Tonka: Built for Boyhood!
I've got toys on my mind. No, not toys for grown up ladies, you naughty freaks. I'm talking about toys for kids. Specifically girl toys and boy toys.Gender specific toys.
Our favorite Big Ass Belle recently posted about "girl toys" by PLAYSKOOL. Meaning, of course, pink and flowery toys that revolve around, what else?
Housework!
Lynette's Girl Toys post brought to mind a Tonka commercial I saw recently, advertising their toys which are "built for boyhood". Yep, Tonka is Celebrating 60 Years of Boyhood! It turns out Hasbro is the parent company of both Tonka and PLAYSKOOL.
That's right, PLAYSKOOL, of Rose Petal fame, and Tonka, built for boyhood, wedded together to helpfully model gender-appropriate play. How precious. The commercials for PLAYSKOOL's Rose Petal Cottage include this sugary sweet melody:
I love when my laundry gets so clean,
Taking care of my home is a dream, dream, dream!
In Rose Petal Cottage, my home,
A place of my very own!
Are you kidding me? "Taking care of my home" is the dream, dream, dream PLAYSKOOL wants for Teen Demon and the Bohemian? Because they're girls? I'm sorry, but washing socks and mopping crusty bits off the floor isn't exactly what I dreamed of for them while watching them sleep in their cribs.It's sure as hell not what they're dreaming of for themselves.
At Hasbro.com, we learn that the Rose Petal Cottage
empowers preschool girls to use their imagination inside and around their very own play space, featuring everything they need to role-play alone or with friends.
From baking muffins to washing clothes to caring for their dolls, girls now have a place where they can set their imaginations free.
And Tonka. Here's what their current commercial has to say about our little future heads of households:
Boys! What can you say? They're just built different.
And now ... they can play their way!
It's built around what he does naturally. It's a shape sorter - or not!
Then, it helps him learn to walk. And chase!
Then [it's] his own sweet ride - from baby to big boy. All in one toy.
Let's face it; boys are built different.
And Tonka's got the blueprint.
Are they serious? What kind of stereotypical bullshit is this?
So ... boys "naturally" exercise their minds and bodies by sorting shapes, running and chasing, while girls need nothing more than a pink playhouse to serve as "an entire world where your little girl can play, discover and explore."Entire world?<br>
Trouble with that is, the world they want my little girl to discover and explore is comprised of only a laundry room, nursery and kitchen. Probably she'll be expected to clean up after Tonka boy, since he's shown tracking mud all through the house in his commercial, while mom smiles indulgently.
I find this purposeful gender-based marketing very disturbing. The unspoken gender expectations are ingrained so deeply within our society, it's virtually impossible to avoid them. So when toy companies purposefully SAY things like "boys are built different" and "taking care of my home is a dream, dream, dream", it leaves no doubt in kids' minds as to what's expected of them. What is "normal".
When toy companies purposely perpetuate gender roles, that pisses me off, because they're making my job harder as a parent.
If my little boy believes certain activities are more suited for him, likewise he will develop the belief that other activities and expectations are more suited for the girls and women in his life. Not only will he feel comfortable playing with trucks or light sabers, he'll also feel comfortable expecting the girls in his life not to do those things.
Tonka has told him that trucks are "built for boys". If I do nothing to balance the messages Tonka and PLAYSKOOL are sending him, he may one day feel comfortable with his mother, sisters, or wife in their Rose Petal kitchens, making that sandwich for him while he's out in the living room watching the game.
Um, no.
In our particular household, Male Offspring knows that females are all about watching the game. He would no sooner expect me to hit the kitchen before half-time than he would expect me to sprout pixie wings and fly.
So, what about little Suzy, careening her Tonka truck around the living room? What about the little boy who loves playhouse tea parties and hates mud? Chances are, they won't be feeling too good about themselves after seeing these commercials. Especially little Johnny. Society can deal with a tomboy, but a girlieman? Not so much. Chances are, Johnny will soon learn to keep that shit under wraps, and play with the damn truck. At least when people are watching.
Both of them are getting a clear message about what it means to be a "normal" girl or boy.
My kids got sucked into the gender specific toys, sure.
Teen Demon was a wild hellion in her day. Yes, she loved her Little Tykes kitchen, and her pink doll stroller - pink is still her favorite color, and the girl bakes like, well, a Demon. But, she also rode her Tonka truck like demolition derby time. She personally brought out my appreciation for that whole Tonka Tough thing, before Male Offspring ever came on the scene. She had a toy tool belt that she wore everywhere. She balanced it out with pink hiking boots. She didn't take any guff from little boys.
