At Target this lady told her son he couldn’t have a Wonder Woman doll because “that’s for girls” and then bought her daughter the same one. It got me thinking about how often I see people bar young boys from appreciating girls/women as protagonists and heroes, and my own experience with it as a kid.
Still surprised at the response this has gotten! A few have asked for it on other social media pages. Here it is as a Twitter thread and FaceBook post.
I’ve got a friend who is a teacher, and she has a daughter and son, ages 7 and 5. They like all manner of things and always play together. Her son has some dress-up dresses to match his sister’s princess costumes and so far he hasn’t encountered any guff for wearing them in public. If he ever did, I know his whole family would come roaring to his defense.
My son is only three, so he doesn’t really care about gendered stuff one way or the other. He likes babies and cars and dinosaurs and “girly” cartoons like True & the Rainbow Kingdom. Whatever he gets interested in, that’s what I’ll encourage. It tears me up to think of boys being refused anything that’s skewed even a little female.
