The emphasis on the world “boy” is no coincidence. Peter Pan is, at its roots, a male-centered story. It’s about young men fearing the burden of the future, and what they perceive as their fathers’ lack of whimsy. (Peter has even lent his name to a syndrome used to describe grown men who haven’t quite transitioned into adulthood — something that is often laughed off instead of being a red flag.) That much is clear in the 1953 Disney adaptation , which opens with Mr. Darling berating his children for drawing a treasure map on his white dress shirt right before he and his wife are to head out to a party. As the breadwinner for his family, he has no time for fun. Mrs. Darling, on the other hand, appears to have retained some of her childlike joy, even as she encourages her kids to try and be more understanding of their father. In fact, it’s her fantasy-filled bedtime stories that lead Peter to the Darlings’ London house in the first place. This makes sense, given the Victorian context from which the original story stems, and the 1950s obsession with the perfect housewife as the paragon of femininity. In both of those worlds, women are destined to become mothers, and therefore keep some child-like qualities, even as they grow up to become romantic objects for men.