I've become aware of the general tendency to call all non-gendered toys 'he' (i.e. anything other than dolls or babies dressed in pink), so when dd1 decided her monkey was a girl I've been trying my hardest to call it she, but 'he' slips out quite often. And I've really noticed that every single person who interacts with dd1 about her monkey (she takes it everywhere) says he. So it's fighting a losing battle as dd1 will then call it he anyway, even though she says it's a girl. Very confusing for her I would have thought.
It's a perfect example of the default being male, and female being 'other'. When I corrected one of my friends (only because dd1 was there) and said, 'it's a she', she said 'why?', as if there has to be a reason for the monkey to be female.
It's mostly pissing me of that even I can't stick to it. This stuff is really ingrained.
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Feminism: Sex & gender discussions
Why is it so hard to call my daughter's soft toy monkey 'she'?
57 replies
wem · 04/08/2011 16:57
OP posts:
Cleverything ·
04/08/2011 19:30
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