Pink & Blue, No Cigar
I was looking through the mail the other day and came across a sales booklet for toys. I looked at all of the toys and it was glaring at me, the gender differences in the toys being marketed. No wonder things are the way they are, our gender expectations are drilled into us from toddlerhood. What an imbalance there was. I saw everything with fresh eyes. No wonder men have no clue as to what to do to help take care of others. And no wonder women feel responsible for taking care of everyone and everything. It was right there in objects marketed as toys that prescribed what each gender might be interested in.
The boy’s toys were inanimate objects like cars, racing sets, adventure sets, guns, weapons, airplanes, spaceships, construction sets, fierce creatures, robots, monsters, and superhero action figures. The girl’s toys were babies, dolls, kitchen and tea sets, vanity sets, barbies, dancing/singing/performing sets, candy themes, fantasy creatures, docile creatures, and plushies. There were gender-themed lego sets, craft sets, and games too.
I know it’s all for play, fantasy, and fun, but maybe it would be more helpful to balance it out? Because the truth is we can’t afford to continue this same pattern of stereotypical gender roles anymore. The objective reality has changed so that we need everyone to be on board with taking care of each other and being accountable and responsible equally for raising children, caring for family members, managing households, and being cooperative and interdependent in the world. The violence and aggression that is encouraged by boys’ toys is not an effective trait in this modern world. We no longer have predators to defend against and there is no need to hunt or kill for food.
This came into sharp relief for me as I lay violently shaking sick in bed last week and had difficulty getting the help I needed. Days later I looked at the toy ads and it walloped me like a ton of bricks, we are failing our children by continuing the same old same old gender biases. I’m hopeful the younger generations will make progress in this arena. Change has been so slow to come. We need to be more progressive, not less.
Our gender differences are taught to us more than anything else. Studies have proven this to be true. I’m so thankful the world has changed for the better in many regards, but dammit, it’s not fast enough, lol.
Today was a better day, I expect by next week I’ll be back to normal. Maybe I’ll even get to go for a walk? I laundered all of the linens finally, all the cooties washed clean. I vacuumed yesterday too, it got me plumb tuckered out though. Now I will attempt to draw something and practice guitar. Dancing and videomaking will have to wait. I hope that next year I don’t get sick at all the whole year. My usual is maybe one bout or none of the illness a year, usually a cold. This year was total BS, lol. I’m rooting for a lustrous 2021 after my lumpy blob year of 2020, heh.
