Has anyone ever read...

[Miss_Pixie]

The book,

Boys & Girls: Superheroes in the Doll Corner?

I started reading it on a whim and it presented some interesting Ideas on how children determine Gender lines.

Things such as boys play cops and robbers, girls play with dolls.

I'd be very interested in hearing other people's thoughts on the subject whether or not they've read the book.

 

[harding]

Not read it but

Not read the book, but it's an interesting concept.

Wasn't it the Jesuits that said: "Give me the boy and I'll give you the man"?

Change that to gender neutral and it says the same thing.

Philip Larkin (English poet, weird bastard) said it as well, in aidfferent way:
"Your Mum and Dad they fuck you up..."

 

[Stella_Omega]

1) I gave my baby daughter a soft stuffed car that rolled. She hugged it and only rarely rolled it. When my son was a baby, that car got rolled.
2)I had no particular policy about toy firearms, and we didn't really have cap guns etc laying around. At four years old, my son picked up his sister's barbie, bent her at the hips, and shot his sister with it.
3) At the same age, he was pulling up his shirt to "nurse" his teddy bear. Both of my kids "breast fed" their dollies.

My son is metrosexual in appearance, thoroughly and very successfully hetero in affinity. Part of his success is that he is emotionally intelligent. I can be pretty sure of this because I've eavesdropped on his girl friends and his girlfriends. My daughter is a better shot than he is.

4) A black woman I knew was in an interracial marriage. Their son was huge, strong, handsome, smart, even kind (as kind as a five-year-old can be, anyways) , -- like a biblical hero, in fact, quite astonishing. Both of the parents were mensa. But she was saying that there was very little in the house that related to his black side. I offered to make him a black doll. Dad vetoed it. he didn't want his kid growing up gay. As far as I know, the young man never did grow up gay, because having a doll has no bearing on the issue.

 

[sr71plt]

I would swear that the first thing my son played with was a computer--and that, at 40, he's still doing it. (Luckily he got a PhD in it along the way and is making money out of it).

 

[Babeslady]

If the toys you give your children define their gender identity then mine are going to be seriously confused!!!!!!!

In our house there is no such thing as boys toys and girls toys. Both my son and daughter play lego, polly pockets, barbies, making mud pies, riding bikes, jumping on the trampoline and any other childhood games.

My daughter prefers skirts and dresses to shorts and jeans, her favourite colours are pink and black. She regularly spends hours building things out of legos.

My son is very much a boy's boy. He builds all sorts of contraptions and is loud and bossy. However I have recent photos of him wearing my high heeled boots (he is 10) and he is constantly spinning on my pole dancing pole!!!

There is no question that there is different wiring in male brains and female brains and this is evident from infancy. What I would like for my children is for them to grow into two adults who accept, understand and appreciate the other gender...

 

[jomar]

Won't find me discounting society pressures/family of origin/experiences, but the genes are strong. Wide array of toys and experiences available and encouraged for both spawn, but...my kids are more traditional than I would have thought given their upbringing...

 

[bronzeage]

1) I gave my baby daughter a soft stuffed car that rolled. She hugged it and only rarely rolled it. When my son was a baby, that car got rolled.
2)I had no particular policy about toy firearms, and we didn't really have cap guns etc laying around. At four years old, my son picked up his sister's barbie, bent her at the hips, and shot his sister with it.
3) At the same age, he was pulling up his shirt to "nurse" his teddy bear. Both of my kids "breast fed" their dollies.

My son is metrosexual in appearance, thoroughly and very successfully hetero in affinity. Part of his success is that he is emotionally intelligent. I can be pretty sure of this because I've eavesdropped on his girl friends and his girlfriends. My daughter is a better shot than he is.

4) A black woman I knew was in an interracial marriage. Their son was huge, strong, handsome, smart, even kind (as kind as a five-year-old can be, anyways) , -- like a biblical hero, in fact, quite astonishing. Both of the parents were mensa. But she was saying that there was very little in the house that related to his black side. I offered to make him a black doll. Dad vetoed it. he didn't want his kid growing up gay. As far as I know, the young man never did grow up gay, because having a doll has no bearing on the issue.

I heard this same story from a preschool teacher. Many years ago, they removed all the toy guns from the class rooms. The boys continued to shoot at each other with whatever was handy.

 

[TMNT_FAN]

Pixie, Love, that book is crap. I've read that book and there is nothing in there that had any real substance. She was analyzing ONE class in 1984. If it were many classes, over many years, it would be more worth reading.

 

[Miss_Pixie]

Oh, dear... TMNT, you didn't read the whole book. Later on she refrences other things that both the boys and the girls did that went against typical sterotypes.