Why are children's commercial entities trying to unsex boys?

[SkepticThinker]

He-Man [/thread]

He was always my favourite when I was a little girl. And Mr. T also.

 

[SkepticThinker]

Learning how to spell COW and CAKE is something for both boys and girls equally. Bathing pigeons seems more a female thing. Shooting them with a shotgun is rather male. Washing the family big dog outdoors is rather male. I wash my Labrador retrievers with a garden hose and a nozzle.

Where on earth did you come up with these supposed gender roles?
I frequently wash my dog in the backyard. I am a female. Am I supposed to be acting "manly" while I'm doing it? Do tell.

 

[SkepticThinker]

they are not being treated FAIRLY

I say give each sex equal representation but preserve the unique identity of each sex also.

For every product on the market labeled GIRL there should be one labeled BOY.

I feel the later is grossly underrepresented.

Don't treat the term BOY as if it were taboo or forbidden. Do girls fear that word like they are scared of snakes and frogs? Does new-age society fear the mere sight of the word BOY even will get their underage daughters pregnant?

What exactly is the "unique identity of each sex?"

 

[Jonathan Bailey]

I'm going to make sure my son has plenty of plastic guns and ninja weapons to ensure that he doesn't become gay or impotent.

Homosexuality has no bearing on being masculine or feminine. It is a born condition. There are even gay football players and prizefighters in America. Homosexuality was common in the ancient Greek army and you know how tough those spartans were.

 

[Jonathan Bailey]

What exactly is the "unique identity of each sex?"

Boys build tree houses. Girls play house.
Boys play with race cars. Girls play with dolls.
Boys catch frogs. Girls have pajama parties.
Boys wear top hats. Girls wear bobby socks.
Boys are grooms in horse stables. Girls baby-sit small children.

The idea that a girl would be on a baseball team was odd in my boyhood era.
The notion that a boy would play nurse instead of doctor was unheard of in my boyhood era.
My mother told me that being a receptionist in an office or a dental hygienist was for women only.

My notions of gender culture norms come from my upbringing.

 

[SomeRandom]

Boys build tree houses. Girls play house.
Boys play with race cars. Girls play with dolls.
Boys catch frogs. Girls have pajama parties.
Boys wear top hats. Girls wear bobby socks.
Boys are grooms in horse stables. Girls baby-sit small children.

The idea that a girl would be on a baseball team was odd in my boyhood era.
The notion that a boy would play nurse instead of doctor was unheard of in my boyhood era.
My mother told me that being a receptionist in an office or a dental hygienist was for women only.

My notions of gender culture norms come from my upbringing.

Wow you must have grown up in like the 30s lol

I grew up in the 90s. Treehouses were used by everyone. Race cars were played with by everyone. No one went catching frogs, but we did go around “hunting” cane toads (they are a very poisonous pest in Queensland.) Pyjama Parties existed but were coed.
Wtf is a bobby sock? Top hats went out of fashion like 3 generations ago, grandpa.
There was a popular “girl” franchise (though I did know some boys who enjoyed it) called the Saddle Club here in Australia. Bunch of kids books turned TV show. Pretty sure all the girls in said club had to muck out stables as part of their daily chores.
We don’t have baseball here. But in all the American kids shows I watched, there were always females playing baseball. Like wtf little rascal. The roaring 20s ended a while ago.
Any older sibling should be versed enough to babysit regardless of gender.

Any place of work who turned away a man from reception roles for being men would be sued into bankruptcy for breaking anti discrimination laws.
My cousin who is a man has been a nurse for 30 years. He’s currently doing his Master’s degree. I dare you to tell him he’s in a “women’s profession.” At least he could treat your wounds after he knocked your teeth down your throat I suppose lol.

No wonder you don’t understand today’s toys. You’re like 40 years late to the current culture.
My father actually did grow up during the 1930s. And even he’d call you out of touch.

 

[Jonathan Bailey]

Wow you must have grown up in like the 30s lol

I grew up in the 90s. Treehouses were used by everyone. Race cars were played with by everyone. No one went catching frogs, but we did go around “hunting” cane toads (they are a very poisonous pest in Queensland.) Pyjama Parties existed but were coed.
Wtf is a bobby sock? Top hats went out of fashion like 3 generations ago, grandpa.
There was a popular “girl” franchise (though I did know some boys who enjoyed it) called the Saddle Club here in Australia. Bunch of kids books turned TV show. Pretty sure all the girls in said club had to muck out stables as part of their daily chores.
We don’t have baseball here. But in all the American kids shows I watched, there were always females playing baseball. Like wtf little rascal. The roaring 20s ended a while ago.
Any older sibling should be versed enough to babysit regardless of gender.

Any place of work who turned away a man from reception roles for being men would be sued into bankruptcy for breaking anti discrimination laws.
My cousin who is a man has been a nurse for 30 years. He’s currently doing his Master’s degree. I dare you to tell him he’s in a “women’s profession.” At least he could treat your wounds after he knocked your teeth down your throat I suppose lol.

No wonder you don’t understand today’s toys. You’re like 40 years late to the current culture.
My father actually did grow up during the 1930s. And even he’d call you out of touch.

