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Gender Stereotypes.
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Gender Stereotypes.
Gender Stereotypes.
I am FAR, FAR, down the road of dislike for them. Because I play video games, have short hair, and prefer shorts and jeans to skirts.
I've had my fair share of other people calling me a boy (despite me wearing a blue, flowered headband, there's another one) but I want to know if anyone else has problems like I do with gender stereotypes.
submitted by Lucy B., age 13, California
(May 31, 2017 - 10:44 pm)
(May 31, 2017 - 10:44 pm)
Oh gosh, our teacher does that same thing. There's this one boy (I'll just say N) who is known for being the loudest in our class. But, one time, a couple boys and girls were talking fairly loudly about something random like a baseball game and our teacher yells, "N, that's the third time I've had to tell you to talk more quietly." N was in the bathroom. He always gets in trouble because while everyone else might be talking, too, his voice "is the one our teacher heard first" or "you can hear it over everyone else" I think our teacher just has it in for him and that particular group of boys, it seems really unfair to me.
(June 2, 2017 - 10:22 pm)
-sees Ashley raising her fist- -raises his hand too-
(June 5, 2017 - 8:21 am)
-Joins them with an American flag-
(June 6, 2017 - 8:41 am)
"Oh, how was your softball game?"
"You play softball, right?"
"You mean softball."
"You play baseball?!"
When I got my NYC High School Directory a few weeks ago, I spent a day looking through every school and seeing what sports they offered.
There are two kinds of sports in high school. One's the oh-let's-have-some-fun sort of thing, it's not very serious, everyone can join. The other is buckle-down-let's-get-serious. Tryouts. Playing against other schools. Scholarships. Always, always, always separated into boys and girls.
Always, always, always, the girls are offered softball, the boys baseball.
I haven't the faintest idea how to play softball. I don't know how you even hold that huge thing. I don't know how you can pitch underhand without totally dislocating your arm. I don't know how you can hit that huge ball, with an aluminum bat, past the outfielder and over the fence.
I do know how to hold a baseball in a two-seam, four-seam, circle-change, and three-finger-change grip. I know how to pitch overhand and throw at maybe 50 mph. I know how to hit a tiny ball with a wooden bat and send it flying past the outfielder and over the fence.
But do they care?
No. Because I'm a girl.
Luckily, I've never been teased for it, and nobody treats me with scorn. But, still, everything that I listed at the beginning has been said to me. Plus this, from my coach: "I wish (a previous player) was still playing. It would have been nice to have two of you on the same team."
Like we're part of a collection of some sort.
A rare card, a fancy trinket.
"Guys . . . and girl!"
I can be a guy. If I'm hanging out with a group of solely female girls, I'll call them guys. I don't have to be singled out like that.
Just . . . put me in, coach!
(June 2, 2017 - 4:48 pm)
I had a pixie hair cut for a long time and I wear shorts and T shirts. People kept calling me a he, and when I said I was a she they would say that I should not be wearing what I was.
(June 2, 2017 - 4:58 pm)
My thoughts exactly.
Try going into any one of the following stores; J Crew, the Gap, Osh kosh b'gosh (or somethin' like that) or Old Navy.
Girl's side: Ripped jeans, "girly" t-shirts decorated with sparkles, rhinestones, or ridiculously complicated patterns, skirts, shorts that are far to short or me to be comfortable, and skinny jeans.
Boys side: Mostly plains shirts, longer shorts, non-ripped pants, generally looser and more comfy/less flashy stuff.
(June 3, 2017 - 11:28 am)
Here's another one for Hot Topic:
Girls: Smaller sizes (that usually don't fit my swimmer shoulders) with cuter and less rebellious designs.
Boys: Wider shirts (that fit my shoulders) with lots of black rebellious stuff.
"Swimmer shoulders" are defined by really wide, square shoulders.
(June 3, 2017 - 7:13 pm)
Ah, the eternal curse of being a swimmer...
In all seriousness, l don't generally have much to say on this topic--but l couldn't resist adding this, because it's interesting:
Whose fault is this?
Stores stock what they think people might wear, and if it doesn't sell, they pull it immediately because they have to make money off it. So if they consistently stock a product--i.e. the aforementioned girly clothing, then people must buy it, and we can assume that most of them wear it.
