My gender stereotyping moan of the day

[YoullLaughAboutItOneDay]

I have posted quite a lot recently about gender stereotypes and the arguments for and against 'innate' characteristics of the sexes. It has been something on my mind recently and I have become even more aware of the comments that are made on a daily basis.

Today, we went to the supermarket. DD2 (16 months) was having an independence moment and was determined to walk, plus help me carry one of the carrier bags back to the car. Two people commented:

• Person one (mistook her for a boy) : Isn't he strong, helping his mummy
• Person two: Aw, isn't she sweet, she wants to do the shopping.

I know these people may have said the same to the opposite gender, and I am not criticising either of them as such. But just ARRRRGGGHHH. Comment to a boy on strength. Comment to a girl on being sweet and wanting to go shopping.

My rant:

'Be Happy, Be Healthy' on CBeebies. New show, great idea, exploring common childhood illnesses/ailments.

But why why why is the Doctor male and the nurse female? The beeb had a fantastic opportunity there to challenge stereotyping. Arrgh.

In fairness a lot of me too is around Dr juno. But I do agree.

Oh you lot are overthinking, boys naturally prefer getting muddy and girls prefer playing house blah blah... Someone had to say ir so I have :o

Dd does rock climbing and so we are very keen to emphasise how strong she is, how eating up her dinner will make her grow up big and strong. But both ds and dd are surrounded by so much gender stereotyping that I sometimes feel like giving up and buying her a wag in training t shirt and painting her nails (she is 3)

I have a twelve year old DD who is car mad. Like her dad always tinkering with engines. The attitude to this by my friend (who truth be told,raises her children in a stereotype way) is that no boy will want a girlfriend covered in oil. DD overheard and said well then he's not worth my time. At least I am sending a confident self sufficient mini feminist out into the world. One who will depend on herself.

DD (age 10), yesterday: 'Well I finally found a Dad's Organiser Calendar but the pictures are just rubbish so I got the Mum's one again with the good cartoons.'

Not sure if that shows the right priorities or not, really. I agree (having seen the calendar she meant) that zero design effort seemed to have gone into it beyond the word 'Dad' on the front.

New moan from me.

At the supermarket yesterday. My two girls were walking in quite nicely for once. Woman coming the other way with a tantrum throwing two year old boy. She says loudly to him "Look at those little girls behaving nicely". Well, ok, I would have preferred the stress on nicely, not girls, but ok. I know it feels unnatural to refer to same sex group as 'those children' from all the times I try and force myself to do it. But then she turns to me and says "Boys, they are just so different'.

FFS. Different day. Us coming out and her going in. The behaviour could easily have been reversed. It was not a gender thing and she made it one.

My boy is only 7 weeks old and already people have come out with "boys are like that" comments. Apart from his ability to wee on the wall how can a tiny baby be any different in behaviour?

He's a small, pretty little baby, and a sensitive fellow. Its too early to tell but I can't imagine him being a big bruiser of a lad.

Last week when I took him to children's centre he was wearing a lovely bright baby-gro with yellow green red and pink stripes and HV assistant thought he was a girl. Because he wasn't wearing blue?

Another thing, I read a review on Amazon for the fisher price rainforest Baby Gym, and the reviewer had been concerned that the jungle theme was too boyish for her daughter. WTF?

I need to come in here and scream.

About thread in AIBU.

Feel better now!

I know Zwitterion!
"But girls are just born to like pink and boys just naturally hate tea sets, nooooo of course they are not influenced by anything, that would never happen.."

Went on search to find said thread. Found it. Rather depressed now.

What makes me angriest/most despondent is the 'it doesn't really bother me' attitude.

Well it bloody well should!!

And, breathe.

I have been trying to entice like minded souls across to the feminism boards from that thread. Not 'thread about a thread', just a nice place talk about this kind of stuff and have people agree it matters.

It does matter.

Thanks Trills

I certainly always challenge gender based comments which are inaccurate and always have. Someone recently talked about his son and a pen knife and I said how when I was 10 or 11 and got my first pen knife how happy I was. i think people need to know how much little girls can like that sort of thing and then as a big girl I bought my own island with my own money I bought myself and have enjoyed showing my children of both genders how to make fire, climb trees, camp etc Nor surprisingly in their mid 20s my daughters are fit, strong, run marathons, earn a lot, spend their teenage years outside and riding and feminist.

It is certainly important to make sure children of both genders wear clothes that mean they can get dirty and climb and ensure they see that men can be 100% responsibel for washing or cooking at home and are not presented with a stereotype that men earn and women serve.

Not sure if this is wholly the right thread but this, but need to vent...!

In town today, passing by a second-hnad junk curio-type shop with a blackboard sign out the front:

"Ladies - your husband called. He said you can spend as much as you like!"

There isn't a single part of that, that doesn't have at least 2 things wrong with it.

I need to vent too. Got birthday card addressing me as "myfirstname DHsurname". And I've told them to their face that they are NOT TO FUCKING ADDRESS ME AS THAT. Shall I return it? NOT AT THIS FUCKING ADDRESS?

SomersetONeil - too.

In fact all round.

Yeah, XH used to tell me I could spend as much as I liked. Which was bloody big of him, given that I earned it

My rant, ads for joke kits, (lots on TV at the moment) always boys playing tricks on their 'girly' older sisters (who always scream and overreact). Re-inforcing the old stereotype that practical jokes are for boys/men

Last week my 5 year old son informed me that men should do hard strong jobs like building and lifting stuff and women should do nice easy jobs. He's 5 fgs and has the emotional age of about 3 years old, how on earth has he already learnt about gender stereotypes?