kids are raised according to the cultural values of their doting parents - however so innocently perceived and appreciated, be it dolls, toy guns or karaoke machines. I knew a young girl at a youth club I used to work at who'd wrote her own songs to the backing tracks and several others who used it for free-styling rap; most however were happy just to sing the songs they knew to the best of their ability, and work hard on established (traditional? no, let's not rock the folk boat!) dance routines - no doubt the same sort of harmless fun that that inspired this thread.