Muck out stables? Clean up horse manure with a shovel and a wheelbarrow?
"Bobby socks" were short socks worn by teenage girls in America starting about the 1940's. They were only high up to the ankle bone. There was a girl of color (bused in from the other side of the train tracks quite literally) who wore them to my predominantly-white middle-class California high school in 1979 and that's last time I've ever seen them worn. Top hats would still be worn by men and boys as gags as Halloween dress-up parties and, yes, they are no longer fashionable as formal wear. Franklin D. Roosevelt was the last American president to don one in public. I think Winston Churchill donned them too. Roosevelt and Churchill: the top hats and the cigars! Two birds of a feather separated by a common ocean.

No, females don't customarily play proper "baseball" in America but rather some other ball-and-bat field game called "softball" with different rules, field, playing style and equipment. Either sex plays "softball" but "baseball" is most often reserved for males. Baseball uses a small hard ball that is pitched over-handedly hard and fast and most often uses a wooden bat. Aluminum bats are mostly used in softball which uses a large ball with a softer cover lobbed underhand from the pitcher's position. Culturally speaking, baseball is considered much more masculine than softball in America because of its more aggressive playing style, more complex rules and play options and more dangerous equipment.

I'm now age 55. Born in April of 1964. The Beatles landed on American soil for the first time early on that year though I was not quite born yet when their plane touched down in New York. The British Invasion was on. L.B. Johnson was sitting President. John F. Kennedy was killed while my mother still carried me in her womb. I'm an unborn child of a murdered American president.

 

[Kangaroo Feathers]

Boys build tree houses. Girls play house.
Boys play with race cars. Girls play with dolls.
Boys catch frogs. Girls have pajama parties.
Boys wear top hats. Girls wear bobby socks.
Boys are grooms in horse stables. Girls baby-sit small children.

The idea that a girl would be on a baseball team was odd in my boyhood era.
The notion that a boy would play nurse instead of doctor was unheard of in my boyhood era.
My mother told me that being a receptionist in an office or a dental hygienist was for women only.

My notions of gender culture norms come from my upbringing.

I'm a male nurse. I'm also a combat veteran. My daughter and I built a tree house together, AND a bright red soap box racer, and she works harder in the horse stables than any male I've ever seen there.You're views are outdated and arbitrary.

 

[Jonathan Bailey]

I'm a male nurse. I'm also a combat veteran. My daughter and I built a tree house together, AND a bright red soap box racer, and she works harder in the horse stables than any male I've ever seen there.You're views are outdated and arbitrary.

Male nurses in the American army and at the VA are quite common. But to American children growing up in the 1970's as I was, the notion of a male nurse then might have seemed quite funny. I had a woman doctor at age 10 and that seemed weird to me at that time. She was a middle-age grouch. She said I was acting like a baby because I was gagging and making a fuss when she stuck a long cotton swab down my throat to get a culture. I tolerated having a male doctor do this procedure much better for some reason.The first time I ever did have a woman dentist was at age 34. She was a younger Asian masochistic (word for female canine) who forcefully dragged the corner of my mouth with the knurled handle of the dental drill like it was piece of lumber she was cutting with a saw. I was having a back molar cavity filled. No male dentist I've ever had was nearly as rough. Some crabby older women nurses are rough and nasty too. I once had an old Russian nurse that was a total (female canine). I think these women in the medical profession who roughhouse male patients are man-haters. The foreigners/non-whites are especially hateful toward American/white patients.

American culture was once more "gender segregated" (non-coed or gender-specific for various sports, social positions and occupations) than other nations, I guess. Novels, books, magazines, school teachers, family members, churches, Christian teaching, Hollywood and television and school children often instill such notions in the minds of others.

 

[SkepticThinker]

Boys build tree houses. Girls play house.
Boys play with race cars. Girls play with dolls.
Boys catch frogs. Girls have pajama parties.
Boys wear top hats. Girls wear bobby socks.
Boys are grooms in horse stables. Girls baby-sit small children.

The idea that a girl would be on a baseball team was odd in my boyhood era.
The notion that a boy would play nurse instead of doctor was unheard of in my boyhood era.
My mother told me that being a receptionist in an office or a dental hygienist was for women only.

My notions of gender culture norms come from my upbringing.

Sounds like you need to get out more.

I had one sister growing up ...

We had a tree house and we climbed trees.
We played with race cars.
We played with dolls.
We played with G.I. Joe, He-Man and Mr. T.
We caught frogs and ants, and other bugs. We played in the dirt.
We had pajama parties.
We wore top hats or bobby socks or dresses or pants or my dad's boots, depending on what we were dressing up as that day.
We groomed horses in stables.
We babysat kids.
We played baseball - my sister was on a team.
We played doctor. I've met both female and male doctors.
We played nurse. I've met both female and male nurses.
We played whatever we felt like playing.

And boys did all of these things too. I know this because they were a part of my neighbourhood group, when I was growing up. I've got a male friend who just the other day happened to be bragging about the epic sleepover parties he used to throw when he was a young boy. There used to be a deaf boy who lived down the street from me, who would knock on my door every day looking to play baseball with my sister and I.

