The message we send our kids about gender in 2011...

[Myasishchev]

Okay, now I'm on a kick of listening to Disney songs.

Serious question, does Jasmine have prosopagnosia (that is, the inability to recognize faces)? I mean, Aladdin isn't even wearing glasses. This Ali dude? IT'S THE GUY YOU JUST MET. Maybe there's some time compression there and it was actually like five years between the meetings.

Also, I found it disingenuous of Jafar to suggest that "Ali" wasn't really a prince. Yeah, he wished for it; but that's a pretty good wish. He obviously has the resources of a (fabulously wealthy and profligate) prince. I always assumed Genie had made him his own new country with thousands of entirely magic-generated human beings. Maybe he spent those five years consolidating his rule over his homunculi.

Anyway, do you know that google thing that suggests searches for you? The first thing that it suggests for "inability to" is "ejaculate." Very sad.

 

[Finn]

Serious question, does Jasmine have prosopagnosia (that is, the inability to recognize faces)? I mean, Aladdin isn't even wearing glasses. This Ali dude? IT'S THE GUY YOU JUST MET. Maybe there's some time compression there and it was actually like five years between the meetings.

Have you seen that Seinfeld episode where the gang were all going to see a movie, and George keeps reentering the theatre and giving the attendant all of the tickets, one at a time?

 

[JarodRussell]

Seriously, I thought we were past this kind of stuff.

I remember when I was little, toys were highly separated in the way they were marketed. If you were a girl, you did not play with GI Joes and other toys like that, or even stuff like X-Men action figures. There was never, ever a girl in the commercials for all the coolest toys. And what's sad is...I almost never asked for the things I wanted most because it was so "clear" to me that I shouldn't. I mentioned that more recently to my parents and they never even knew I was interested in those things...but the message had been so clear I didn't even feel I could say it.

I remember being disappointed when I saw some X-Men sneakers at a shoe store that I really wanted, and being told those were not for girls and things like that were not made for girls.

As a matter of fact, Star Trek has the distinction of being one of the first toy franchises where I saw boys and girls enjoying the same toys. Seems the philosophy of gender equality even got into the way the toys were marketed! We should be proud!

But today I saw something very disappointing and that I thought in 2011 we were past.

I happened to spot a really awesome birthday card for a kid at Walgreens, with a Clone Wars theme. When you pressed the button, Yoda's lightsaber actually lit up and it played the Clone Wars theme!

When I put it back, I noticed that it had come from a rack labeled "BOY BIRTHDAY" and next to it was a Barbie doll or some other princess with enough pink to make me hurl, labeled "GIRL BIRTHDAY."

I so thought we were past that crap.

Granted, at least by 2011 there wasn't a reference in the card to it being for a boy, so at least these days a parent who knew what their little girl really wanted could get it for her without having to do an embarrassing edit job on it...but still. On some level that was just disappointing to find that stereotypes are still going strong, and that's what we're still feeding our kids. :-/

Do you also object to painting a boy's room's walls light blue and a girl's room's walls light pink?

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Anyway, do you know that google thing that suggests searches for you? The first thing that it suggests for "inability to" is "ejaculate." Very sad.

If you want to see some creepy shit, start with "is it gross to".

You'll thank me!

You'll thank me.

(Probably not.)

 

[Myasishchev]

Anyway, do you know that google thing that suggests searches for you? The first thing that it suggests for "inability to" is "ejaculate." Very sad.

If you want to see some creepy shit, start with "is it gross to".

You'll thank me!

You'll thank me.

(Probably not.)

The first three: YES.
The fourth one: ARGUABLY.
The last two: NO.

Have you seen that Seinfeld episode where the gang were all going to see a movie, and George keeps reentering the theatre and giving the attendant all of the tickets, one at a time?

Vaguely?

P.S.: am I wrong to think that "A Whole New World" is a little dirty? "I can open your eyes/Take you wonder by wonder/Over sideways and under"? Really? Classy . I wish I could phrase my bold sexual propositions in the form of spontaneous duets.

