My son is almost four, and seems to have absorbed a lot of awful opinions and made them his own. This includes, but is not limited to, 'I don't like pink because it's for girls. I like blue',(despite having a few pink things and not noticing the colour before), 'I don't like girls. Boys are cool', 'Girls cry but boys are brave', etc etc etc.
I'm feeling really disappointed because I don't know how to deal with this. I feel like I've failed. There's just a general feeling of men being big, strong, brave, cool and doing all of the exciting stuff, while women are quiet, weak, cry and do a lot of cleaning. There's no way I want this to continue. We regularly talk about it and read books which promote equality, but it doesn't seem to sink in. I've tried, but it seems that the rest of the world has won :( I'm aware that his dad and grandad regularly say things like 'Ugh, grandad's a big girl!', and I've told him that I'm not happy with my sex being used as an insult, but I can't make him stop. We do talk about these things, and he'll happily talk about people being equal, but it doesn't seem to be sinking in.
What do I do?!?! I really struggle because I don't have any friends who share my opinions. I barely even know anybody with children, let alone children who aren't having certain behaviours pushed onto them or restricted because of their sex!