Seen With My Own Eyes: Grocery Store Edition

Something happened right in front of me today in my local King Soopers that I couldn’t
ignore and couldn’t wait to share with you all. We have talked and continue to talk about
how young men are the products of their fathers; meaning they will absorb anything
their fathers say like a sponge in a bubble bath. 

So I’m standing in the ice cream aisle, per usual, behind a man with his five or six year
old son in the basket of his cart. The man in perusing the ice cream bars, while on the phone,
when his son attempts to gather his father’s attention. This little boy proceeds to kick
and scream not because he is upset but because
his father is paying attention to something that isn’t him. 
The man pauses his conversation, sternly stands up, and gets eye level with his son.
He looks his son straight in the face and says “You are a big boy, stop acting like a little girl!” 
I was in shock, not because I witnessed this father reprimand his son, but because he
chose to attack his gender instead of attacking his character, behavior, or even his age.
This was such a blatant display of the toxic attributes of gender that I couldn't look away.

Disappointingly, the son was quite from that point on. It took the insult of being called a girl to
get him to stop throwing his tantrum, and the father and son continued on their shopping trip.