And the gender stereotypes continue. Tomorrow will mark my first ever baby-sitting adventure. It’s not going to be major – I will arrive while the helper is there, get settled and then be alone with my adorable god-daughter for over an hour till her mother makes it home. No big, right? The most I may have to do is change a diaper.
I commented to a friend that it would be my first diaper-changing experience and his response: “here I am thinking this is something all females have already done”. Ahh, boy. Yes, we do still live in a world where girls are expected to play with dolls while boys play with cars. But we also live in a world with stay-at-home dads (still rare I know) and truck-driving mothers.
Somehow I seem to have escaped this girly ritual of changing diapers on my dolls, and baking in my EZ Bake Oven. I guess I was too busy reading books and climbing trees. Maybe I never really understood what men and women were “supposed” to do. I had a father who loved to cook and to fix cars and a mother who could repair a toilet or mend a torn hem.
I always figured people just learnt to do things as they needed to do them. I can’t do much of anything on a car, largely because I figure there are people I can get to do it. However, I do know how to change a tyre by myself and have successfully installed a car radio. Lord knows, I stay away from cooking, but I bake a mean brownie and a delicious omelette. 
In my mind we should have reached a point where the “roles” are blurry because men and women do the things that are necessary without worrying too much about the man’s job or the woman’s place.
10 Comments
Don’t fret, I definitely not suggesting inferiority. As far as I’m concerned everyone is free to choose how they live their life.
Side note: to my nay-sayers – we may be closer than you think
I know in my house I would never chose to drive a truck or do any form of work over taking care of my child unless it is necessary, and I don’t see anything inferior about it. I’m not sure if a man will desire the same thing, but I will understand if he doesn’t, because like Anon and D said, we’re not the same, and I’m quite fine with that.
I see B’s point. It’s important for us to realize that the distinctions in roles arise not only because of the difference between male and female genitalia, but because we attach requirements to each gender. So what’s really required is a change in our thinking to a thinking that doesn’t decide in advance what we should do and what we’re capable of. But if you think about it, this change in thinking has been happening for years. Gone are the days (in many cultures) where womenn are the inferior sex. And just as you yourself mentioned B, women are driving trucks while their men stay at home. The change is gradual and perpetual, but perhaps will never be complete. But that’s ok.
I never suggested that we rid the world entirely of gender-specific roles. Just hoping for some blurring, that’s all.
I agree with Anonymous….I see and understand your point, but as long as boys and girls are raised differently, as long as there exist physical as well as psychological differences between the sexes, as long as there are things one sex will naturally be better at than the other due to said differences….there will always be some stereotyping happening. Its just life
Just a healthy eating advocate.
I just find it cute that your little blue emoticon person shows a strawberry for hunger. Is he/she/it a vegetarian?
It will be a LONG time, if ever, before we get over the streotypes. I do it sometimes unconsciously, so I will try not to be critical of people who do.
So long as you not saying changing diapers is a woman’s job, I cool.
While I agree with you in principle about the blurring of responsibilities, until men start becoming pregnant after intercourse, and women start growing beards and talking in deep, gruff tones, there will always be some separation of duties where parenting and children’s relations to parents are concerned.