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“Gender stereotyping is everywhere and causes serious, long-lasting harm” Report by @fawcettsociety
This is the drum I bang all the time. I get so tired of hearing the same old rubbish being ignorantly banded about. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/dec/15/gender-stereotyping-is-harming-young-peoples-mental-health-finds-uk-report?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
This is the drum I bang all the time. I get so tired of hearing the same old rubbish being ignorantly banded about. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/dec/15/gender-stereotyping-is-harming-young-peoples-mental-health-finds-uk-report?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
Two days ago I was told that my nephew’s ‘Would you rather’ book was a real boys book. I asked why my daughter couldn’t read it, the reply was “well what should I call it then?” Me - “a kids book?”
Again only a few days ago my wife was talking about how our daughter likes to play with cars. “Does she have a pink car then?” The person asked. These are just 2 examples that happened in the last few days. It’s everywhere.
It may seem small but these statements are so frequent that they have such a big impact on people like me who don’t fit the “traditional gender roles”.
I constantly find myself with the urge to challenge these statements with “she likes diggers!” or “she likes unicorns!” But I realise that by doing this I am also reinforcing the very stereotypes that I am trying to get rid of.
The result of these stereotypes is that I grew up feeling like I was not quite girly enough to be a girl and not a boy so i end up in a void space where I felt not good enough to be in either category.
And this doesn’t just vanish when you stop being a kid. You know when we used to have parties? I’d go to a predominantly straight gathering and see all the women at one side and all the men at the other. Once again I would just float in the middle not fitting into either.
The result? I stopped going to these gatherings and surrounded myself with people who don’t see life in such binary terms. But it took a long time to get to that place. So if you’re a person who says “boys will be boys” etc please understand how damaging it is to people like me.
Another thing you can do is listen to Black Tie by @gracepetrie which is a song that makes me cry every time I hear it. You’re welcome. https://open.spotify.com/track/51z4LG6qPbHiwGg7Sg03hq?si=CVNEntANS-mlO7loChmoeg
