Raise Boys and Girls the Same

Why we should raise boys and girls equally

This article articulated the concept of raising boys and girls the same really well along with the steps people can take to raise their children more neutrally. Although the article only skims the surface of gender indoctrination but it raises a lot of good points about how to go about reducing the amount of gender policing parents do to their kids.

I work with children as a career, so I've been exposed to the restrictive and often over the top things parents do to reinforce the gender binary. The most ridiculous experience was when one of the preschoolers I was teaching dressed up in a tutu from the costume box in our classroom. His parents happened to come pick him up early so they saw him in the tutu and absolutely lost it. The dad in particular got in my face and asked why I put his boy in this "gay dress" to which I told him his son put it on and he's also only three years old and has no concept of what it is. The parents stormed out and sent an email to the preschool program director about how they don't want this to ever happen again.

Another time, I was babysitting three kids and when their parents came home, one of the boys put on his little sister's dress up heels. The parents up until this point had been incredibly kind and civil, but the second the father saw his son wearing the heels, he began to pace around the house and yell about how he isn't going to raise "no f*ggot son". His wife tried to console him by explaining that their son is only four years old and probably didn't know better, but he didn't want to hear any of it. I didn't know what to say or do so I just quietly left, but I feel so bad for that little boy who didn't do anything wrong.

These are just a few examples of the kind of toxic masculinity that gets passed down through the generations by these patriarchs who feel the need to exert their own power by indoctrinating the next generation of men. If people were more open to raising boys and girls the same, there would be far less angry men who get inconsolably angry when their children wear something pink and frilly.