The whole point of the parents is to fight against the judgments...
If nothing's done, how can things change?
What they are doing is bringing attention to the issue, which means it gives people an occasion to educate others about their point of view.
I guess we all agree a man should be allowed to dress like he wants, to like any colors he wants, to play with any toy he wants, etc. (I'm restricting the analysis only to men, but god knows women should also have more freedom.)
Yes? Good. I'm pretty sure a huge majority of the American population out there would agree with this as well. However, strangely, there still is judgment and oppression (== freedom restrictions) coming for those same person, thus showing they do not even apply the ideals they are declaring to be advocating.
A lot of people have a malicious pleasure to tell that "you always have the choice", but it's kind of hard to choose for something that will induce you unneeded pain. Stop blatantly saying so.
Unfortunately, one of the few ways to counter that kind of oppressions is by actually doing it the hard way: not conforming yourself. Those parents made that choice, and this is just a step in the right direction. A direct action that will move things; little actions count.
We may not agree on the way to reach such an ideal, but we do agree it is an ideal that we should all be trying to reach.
I find this action very concrete because it is provocative. Most of the time, only provocative things get people to really think about something.
While you may not agree with me on this one, I'm pretty sure you do agree that parents should at least try to apply some of their principles: stop forcing stereotypes on their children. For example, when buying a toy for your kid at Toys'R'Us, visit both "Boys" and "Girls" rows, and just take what your kid likes.
There a lot of examples of induced stereotypes among our current societies. For example, open a "child-book" that teaches the professions to children, and take a close look at how the progressions are being "genderized". In fact, most of the "child-teaching-books" have extremely stereotyped images and claims that do condition the children directly. Books show the dad looking at some sport channel on the TV while the mother is doing the dishes. Dad is working outside, mom is inside, doing household chores. And the list goes on and on.
Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on May 26 2011, 2:44 am by payne.
None.