Anything You can Do, I can…well I can’t really do.

Anything You can Do, I can…well I can’t really do.

What are you talking about?

The debate about gender roles is certainty not a new one. For years society has established its division of what is acceptable for a male and what is acceptable for a female. Recently however, there has been a stir in the divide as society seeks to close the gender gap. In an article by Dockterman posted in Time entitled “The War on Pink: GoldieBlox Toys Ignite Debate Over What’s Good For Girls” we see the works of many corporations fighting to get girls interested in STEM careers in an attempt to diversify the field, which for the most part, has been heavily dominated by males. 

Their methodology as it seem is to diversify the toys that girls use in an attempt to instill some sort of interest in STEM. Dockterman continues her article discussing a new toy company, GoldieBlox that aims to encouraging girls to pursue engineering careers. While GoldieBlox is clearly aimed at girls some believe that gender neutral toys are the way to go because they don’t leave anyone left out and can appeal to both sexes. However critics as noted by Dockterman argue that “Despite the idealistic aspirations of a gender-neutral world of toys, girls and boys do play differently; so in order to engage girls in science, toy makers need to take a different approach than they traditionally have with boys”(2013).

Despite the challenges that women have faced in the STEM field, women themselves have made significant progress in the workplace. Dockterman comments that “all those cute little vacuum cleaners and mini baby bottles haven’t discouraged girls from going to college or excelling in academic fields other than science.”(2013) In fact women make up a majority of undergrads, on the contrary society as a whole has made exploring identity far easier for girls than it is for boys.

How So?...(I’ll get there stay with me)

Well, while it is readily accepted that boys are rambunctious and do in fact express a higher activity level, society as a whole treats their exploration of identity differently. Often confining their options to a set standard that discourages any deviation from what is expected. Eliot states that “compared to men, women have a wider range of options as adults-from stay-at—home to businesswoman, doctor, soldier…girls see these roles in real life…and are taught that they can do anything boys can do” (location 1969). Boys however, do not get the same type of nurturing. To take a line from a popular meme circulating the

internet right now, no one bats an eye when a girl plays with hot wheels but they lose their minds if they see a boy in a tiara. In an article by Padawer in Times entitled "What’s So Bad About a Boy Who Wants to Wear a Dress?" this very topic is discussed.  They use the term gender-fluid to describe a child who readily fluctuates between the stereotypes of both genders. It is made clear that there is nothing wrong with a non-conforming child and in fact there have been recent movements that have brought parents of gender-fluid children together. However as Padawer states    “As much as these parents want to nurture and defend what makes their children unique and happy, they also fear it will expose their sons to rejection. Some have switched schools, changed churches and even moved to try to shield their children. That tension between yielding to conformity or encouraging self-expression is felt by parents of any child who differs from the norm.”(2012).

That’s Horrible!

Well yeah I know that’s why I’m writing about it in the first place. This fear of having their children ostracized by society has led many of these parents to force their children into a category “fear[ing] the wrong parenting decision could devastate their child’s social or emotional well-being.”(Padawer 2012) Society as a whole has created stigmas around men in “traditionally female occupations” and boys are “rarely told that they can do anything girls can do” (location 1985). Why is this? Can’t we bury the hatchet and accept that children are children and how they turn out is independent of what they choose to play with. To quote a child named Riley who posted a video that went viral in 2011 “why all the little girls have to buy princesses and boys have to buy superheroes when both girls and boys should be able to like superheroes and princesses alike.”(Padawer 2012). I will leave you with that thought.

Work Cited

Dockterman, Eliana. "The War on Pink: GoldieBlox Toys Ignite Debate Over What’s Good For Girls | TIME.com." Time. Time, 27 Nov. 2013. Web. 22 Feb. 2014.

Elliot, Lise. “Pink Brain, Blue Brain: How Small Differences Grow Into Troublesome Gaps and What We Can Do About It.” New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. 2009. Print

Padawer, Ruth. "What’s So Bad About a Boy Who Wants to Wear a Dress?" The New York Times. The New York Times, 11 Aug. 2012. Web. 28 Feb. 2014.