Since when do 4 yr olds need abs to fight crime?

Little Dude is counting the days until Halloween. As soon as the costume aisle in Target showed up (you know, right around July 4th), he was agonizing: Batman or Superman? Doctor or policeman?

For those keeping track, Superman won. I think the snazzy rubber yellow belt did it.

But I had my own little agony, looking at all of his choices. Apparently kids can't be superheroes without a little enhancement these days. It's not enough to don a cape and mask. No. Now you need a six pack. All of those spandex-type costumes come with build-in little plastic abs: Superman, Batman, Iron Man... you get the idea. Target calls them "muscle chest" costumes.

Maybe it seems cute at first. But imagine if we did this to costumes for girls. "Big-chested Tinkerbell"? "Bouncing Barbie"? Hardly. I would like to think, at least, that there would be an outcry.

So why is it OK to give boys this message? If you want to save the world, better hit the gym, dudes. Sooner the better. Put down that stinking book already and give me fifty.

And how about little girls who want to play at being the Dark Knight and friends? I mean, it's impossible for find a Supergirl costume at Tarjay. Sometimes a girl has to compromise. But she's far less likely to do so if faced with donning a manly six-pack. Our toys for kids just get more and more "gender identified" (another rant for another time).

Little Dude doesn't seem to notice the muscles, though this Beauty Myth disciple does worry about how it's messing with his mind, at some level.  If he starts hefting my five-pound barbells, I'm writing a letter to... someone.