Teaching Little Girls To Beat Women

I was pushing Z on the swing at the park when the people hosting a birthday party there hung up a piñata in the image of a woman from the swing set. 


There was a line of four year old girls and one boy.  They were each given the purple stick and told to hit the piñata, but it soon became "hit the woman."

Hit her head.

Hit her arms.

Hit her legs.

Harder.

The girls seemed a bit timid at first.  They didn't hit very hard and looked around as if they were uncertain about what they were doing.

The little boy had no qualms and really creamed her.

But the piñata was well made and the candy was well protected so they went through the line three or four times.

I kept thinking, aren''t any of the adults questioning the appropriateness of asking little girls to beat up an image of a woman?  There are plenty of piñatas that are shaped as stars or other geometric figures.  I've always liked the idea of piñatas, but this party left me with a very different feeling about them.

I'm not sure if this has any impact on these girls or not, but it has an impact on me.  I'd also mention that the piñata was finally broken open and along with toys and candy, lots and lots of colorful confetti fell out and the confetti blew all over the place.

Z watched the whole event while she was swinging.  I don't know what she was thinking, but she had a very serious look on her face.  

This is San Francisco.  I thought people here were supposed to be more aware.