All the controversy yesterday surrounding the horrible JC Penny Shirt (I'm too pretty to do homework), made me very glad that I have a boy. I did like the HuffPosts spin on other shirts that should be made - my favourite was "How Many Calories Does Reading Burn?" I feel for my sister-in-laws having to raise my nieces in this kind of culture. All I have to worry about with the boy are some of the raised eyes that I get when the boy is out shopping with his friend Reece (a fantastic Bamboletta doll), or if he's putting on lip balm in public and calling it his lipstick.
I know that there are horrible things that our boys face and they have to live up to expectations of manliness that include judging tears and emotions as girly. They also certainly doesn't include my boy's love of wearing eye shadow, or his desire to call long shirts 'dresses' (his newest one is a white football jersey that he says is his wedding dress). But I feel that this version of what a boy (or man) should be is changing faster than the desire to force girls into the mould of pretty things who don't need think for themselves. And I think that's a shame. I hope that by the time the boy is old enough to start having kids of his own, this will all be a moot point, and something we look back on as an aberration, and kids just get to be kids, no matter what. Which means that we all need to keep these conversations going, and keep reminding places like JC Penny that shirts like this are unacceptable, and we need to remind our sons and daughters of that too.
I'll leave the last thoughts to Malibu Stacy from one of my favourite Simpsons quotes....
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