Boys and girls are naturally inclined to different things, nothing wrong with that, but adults make too big of a deal out of gender and put ideas into kids heads that are just dumb. It makes kids who don’t perfectly follow gender roles feel like they’re weird, especially when adults point them out for it, and that’s not right.
ie. Boys shouldn’t cry, boys can’t like pink or purple, girls favorite colors are always pink or purple, boys can’t play with dolls, girls are perfect angels who never fight physically, boys and girls don’t play together, dumb stuff like that
I’ll never forget the time a lady legit scolded me for playing with Legos because they’re “little boys’ toys”
One time a dude in my fourth grade class made fun of me for bringing ninja turtle toys to school. It was weird.
this reminds me of something I’ve experienced
when I was a kid, I was searching through a shop with my dad. I think it was a thrift store? Not sure. Anyway, I saw a red mickey mouse tv and I thought it looked really cool, so I told my dad I wanted it. He said no, and told me that I wanted the pink disney princess one instead. I felt… like my wants didn’t matter? He basically chose what I wanted even though I knew what I really wanted, and because of him I was always into pink things and girly things.
that only lasted for years, of course.
take the gender roles thing to an extreme and you have my up-bringing – could only wear skirts, wasn’t really necessary for me to have a strong education, destined for marriage and having lots of kids, and oh, also, parents have authority over you until you do get married which means you don’t really get opinions or beliefs (unless they’re exactly the same are your parents’). oh and also, wearing pink or purple if you’re a guy is a sin. no, that’s not an exaggeration.
since getting out of all that it’s honestly worrying to me how much soft sexism there still is in the wider church. like… c’mon man I know the fundies have it all wrong but y’all should be Better.
Wide Spread Interests 