I’m a Mom of a funny, adorable, smart, little
boy. He likes soccer, hockey, the
Patriots, Legos, trucks, radio controlled planes, riding his bike, making a
mess, art, musicals, and television. He
likes watching cooking shows that feature Bobby Flay, cartoons like Star Wars
Rebels, Scooby Doo, Wild Kratts, and yes Doc McStuffins and Sofia the
First. GASP! Aren’t those shows for girls? As parents, we have never classified anything
as “for boys” or “for girls.” You like
what you like, and that’s the end of it.
There are no “girl colors” and there are no “boy jobs.” We have done this for two reasons. One, I don’t want him to feel that there are
things he can’t enjoy because he’s a boy, and two, I don’t want him to treat
women as if they, and their interests, are inferior.
I am doing my best to let him make his own choices.
I am doing my best to teach him that men and women
are equal.
I am doing my best to not raise a chauvinistic man.
Unfortunately, sometimes the outside world doesn’t
help. Since entering the public school
system, my son has come home from time to time asking if something is “girly”
and if he is allowed to like something. When
it comes to t.v. shows I explain that they are written by writers, just like
Mommy writes plays. I then ask him if my
plays are only for girls, or only for boys.
The answer generally satisfies him and he goes back to doing whatever he
was doing.
This week a friend shared an author’s blog on
Facebook. The blog shared was Shannon
Hale’s, author of the Princess Academy series.
This is not a series I am familiar with, but after reading her blog, I have
to pick up one of her books. The blog
entry that is circulating is about the troubling phenomenon that happens at her
appearances, mainly schools. It seems
that when she visits a school, the boys are not invited to the assembly. Shannon does not write books about the female
body, or books that are anti-boy.
Apparently her faux pas is far worse; she uses the word princess is in
the title of her books.
As a society, we seem so worried about how girls
perceive themselves. And rightly so. I was raised by a mother who constantly told
me that only my looks mattered during my most impressionable years. (Luckily I’ve always been a bit of a rebel
and didn’t abide by her backwards school of thought!) I understand the importance of empowering
girls. I hope I do so as an educator,
and if I ever have a daughter, I hope to do so as a mother. However, it seems that boys get lost in the
mix today. Where is the movement to let
our boys know that it is okay to use a pink Easy Bake Oven, or watch a
television show that has a girl as the protagonist; or God forbid, a book? Telling boys that some colors, shows, or books,
are not for them and are only for girls teaches them that there is a difference
between the sexes and should be treated so.
If we really want to empower girls, let’s tell the boys that it’s okay
to like whatever it is that they like.
We often hear of women getting less pay than men, but we start out
telling boys that their interests are superior to girls, as long as they don’t
share a common ground. Because when you
do, it’s “girlie” and “not for boys” which undeniably sends the message to our
impressionable boys that girls, then women, are inferior.
I attached Shannon Hale’s blog. Her story is a good one. She made me think, and I bet she’ll make you
think as well! I haven’t blogged in
ages, in fact this is the first time I have done so in 2015. Her words made me jump up and start writing.
No comments:
Post a Comment