 

[Maestro]

So, yesterday, my daughter sat with me on the couch to watch the Brewers. My sister-in-law's family are taking us to a minor league game later this month, and I wanted to get my daughter up to speed on the game.

She lasted one inning before it bored her.

She sat on the floor playing with paper dolls and would occasionally glance up at the screen, quickly analyze the pitch and pronounce whether or not it was a ball or strike and why. Your soon-to-be First Grader, with her pink bedroom walls, playing with an American Girl paper doll book looking up at the screen and saying, "Well, that was low and outside, it's a ball," after 15 minutes of instruction in the game is just a little scary.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ I have never been as proud of a human being in my entire life as I have just been.

 

[trampledamage]

Back story: young master trampledamage (4yrs) hates getting his hair cut, so from the time that he accepted the argument that if he wasn't getting his hair cut he had to at least get his hair washed, his hair hasn't been cut. It grows pretty slowly so it's just down around his shoulders at the back and long enough to reach his mouth at the front.

The only people who think he's a girl are adults. The other boys that we meet in the playground accept him immediately as a boy.

I guess the habit of pigeon-holing people by their appearance is something we grow into

 

[RJDiogenes]

Long hair on boys was normal when I was a kid. I wore mine down to my shoulders for a year or so when I was in my early 20s, but it was just too much trouble. I liked how it looked though (and girls did, too).

 

[ShamelessMcBundy]

And now you long for those days when you had hair ...

 

[Maestro]

Meh, Packers great Clay Matthews has long hair. People fear him.

(My daughter almost started crying when she heard he wasn't in the line-up for tonight)

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

Do you also object to painting a boy's room's walls light blue and a girl's room's walls light pink?

I would rather not do that; doing something simply because of a stereotype, and to perpetuate a stereotype, is not something I'm interested in.

 

[RoJoHen]

I object to painting any room light blue or pink.

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

I did light blue in my room once I was old enough to actually ask for what I wanted.

 

[RoJoHen]

I like dark colors.

 

[bluedana]

This past Christmas, my daughter, who was 6, got a Barbie as a grab gift and promptly burst into tears, saying, "I don't want a doll!" I was just about to give her a lecture about being ungrateful, when her 9 year old brother took the Barbie, looked at it carefully, and observed, "It's an action figure Barbie." Then he handed it back to her and she was thrilled.

Of course now she's obsessed with her new Easy Bake Oven.

I feel my job is to be neutral. Whatever she wants to play with, as long as it's not dangerous, gets a "Hmmm, okay" out of me.

Friends of mine were annoyed because their ultrasound was "inconclusive," so they were thinking about paying for another one so they could find out the gender of their baby. I pointed out that they'd know in about six weeks anyway -- but they wanted to make nursery decorating decisions. I was like, WTF differences does it make? Your kid WON'T CARE.

 

[Myasishchev]

I like dark colors.

One time I saw a red door and I had it painted black.

I'm still not allowed to go near that kid, though.

 

[trampledamage]

I feel my job is to be neutral. Whatever she wants to play with, as long as it's not dangerous, gets a "Hmmm, okay" out of me.

That's my approach too - it's not my job to push either a gender role or force gender neutrality, it's to let my kids find their own way.

Friends of mine were annoyed because their ultrasound was "inconclusive," so they were thinking about paying for another one so they could find out the gender of their baby. I pointed out that they'd know in about six weeks anyway -- but they wanted to make nursery decorating decisions. I was like, WTF differences does it make? Your kid WON'T CARE.

We were so disorganised little miss trampledamage's nursery decor was my desk and computer and a lot of boxes!

 

[Kestra]

My whole room was pink when I was little and I loved it!

 

[RJDiogenes]

And now you long for those days when you had hair ...

Well, I still have hair, but it will never get down to my shoulders again, no matter how much I plead.