That brings me to my point….why is everyone having fits about boys wearing dresses, makeup, and painting their nails. Does that automatically mean that they are gay?? Not in my book it doesn’t. In my book, it just means that the boy likes to look “pretty” and dresses may be more comfortable for him. Heck, if given the choice I’d rather wear a dress than other types of clothes. (That may have something to do with the fact that I was raised up wearing jeans, t-shirts, and cowboy boots all of my life.) Why doesn’t society have the same hissy fits when a girl wears manly looking shirts and/or boots?? I think that’s pretty hypocritical of our society as a whole. Don’t you??? Speaking from experience, I use to rather dress like that on a regular bases, but that definitely didn’t make me gay (even though people tried to spread rumors that I was.)
Gender Stereotyping…My Thoughts
Today was the first day of school for the year for us. Since school is back in session there are many debates being promoted across the Internet concerning what parents should or shouldn’t let their kids do. I personally only feel that my parenting style should only come into question if my kids are doing something/not doing something to harm other people around them. I’m not talking about someone being offended by what they see my kid wearing either. Quite frankly unless I’m wearing something the directly states something negative against a certain type of person, then by all means I should be able to wear it. This leads me to a particular time in my life where I caused a major debate in school….
When I was in high school, I was blessed with a truck to drive back and forth to school. I put lots of rebel flag related bumper stickers on it. I also wore shirts and jackets with the rebel flag on it along with my jeans and cowboy boots. At first, I had a bunch of colored people get upset with me. Mind you when I first moved to SC, many colored people befriended me a lot quicker than the whites did!! They also always had my back when I got picked on and called nasty names by the white kids in my school. However, I ruffled some of their feathers. I honestly didn’t understand it to start with because I was raised in Ohio until was 9.5 years old, and I definitely wasn’t (nor am I still) racist. Finally, after the colored people who were offended calmed down enough to tell me what they were feeling it started to dawn on me what they were feeling. I clearly explained to them in my mind’s eye the rebel flag just represents that I’m proud to be from the south. To them though, it meant that I was all for slavery. Perception is everything!!! After they found out how I truly felt about the rebel flag they backed down and even got closer to me than they were to start with.
Would I be happy letting my boys wear dresses to school or in public?? NOT at all, but not because I think he’s in the wrong for wanting to wear it. It’s because I don’t want him to be ridiculed or picked on. However, I know my youngest if choose to go against society, he’d do it with extreme confidence and dare anyone to challenge him (told you he’s my momma’s boy.) I honestly hope I never have to honestly deal with this issue, but if it comes up then I’ll cross that bridge with the boys. It’s definitely not going to make me love them any less. However, I do believe until they moved out of our home they would have to dress like men are suppose to dress mainly because I want them to excel in life to the fullest.
What are your thoughts???
I would also encourage them to dress their “part” because it would help them succeed in society and allow them to go as far in life as they hope to, but I always think that I will teach my babies the best that I can and then let them grow up to be independent people, loving them no matter what they choose! I can tell you feel the same way! I’m SO glad you linked up to the Mommy-Brain Mixer! I hope to see you again on Thursday!
I enjoyed the blog hop last night. I found a lot of great blogs. I definitely want to see this blog grow as well. 🙂 Thanks for dropping by and commenting. 🙂
Yeas, I agree with you to a certain extent. I also get impatient with people who assign colors to gender. How ridiculous is that? My older son loves red and I have bought many red T shirts for him..and then, one of his friends started asking him why he’s wearing a ‘girl’ color?! That kid got a lecture from me for sure!!
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I let my kids play with any type of toy of their choice. As far as them wearing pink, I think they would look great in it as well. I just have an issue with them wearing dresses and panty hose and high heels in public (when they become an adult and out of our house and if they choose to do it, then by all means, I’ll stand by them.)
I’m proud to say that all four of my children had a gender-neutral nursery and were allowed to play with toys of all types, trying to cross those gender sterotypes that girls shouldn’t play with trucks and boys shouldn’t have toy kitchen sets. This past spring, our school selected pink as one of the four field day colors, so 25% of the boys came home with pink t-shirts. It ruffled a few feathers, but they all got over it rather quickly, and now pink has become popular for boys to wear. Just my two cents on the subject.
Done and love your site. 🙂
Hi! Thanks for stopping by my blog 🙂 Just added myself as your newest follower. Hope you had a great weekend with your family!
And I agree–I’m all for my little one to be a girly-girl and I do dress her in dresses and headbands, but I get annoyed sometimes that EVERYTHING for girls seems to be pink. I purposely try to stay away from pink when I buy things for her because everyone else buys her pink clothes. She’s only just 1 and can’t say what she wants to wear yet, but when she’s old enough, I plan to let her wear colors and styles that she likes.
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This is so very interesting! I was just having a conversation with a friend who’s son isn’t gay, but likes to wear sparkles, and be pretty. He doesn’t in public, but someone close to the family ridiculed him for it. It was very upsetting for them. I think it’s so sad that society feels the need to label and stereotype people. You are right though, it’s easiest to have them dress as expected, but then at the same time, you don’t want them to feel as though you don’t accept them. Such a hard topic. And who really knows the right answer. Thanks for a great post!
Thank you for checking this blog post out. Yes, it definitely is a hard topic to address. Our world is becoming overly narrow minded.
Great post! When my oldest son (now almost 18) was 3, he use to carry around a baby doll that he stole (with his aunts permission)from his cousin, because it was small like his new baby brother. He LOVED that doll. Wouldn’t go anywhere or sleep without her. People always felt the need to comment,usually in a negative way. Drove me nuts. I honestly don’t get how parents say they want their kids to be independent and an individual, yet want them to conform to what society believes as appropriate normal behavior. They aren’t hurting anyone… so let them be!
People have always cared what others thought was “normal” way to much in my book. Of course, I’ve always been a different individual. (I was country long before it was cool.) 🙂