It's not the store's fault. They're doing what's in their best interest. Girls do wear that clothing. Nothing wrong with it.
Then, surely, it must be society's fault, no?
But if the definition of society holds true, (the aggregate of people living together in a more or less ordered community) then society is you, or at least part of society is you.
Therefore, because society(read: other people) likes and wears that certain type of clothing, and there's nothing wrong with it, we can safely assume that you're just shopping at the wrong stores and drawing incorrect conclusions from that because you're also a part of society and you do not like that clothing, therefore there must be somewhere else that sells the clothing you like. ( a prime example being myself, who does not wear the mentioned style and yet is adequately equipped for life's adventures :)
Overly simplified a bit, but l think that makes sense.
(June 3, 2017 - 11:49 pm)
Same here!!!! I hate it! But I am in the juniors section know, I am in heaven, becuase there is more rebellios designs, and more gray. When I shop with my mom, and my littler sister, I see the bright pink and purple, no no, no blue or gray, I start feeling sooooo uncomfortable.
____
People also streyotype HAIR. I have a ROBLOX account, and I was playing Life In Paradise, I went to the clothing store to get sone hair, I liked a kind of hair that was for boys, I thought no one would care, so I went out of the store and just started to roleplay, this guy came up to me and started to say. GET A DIFFRENT HAIR!!!!! I questioned him why, and he said It was a boy hair a girl could not use!!!! I WAS IN RAGE.
(June 4, 2017 - 7:15 am)
I know, right? Most of the so-called "girl" clothing is waaaay too stereotypical! I now get most of my clothes from regattas, and those shirts are comfortable. AND they're exactly the same for boys and girls! Problem solved. But then my mom has to go and buy me "girly" clothes, which I have to then wear. Ugh.
(June 3, 2017 - 7:35 pm)
I know the feeling. I never once wore the pink and fucia flowered halter top my mom got me.
(June 4, 2017 - 2:19 am)
I know the feeling. I haven't been mis-gendered cause as my mom says I have a "female face," whatever that means. I've been bullied a lot because of things i like <like comics, gaming, and stuff like that> i really just hate all stereotypes in general. i get called "emo" or told that im "trying to get guys" or whatever because i have mostly guy friends. it's stupid and hurtful. like, just because i wear a lot of black and jeans and hats and stuff, doesn't mean im emo or look like a guy, as my dad tells me. anyway, sorry for the rant. ill go now *hides in the corner*
(June 3, 2017 - 9:17 pm)
I have a friend (she's gonna be E) who has short hair that always covers her eye. She wears black all the time, and the jewelry that she always wears is mostly chain-like stuff and chokers. She has these (really cool!) boots that are black leather with tons of buckles, and heels. She wears a lot of dark makeup. But she is beautiful.
Some people call her "emo" or "goth" but she isn't. She just likes black. She is one of the most caring people I have ever met, and one of the sweetest, too. She loves cats, and she's really good at drawing people as these adorable little chibis.
E is an wonderful little girl who gets stereotyped all the time. The reason she cut her hair was that people were treating her unfairly, because she was a girl. This isn't exactly the boy/girl thing, but it is definitely stereotyping. E is incredibly smart. Her parents were debating sending her to 7th grade instead of 6th.
Just don't stereotype. It isn't cool.
(June 4, 2017 - 8:55 am)
Gender Sterotypes are just plain unfair! I mean, I really despise pink, and prefer losser fitting darker colored clothing. I also love outdoors and sprts such as rockclimbing, hiking, canoeing, and camoing. Okay, so those are not so much really what people call "boy" sports.
Also I don't like the terms 'tomboy" and "girly girl". I don't think anyone could really ever be one or the another. I get called a tomboy a lot, and i get why, but sometimes when I'm really in the mood I want to style my hair, paint my nails, those so called "girly things" So really nobody can be completely "boyish, or "girlish". Okay now I might start ranting evne though I don't have much else to say, so I'm ending this.
(June 4, 2017 - 2:31 pm)
I posted something about this on This Month, the first thread, created by Somebody. Its called 'I don't think'.
(June 6, 2017 - 11:48 am)