Change · Day to Day · Perspectives

Gender Rules!!!

MeMyself

It is a baby………….??? BOY!!! Congratulations!!

Now, being the mother of a baby “BOY” you should know:

  1. When decorating “HIS” room, you can use BLUE colour on the walls, BLUE curtains, BLUE bed sheets, and so on, but, NO not PINK!!!
  2. “HIS” room can have motifs of Winnie the Pooh or Carz or Chota Bheem, but, NO not FLOWERS!!!
  3. You can dress “HIM” in blue clothes or green or yellow, but, NO never PINK!!!
  4. He can play with stuffed teddies or dolphins or monkeys, but, NO never DOLLS!!!
  5. He can play with building blocks or doctor sets or balls, but, NO never KITCHEN SETS!!!

Seriously???!!!

I don’t mean I am going to handover Kitchen sets to Adi to play with from tomorrow, but if I ever have a second child and she is a GIRL I am not going to hand it over to her either. Why on earth would I want to channelize, toys my kids play with, based on gender??

  1. I let Adi bring utensils from the kitchen and play with them!! (Though it does seem like the “Calendar khana do” scene from the movie Mr. India and the noise gives me a headache!!!)
  2. I let him sweep the house with the broom!! Traditionally considered WOMEN tasks (Until of course he brandishes it like a weapon and attacks someone!!!)
  3. I let him dust the windows and the shelves!! (Though my husband is not too happy about this, Johnsons baby wipes to dust the house!!! I don’t blame my husband!!!)
  4. I let him help me in the kitchen, like carrying stuff from the kitchen to the fridge and back!!! (And then he refuses to budge from in front of the fridge as it is really cool there!!!)
  5. I do make him wear pink shirts if the look cute and they fit him!!! (Though obviously, they are quite rare!!!)

My point here is:

  1. You don’t make PINK clothes for boys
  2. You sort toys as “for boys” and “for girls”
  3. You print the pictures of girls on all kitchen sets and serving sets (this despite all the masterchefs and kitchen shows on TV)
  4. You print on the doctor set toys, boys as the doctor and girls as (duh!!!) nurses
  5. You justify kids being naughty, or a little aggressive as “Oh he is a BOY!!”

If this is the culture we are going to groom for our kids, when they are as small as 11 months old…..

We can talk about Women discrimination, Women empowerment, Women equality, Women safety, anything we want because that’s what we are going to be doing for a long, long time to come.
JUST TALK!!!

Cross posted on IMC!!

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