Ranting
Oh, for pity's sake.
Yesterday my younger daughter--the 10-year-old--brought home an excellent report card and then endured a DPT booster shot without even a wince. We celebrated with her choice of fast food: McDonald's. Of course she wanted a Happy Meal (we speculated during the drive about what might be included in an Unhappy Meal. Lima beans? Liver?). And when I ordered the Happy Meal at the drive-through window, they asked, "Boy or girl?"
When I was even younger than she is now, my grade school separated girls and boys in the lunchroom. I'm not sure why. Fear of cootie contagion? We were segregated on the playground too. The boys' side had basketball hoops and monkey bars. The girls' side had jump ropes. I used to sneak onto the boys' side and, as a 1st grader, was andorgynous-looking enough to get away with it for a short time. When I was in 4th grade the school built a large new play structure and, unsure how to divvy that up and unable to afford two build two of the things, they gave up on segregation.
This was back in the mid 70s. I'd like to think we've made significant progress now that we're well into a new millenium. Yet still fast food franchises make kids choose what someone has decided is a gender-appropriate toy. Here's what my daughter ended up with yesterday:
Apparently girls want sparkly purple plastic tiaras (Barbie branded, no less). I think the boy toy was a plastic bug thing.
As a child, I would have had no interest in a purple tiara. You can see that my daughter hasn't yet bothered to take it out of the plastic wrap, even though she is a big fan of purple. And I suppose Mayor McCheese wouldn't have thrown us in jail with the Hamburglar if we'd ordered the boy toy instead. But that means that a girl who'd prefer a plastic bug--or a boy who'd prefer a tiara--would have to consciously reject gender norms and purposely identify with the opposite gender, just to get a toy she or he is interested in. That's idiotic.
It's not just McDonald's. Walk to the toy section of Target an witness the pink-and-purple-sparkles-and-dolls aisle and the orange-green-red-black-action-figures-and-vehicles aisle.
Haven't we reached a place as a society where we can reject ridiculous notions of what girls and boys "ought" to like? Where a boy can play with a doll or a tiara and a girl can play with a race car or a plastic bug without being made to feel as if there's something wrong with them? Couldn't the fast food restaurant just ask, "Tiara or bug?"
Yesterday my younger daughter--the 10-year-old--brought home an excellent report card and then endured a DPT booster shot without even a wince. We celebrated with her choice of fast food: McDonald's. Of course she wanted a Happy Meal (we speculated during the drive about what might be included in an Unhappy Meal. Lima beans? Liver?). And when I ordered the Happy Meal at the drive-through window, they asked, "Boy or girl?"
When I was even younger than she is now, my grade school separated girls and boys in the lunchroom. I'm not sure why. Fear of cootie contagion? We were segregated on the playground too. The boys' side had basketball hoops and monkey bars. The girls' side had jump ropes. I used to sneak onto the boys' side and, as a 1st grader, was andorgynous-looking enough to get away with it for a short time. When I was in 4th grade the school built a large new play structure and, unsure how to divvy that up and unable to afford two build two of the things, they gave up on segregation.
This was back in the mid 70s. I'd like to think we've made significant progress now that we're well into a new millenium. Yet still fast food franchises make kids choose what someone has decided is a gender-appropriate toy. Here's what my daughter ended up with yesterday:
Apparently girls want sparkly purple plastic tiaras (Barbie branded, no less). I think the boy toy was a plastic bug thing.
As a child, I would have had no interest in a purple tiara. You can see that my daughter hasn't yet bothered to take it out of the plastic wrap, even though she is a big fan of purple. And I suppose Mayor McCheese wouldn't have thrown us in jail with the Hamburglar if we'd ordered the boy toy instead. But that means that a girl who'd prefer a plastic bug--or a boy who'd prefer a tiara--would have to consciously reject gender norms and purposely identify with the opposite gender, just to get a toy she or he is interested in. That's idiotic.
It's not just McDonald's. Walk to the toy section of Target an witness the pink-and-purple-sparkles-and-dolls aisle and the orange-green-red-black-action-figures-and-vehicles aisle.
Haven't we reached a place as a society where we can reject ridiculous notions of what girls and boys "ought" to like? Where a boy can play with a doll or a tiara and a girl can play with a race car or a plastic bug without being made to feel as if there's something wrong with them? Couldn't the fast food restaurant just ask, "Tiara or bug?"
date
newest »
newest »
message 1:
by
Rosemarie
(new)
Mar 09, 2013 03:10PM
I think asking "tiara or bug?" would be a good option. However please keep in mind that as employee of a big company you do what your told/asked to do to keep your job. These things need to start from the "top". If these things bother you "write a letter" to the company. As an employee of a "big money-maker" myself, I have had people get angry at me too many times to count for things I have no control over.
reply
|
flag
Rosemarie wrote: "I think asking "tiara or bug?" would be a good option. However please keep in mind that as employee of a big company you do what your told/asked to do to keep your job. These things need to start f..."Good points! I worked for McDonalds in high school, so I know how thankless that task is, and how little choice the employees have in anything.
This is where I admit when my girls were younger, I dressed them in boys clothes - they were tougher, funkier colours and just seemed way more comfortable i.e. less itchy sparkles, etc It used to drive me mad when we went shoe shopping that the stompy boots good for jumping in puddles and racing around playgrounds were on the boys' side while the girls were supposed to want to wear clipclop heels and dainty slippers - ugh, not my girls!!Even now, my ladies prefer a decent pair of colourful converse to the heeled monstrosities that pass for girls' shoes nowadays. Not to say they are tomboys - all three of them can pull out the slap and dandy themselves up and look flippin' gorgeous - it's just that for life, they want to be able to run and play and not worry about pinched feet, etc!
sorry, mini rant over with *slinks away blushing madly*
Skargasm wrote: "This is where I admit when my girls were younger, I dressed them in boys clothes - they were tougher, funkier colours and just seemed way more comfortable i.e. less itchy sparkles, etc It used to ..."I dressed mine in overalls and plaid shirts too. :-) The 13 year old, like her mother, tends toward comfy, tomboyish clothes. The 10 year old has more of an eye for swirl and glitter.
I was once shoe shopping with the older one when she was 3. She started making a fuss because she didn't want to try on shoes (she still hates shopping). Meanwhile, a little boy her age was in tears because his mother wouldn't buy him the sparkly red (as in ruby slippers) shoes he wanted to badly.
