Walking the Line

As a woman, I concern myself with equal treatment for women. As a female who doesn't like a lot of sterotypically female things like shopping, make-up, getting dressed up, pink, whatever, I'm always cheering for the little tomboys that want to be princess superheroes or whatever. If I'd had daughters, these things would have stayed in the forefront of my mind (along with numerous other things!!)

But I'm a mother of sons, so I'm finding myself noticing things that I'd not ever noticed before. Like that it's fine if I a little girl wants to be a dinosaur, we see pictures of little girls dressing up with their fathers for Halloween in gender swapped roles and everyone cheers, but we don't see the same for little boys. No little boys dressed up as princesses, no mother/son duos in role reversals. Is this because little boys just don't want to be princesses? Only girls have these gender bending desires?

Please.

So why? What does this mean? Why are we okay with girls testing gender boundaries (not that many don't get grief, because they do) but not boys? Why would it be okay for my daughter to like ninja turtles and Star Wars but when I say my son loves Elsa and Tinkerbell, I get an awkward look or silence?

Again, I'm not saying that girls don't face their own prejudices. Of course we do! I know! I live it! It just bothers me that the prejudices against boys rarely, if ever, get noticed or mentioned.

The struggle needs to change from women achieving equality with men to people just being allowed to be people. Unique. Diverse. Interesting. Sure, I personally think that overall males have certain tendencies and women have certain tendencies, but there are piles of nuance and grey overlap. We are special and out interests are wide and far-reaching.

My son's interests include Frozen/Tangled/Tinkerbell movies, roaring like a dinosaur, pushing trains, singing, dancing, throwing tantrums, getting snuggles, cows, and making me read "Are You My Mother?" to him over and over again. Just like a... toddler. Any toddler. Pick a toddler. A human one, preferably. When we go to gym time, I don't see the little girls and little boys separating and the girls play in the kitchen while the boys play with the cars. They all play with everything because they aren't old enough yet to start setting those gender lines.

Enough with the pink versions of stuff for women. Enough with my son getting the hairy eye for loving Elsa and Anna more than Olaf or Sven or Kristoff. Why would he love the sidekicks more than the heroes!?

At least we're letting boys into the gender neutral play kitchen now.

Sigh.