Build Shoot Win

[ohamIreally]

Have just bought my 9 year old a magazine. We're both sick of the pink glitzy ones and I encouraged her to buy one that she really wanted.

Magazine was blue in hue, so to her mind was for boys. I won't go into the minutiae of the magazine or our discourse as I'm sure you can imagine.

2 wristbands were included. One said "Build Shoot Win". The "girls'" magazines invariably extol kindness and generosity. This really is fucking socialisation at its worst. We may try to bring up our sons to be kind but that's certainly not the message they're getting.

While I'm venting I'd like to add that a dear friend of mine who is very senior and high earning exclaimed to me that I'm going to "turn [DD] into a feminist" as if it were a dreadful thing I was doing.

Good for you. Maybe your dear friend needs 'turned into a feminist.

My OP makes me appear as if I've never considered these things before and I'm no newcomer to feminism. It just struck me once again how gendered these messages are and how toxic it is, particularly for girls, that essentially girls are exhorted to give and boys are exhorted to "build shoot win". It's no wonder we're all on AIBU second guessing ourselves.

Anyway. From now on I'm going to Build Shoot Win. Except the wristband is broken already as it was tat.

I've had a similar thought recently when trying to buy birthday cards for my daughter. Nearly all the cards had either a comment about being pretty or kind.

Surely the answer to the birthday card issue is not to buy a card for a daughter or a son but a card that is relevant to the child.

"Girls birthday card" brings up a sea of pink on Google. Searching , for example, Harry Potter or horses brings up a much more interesting selection.

Generic "relative" cards are always awful, stereotyped affairs no matter what the relative is.