Your notions of gender culture norms are not anything I've experienced, and quite honestly, they seem very stereotypical to me. Girls and boys don't fit into neat little separate categories, as you seem to imagine.

 

[SkepticThinker]

Male nurses in the American army and at the VA are quite common. But to American children growing up in the 1970's as I was, the notion of a male nurse then might have seemed quite funny. I had a woman doctor at age 10 and that seemed weird to me at that time. She was a middle-age grouch. She said I was acting like a baby because I was gagging and making a fuss when she stuck a long cotton swab down my throat to get a culture. I tolerated having a male doctor do this procedure much better for some reason.The first time I ever did have a woman dentist was at age 34. She was a younger Asian masochistic (word for female canine) who forcefully dragged the corner of my mouth with the knurled handle of the dental drill like it was piece of lumber she was cutting with a saw. I was having a back molar cavity filled. No male dentist I've ever had was nearly as rough. Some crabby older women nurses are rough and nasty too. I once had an old Russian nurse that was a total (female canine). I think these women in the medical profession who roughhouse male patients are man-haters. The foreigners/non-whites are especially hateful toward American/white patients.

American culture was once more "gender segregated" (non-coed or gender-specific for various sports, social positions and occupations) than other nations, I guess. Novels, books, magazines, school teachers, family members, churches, Christian teaching, Hollywood and television and school children often instill such notions in the minds of others.

Ah, I see the problem, you're looking at things through misogynist-coloured glasses.

 

[Kangaroo Feathers]

Ah, I see the problem, you're looking at things through misogynist-coloured glasses.

racist, too. In short, just an all round delight.

 

[SomeRandom]

Muck out stables? Clean up horse manure with a shovel and a wheelbarrow?
"Bobby socks" were short socks worn by teenage girls in America starting about the 1940's. They were only high up to the ankle bone. There was a girl of color (bused in from the other side of the train tracks quite literally) who wore them to my predominantly-white middle-class California high school in 1979 and that's last time I've ever seen them worn. Top hats would still be worn by men and boys as gags as Halloween dress-up parties and, yes, they are no longer fashionable as formal wear. Franklin D. Roosevelt was the last American president to don one in public. I think Winston Churchill donned them too. Roosevelt and Churchill: the top hats and the cigars! Two birds of a feather separated by a common ocean.

No, females don't customarily play proper "baseball" in America but rather some other ball-and-bat field game called "softball" with different rules, field, playing style and equipment. Either sex plays "softball" but "baseball" is most often reserved for males. Baseball uses a small hard ball that is pitched over-handedly hard and fast and most often uses a wooden bat. Aluminum bats are mostly used in softball which uses a large ball with a softer cover lobbed underhand from the pitcher's position. Culturally speaking, baseball is considered much more masculine than softball in America because of its more aggressive playing style, more complex rules and play options and more dangerous equipment.

I'm now age 55. Born in April of 1964. The Beatles landed on American soil for the first time early on that year though I was not quite born yet when their plane touched down in New York. The British Invasion was on. L.B. Johnson was sitting President. John F. Kennedy was killed while my mother still carried me in her womb. I'm an unborn child of a murdered American president.

Yes, mucking out stables with a shovel and wheelbarrow. How else do you think we do it? With a brush and pan? I’ve known horse owners my entire life. Trust me, you don’t magically get out of daily chores (mucking stables) if you’re a woman lol.

Cheers for the history lesson. But I still stand by what I’ve said. I’ve spoken to my American cousins, they don’t seem to have any issues with females playing baseball. I dunno, maybe they’re just hippies or something
We have our own professional female leagues for literally every sport we play. AFL, Rugby League, Rugby Union, Soccer, Hockey (field), Cricket. Not to mention Tennis grand slams with highly paid professional women players. All of which are highly aggressive, physically strenuous sports. And excepting Cricket and Tennis are very high contact sports. Hell, we don’t even wear padding for our Football codes like you Yanks with your gridiron. Pfft pansies
I remember playing Softball in lower years for PE and Baseball in the higher years and I’m a female. (Still not sure why we did that. We don’t really have any professional teams at all here.) Damned sissy Yanks!! You guys call that dangerous? Aggressive? Hahahahahaha!! That was just Cricket with a round bat and less padding around the legs, since you guys aim higher when pitching. Meh. No wonder you have to wear helmets and pads just to toss a football around. (Just kidding!!) No but seriously, I’ve since watched some pro baseball on TV (well okay, on YouTube lol.). I honestly don’t see how any of it is remotely dangerous or even that aggressive. I suppose a drunk spectator could hurt themselves by catching a ball or something.

I think I understand the differences between softball and baseball. If so then all the aforementioned American kids shows did indeed portray females playing baseball. So again, bit behind the times aren’t you?
Lol ironically wasn’t there a Simpsons episode where the MALE teams were playing softball?
Well that’s what the episode called it, IIRC.

So I have to ask, do you currently live in 2019 or do you still think we live in the 40s?
Because all of what you’ve told me has been pretty much scoffed at by anyone I’ve spoken to under the age of like 30.