My kid: “I am part boy because I like some boy stuff”.
Response: “I think you are yourself, and you like what you like.”
*****
You attempt to raise a girl who doesn’t need to be told that she can do anything a boy can do, because it would never occur to her that she couldn’t. You buy her blocks and non-caretaker play toys (I have done a crappy job of this, but I will get better), along with the usual girl stuff they receive. My older one in particular has always loved the usual girly stuff just as much, because, again, she likes what she likes. You tell them that there are no “boy” jobs, there are no “girl” toys, and they can play what they want – just as they can choose their own path in life.
And then? You take them to Target.
Some good news on this front broke on Saturday: Target is removing gender labeling from their toy and bedding aisles.
This classification system has irked me some, but never inhibited us from wandering into the blue section and picking up some Nintendo figurines. My kids are as Nintendo-Obsessed as their father was, 25 years ago. The big one can beat me in MarioKart. However, the reality that not every boy looks, acts, or plays “like a boy”, and vice versa, simply needs accepted. I appreciate this small step towards empowerment and acceptance. Dear Toys-R-Us, please follow suit.
The acceptance part is probably what scares the more “traditionalist” shoppers: In this heapin’ helping of crazy, (my opinion, not the title of the article, I swear), the blog BizPac Review seems to think the lack of direction as to where junior can shop indicates that the world as they know it is crumbling. Almost anything with “pac” in the name should induce at least low-level vigilance for, as John Stewart called for this week, “bullshit”. They also decried the White House’s installation of a gender-neutral bathroom. But anyway…
Is this un-labeling a welcome change, unnecessary, or a sign of the unraveling of our society that would “make Ike roll over in his grave”?
Toys are toys. No toy has a gender. Boys can and should play with baby dolls, kitchen sets, dollhouses, etc., and girls can and should play with cars and trucks, construction sets, action figures, etc. I’ve always been irked when I see color coded toys. They didn’t exist when I was a kid, or even when you were young. You played with what you liked, and that was that. Crotchety old lady rant over! 😉
My 3 year old notices. She loves princesses and superheroes. Her favorite color used to be orange, but has changed to pink and purple. She knows that she wants to be Wonder Woman when she grows up. Yet, she comments on how things are “boy” things. We are trying our best to teach her that there is no such thing, but she pretty much doesn’t care what we have to say on the subject, because she is three going on thirteen.