outside the (toy) box

Yes, it’s good to know that we’ve gotten past all those old gender stereotypes.

I was looking at the Old Navy kids clothes when I noticed a fairly vivid example of that tight little box that boys and girls get to live in when it comes to gender roles (see “Gender Rules” above under “What Box?”). If you look at the “graphic tees” on sale for girls you will find shirts with the following sassy sayings:

Little Diva, Drama Queen, I Get Cuter Everytime U See Me, Perfect 10 (in the “baby girls” section, btw — ideal for any 5 year old - ICK!), Read the complete Post.

The other day, I took Thing 1 to the doctor and she had to have her blood drawn by the phlebotomist.  By her account to my dh, she was “very brave,”  which is true only if you define brave as needing to be physically held down while bucking and screaming so that poor Nurse Dolores can get the needle in the vein. But pots should not call kettles black, so I will resist making fun of her (to her face).  At any rate, in the early negotiations (pre-physical coercion), Dolores promised dd that Read the complete Post.

If I tried to start someplace coherent, it would be in the beginning, stories of my first struggles (many internal) with these issues, but I can’t remember where they began — debates over names, nursery colors, Christmas gifts..? I do know when they erupted — in September when my precious Thing 1 entered preschool (btw — that is an affectionate Cat in the Hat reference, not a callous disregard for her humanity). 

After three years of constructing a tolerable pop culture world of carefully chosen books, a Read the complete Post.