Telling boys not to be girly(salon.com)
salon.com
Telling boys not to be girly
http://www.salon.com/2013/09/25/5_ways_america_tells_boys_not_to_be_girly/
3 comments
> It’s easy to find news of boys suspended and expelled for growing their hair
Huh? This one is not just scandalous to me, it's… alien.
Huh? This one is not just scandalous to me, it's… alien.
My high school had something of a dress code that you had to be clean shaven and hair can't be past your shoulders. It was in no way a masculine thing, it was more of a uniform sort of thing (schools making rules for the sake of making rules).
I had been given a razor on more than one occasion to shave in the morning, but never got into real trouble. I think the author is overstating this.
I had been given a razor on more than one occasion to shave in the morning, but never got into real trouble. I think the author is overstating this.
He's not. He provides links to actual instances. I reckon there's the possibility of reporting bias, though. (Extraordinary events are more often reported than ordinary ones, leading us to believe they are more frequent. Case in point: lottery winners.)
My eldest daughter flip flops between playing with dolls to wearing a knight's costume and 'defending' her friend who's dressed as a prince. My daughters oten wear boys clothes and have "boys" toys but can also pull off hot pink, dresses, "girlie" shoes and all the rest. Could a 6 year old boy pull off wearing a pink Barbie top to school in the same way?
Intriguingly, there's not a single boy in my daughter's street dancing or gymnastics clubs and they're not gender limited or oriented. The odd one or two have turned up but never lasted more than a single session.. Nor are there any men at my daughter's nursery. Or likely to be at her first school. This is rather sad because it surely must lead to kids becoming even more convinced of gender norms and expectations.