Oh seriously. Other than girls can wear trousers and boys can't wear skirts, boys are far less bothered by gender boundaries than girls. Boys are continuously taught that they can do everything. Girls get taught very specific roles (and most of them are a form of caretaker). And why is that? Feminism you say? Congratulations on both insulting feminism and picking something that has absolutely nothing to do with it. Seriously. Don't be daft.

@#220 Get in the real world dumbfuck.

Have you considered that maybe girls can do boyish things but not the other way around because the feminine is considered less valuable? Think of all the insults that end in "...like a girl". To tell a little boy that he looks/acts like a girl is the worst imaginable insult. And where did he learn that, I wonder?

@#230 Typical feministic double standard. Maybe if you people didn't say stupid shit like that then you would be taken more seriously.

That still does not make it feminism's fault. I'll agree that the insult exists and should not, but girls being told that they are like boys is just as insulting since gender patterns expect them to be feminine and care about make up and dating.

I didn't mean to make it sound like feminism was a bad thing. What I meant was more "Feminism did good things for girls but it hasn't changed things for boys, because feminism isnt about boys (obviously). Boys therefore, are limited in ways that girls no-longer are." I was, in a sort of backassed way, saying feminism was a good thing. Except I just re-read my post and realized I did a really bad job of saying that. Also, when I was a little girl and I did something 'like a boy' it was always intended as a compliment. I can remember when I was little and I was building a birdhouse with my dad. I hammered in a nail 'like a boy.' By common usage the phrase "Like a boy" usually means "strong" whereas "like a girl" means the opposite: weak. Logic agrees with that. Boy and girl are opposites. Strong adn weak are opposites. If boy represents strong, it only makes sense that girls represent weak.

I suppose you have a point in the 'like a boy' and 'like a girl' thing. However, I think boys don't need things changed as much as girls still do. Outright sexism (applying to a job but being passed over in favour of a guy) does not happen quite so much anymore, but male dominance is still everywhere. Boys can still grow up to be anything where girls become teachers (mostly in primary school and definitely not in science subjects), nurses and, worst of all, are encouraged to grow up to be mommies.

hah. I"m a bad example because I want to be an elementary school english teacher, and a mom. However, everyone I know keeps telling me that i'm not 'fullfilling my potential.' I dont care. I'm happy, and I know I will be happy. I understand kids a lot better than I understand adults, and I want to work with them. And I wasn't so much encouraged to be a mommy, as I was forced to be a mommy to my little sisters. My mom wasn't stepping up, and they needed someone to take care of them. Turns out I adjusted well to 'motherhood.' My mom finally has taken that role on for herself again. I've got a lot of mixed feelings about that. Yeah, they should have thier mother for a mom. Yes, at 18 I'm too young to be a mom, but damnit! They're MY girls. I dont know but thats a different rant for another time. I did work in construction for a summer, though. That's not a typically girly thing, and I was good at it.. I'd grown up on job sites, that being my fathers bussiness, so I figured it would be a good job for me. On the job, even on teh first day, I wasn't treated any different for being a girl. In the end I ended up being more productive than half the guys I worked with because soem of them had NO idea what they were doing. You couldnt even send them to go get you a certain tool without them coming back the wrong one. "I said I needed a circular saw! It has a CIRCULAR blade! Not this. This is a jig-saw. This is not going to help me." It was really amusing sometimes, but othertimes just drove me nuts. I didnt end up working there the next summer for that reason. Not that I encourage girls to become construction workeres. I dont encourage ANYONE to be a construction worker. It alright fro a summer job, or maybe even a hobby, but it makes a shit career.

Ehlyha... I have to ask, what are you basing this on?? I have no idea what country you live in, but I've lived in a few European countries, and am originally from NZ, and have a lot of friends in America and I have to say I really can't agree with that ridiculous stereotype of woman generally being homemakers, mothers, nurses or primary school teachers. Every science teacher I had, in the three high schools I attended due to moving frequently with the exception of one physics teacher was female. I have always had female doctors, because there has always been at least one registered at the practice I go to. My current practice is entirely female doctors, despite not being intentionally that way. The only thing I would really agree with is there does tend to still be a slight majority of nurses and primary school teachers, but that is still fairly mixed. I think if you're going to hold such cynical views that cause you to start crying about the need for feminism or the rampant sexism in our society you should at least be referring to some official statistics of the gender distribution of these jobs you claim are so dominated by a single gender.

Oh you again. Hey. You got lucky, you've had some female science teachers. I've lived in Western Europe all my life and I've had 1. My brother is in a science major at uni and he has none. You see? Perhaps it isn't so bad in secondary schools just yet, but look at the amount of female teachers/professors in higher education. It drops quite suddenly. You might not agree with the stereotype and I certainly don't approve of it, but that does not mean it isn't still present in society. Take a good look at the media most children are exposed to. Take a look at the gender assignments. Yeah. Exactly. Darling, if you don't have to hand me the research, then I don't have to hand you anything either. Do your own damn google. Also, the fact that you constantly refer to my opinion as 'crying' about things and seem to have such a low regard for feminism really doesn't make you look any better. It shows a lack of basic respect, in fact, for me in this discussion as well as for women in general. I don't enjoy making broad generalisations, but it is really showing very much that you are a man who has no idea of what women still have to struggle with.

@#302 Just because YOU haven't had many experiences with something doesn't mean that's the way it is all around the world. The majority of high level classes are taught by females in my experience, but that's just what it is; MY experience. We really can't talk any more about this without factual evidence so I'll leave it at that. And for the record I believe that in the United States (before anyone jumps down my throat for being a self centered asshole; this is all I know, as I've never been outside the USA. It would be unfair for me to say anything about any other countries), at this point, white males are the most discriminated against group, possibly next to gays. Everyone is just so brainwashed that white males get everything easier that it's actually harder to do well in life as a white male than anyone else.

Ehlya you ******* retard. You're the one that made that claim. I'm the one saying back it up with something more than your limited personal experience. As I did when you cried about not having to have a clue as to what you're talking about. If you're going to claim this is a fact, show some statistics, because it certainly isn't what is observed in real life. Show the statistics of gender distribution in the area's you are claiming to be male dominated you're basing this on. My personal experiences are actually probably a lot broader than yours, given the amount of countries I've lived in and visited, and the number of schools and universities I've attended in them. You're a not a teacher, and as I said earlier in the real world when you get in a conversation about something you're pretending to know anything about, you're expected to know something other than your personal experience rather than crying "HAND ME A RESEARCH PAPER OR WHATEVER I SA MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IS IS THE ABSOLUTE TRUTH". You obviously do not grasp the concept of how to respond to something you disagree with in the adult world so I would suggest you just don't try.

You're basically trying to say "my limited personal experiences are fact and apply to everyone. you must just be lucky and the exception to the rule, seeing as that doesn't agree with the ridiculous point i'd like to make". If you want to base your entire point on your limited personal experience don't think for a second anyone is going to take you seriously, and don't think writing off other people's broader experiences is going to do anything but get you laughed at.

How does this have anything to do with gender roles? An example of a gender role would be expecting women to always automatically stay home and take care of the house and children while the men go out and work to support the household. This FML is about the tradition of dressing baby girls in pink and baby boys in blue. It's not a "role" that the baby is expected to fit, just a tradition of our society as to what colors different genders of babies wear. And for those say it's stereotypical or sexist, I don't agree. It's not stereotypical for a woman to wear white at her wedding, it's a tradition. Same with what colors people choose to dress their babies in. It's a custom that's been in our society for a while, so some choose to stick with it, others don't. It doesn't make the OP and his wife bad people for sticking with the customs.