You know those little things that get under your skin and irritate you all day?
I just need to get this out of my system and perhaps it will go away!
Today, I went out for dinner with my old roommate. While we were eating, she was telling me about babysitting a young girl obsessed with watching Toy Story 2 & 3 and Cars. And then she said, “I just don’t get it. Shouldn’t she be watching princess movies?”
Right, ‘cause she is a girl. Let’s define what’s appropriate for boys and girls to watch and enjoy. Girls should only watch princess movies that teach them how to be passive actors and wait for their prince to rescue them. Boys should watch whatever they want, be it about cars or toys coming to life. This is exactly the kind of (almost) unconscious socialization that still happens, and people think gender is so natural? Maybe if they just listened to themselves.
Maybe it’s bothering me because I didn’t point out how sexist that is. I just ignored it.