Yes, Male Offspring loved him some trucks and 'dozers. Tonka would've loved to have his rough and tumble boy behind in their commercials. He was all about the boy toys. They probably would've cut the scene though, when he came clacking onto the set in his sisters' dress up clothes, sporting a pink tutu, white gloves and pearls with a purple straw hat. He loved playing in the pastel pink Little Tykes Cottage. Especially talking on the toy phone, which should've given me some warning as to the boy's future cell phone addiction.
So yeah, my kids loved their girl toys and boy toys. Not like you can really avoid it. Nevertheless, according to Tonka & PLAYSKOOL, my kids were a bit confused as as to proper play for their respective genders.
Well, fear not - no more fretting over ambiguous gender behavior! Tonka, in order to help you navigate the gender divide, has helpfully provided Parenting Advice for Boys.(Hey, Tonka, I'm pretty sure you meant to give parenting advice to parents of boys, not the little tykes themselves, right? How much do you pay your editor?)
Anyway, if your little darling sports a penis, don't worry, Mom, help is on the way:
Little boys can seem like alien creatures, especially to Moms who were raised as little girls! So to help you speak "boy language," here are some tips from Lawrence Cohen, PhD, Playskool Advisor and author of Playful Parenting.
(Yes, this shit is actually up at the Tonka site )
9-18 months: During this stage, your son will be learning all about himself, including what it means to be a boy... you can keep the emotional connection going by having your own truck that rolls alongside his (or sometimes gently crashes into his!).
2-3 yrs: This is also the stage where "boy humor" begins; this type of humor--filled with jokes about body parts and bodily functions ... seems to be a product of some combination of boy biology and boy social training.
3-5 yrs: Some mothers try to eliminate every expression of aggression from boys’ play, but that doesn’t work--and besides, if we got rid of all aggressive stories, we’d have to exclude stories from Shakespeare, the Bible, and even history books!
And get this:
All Ages & Stages: Recognize that your son is absorbing all sorts of information from TV and movies, including many messages about what is expected from boys and men. The media -- and our own expectations -- can give boys the wrong idea that there is only one very narrow definition of masculinity.
I call bullshit, Tonka. This guy should not be giving parenting advice. You should not be paying him.
---What if ... all types of play were presented as a choice for all kids? Without the frilly pink or tough blue packaging.
---What if nobody thought a thing about Johnny having tea party with his teddy bears, or playing with playhouse dolls?
---What if Suzy could play Pop Warner football or collect model cars instead of Barbies ... without being called a tomboy, without folks assuring her mom she'll "grow out of it"?
---Maybe then, Johnny grows up to be a sous chef in some fancyass restaurant. Or an awesome stay at home dad who knows how to fix a furnace and connect with his kids. Maybe Suzy fixes cars or runs a corporation.
---And maybe, if that were the case, taking care of a home might truly be seen as an option for both genders, not an expectation for one. In which case, it would probably be valued a lot more than it is now. Then role models - and advertising - for kids would be a whole lot different.
Maybe then Suzy feels OK being a cheerleader ... 
... and a football player.
...because he remembers
Yes, as a matter of fact, that was a shameless excuse to post cute pics of Teen Demon and Male Offspring. But there is a related point:
Teen Demon recently found out that her school no longer allows male cheerleaders. What? Apparently, there used to be guys on the football/basketball cheer squad. (Teen Demon cheers for wrestling - because the football/b'ball squad is a bunch of barbie bitches. According to her.) But the advisor - an adult - decided she didn't want guys on the squad about 3 years back.
What's sad is Teen Demon actually knows a couple of guys who would like to cheer. And, she said, it would actually make a better cheer squad, on account of the awesome stunts they'd be able to do with guys in the mix.
Male Offspring was in the room during this conversation, and he didn't snicker or make faces. What he said was, "That sucks. If girls can do wrestling and football, it's not fair that guys can't cheer. That's just dumb."
No, son, it's not fair, and it is dumb. I'm glad the kids were bothered by this, rather than thinking "cheerleading's for girls". If it were up to Hasbro, however, that would've been a different conversation.
And that's what's pissing me off about these commercials.
28 prescriptions:
So point A) Fine looking (take after their Mamma obviously) and obviously exceptionally bright kids- (again- well look from whence they came) Strong work Mom!
B) As noted Miss Thing looks at the commercial and after asking if it really was a parody- wanted to know if there was a pool boy optional version. That's my girl!
I went to great lengths to go totally gender neutral, and to some degree they both went along gender lines no matter what I tried to do.So I pretty much decided to go with the flow either way, But, hey they both kick ass and take names, and both are genuinely compassionate humans. I'm just hoping it all works out in the long run.
You are totally my hero girl! Whenever I get totally disgusted with the school system, or question the way we're raising them I look to you and your three amazing offspring.
You're doing an amazing job- and it is one of the hardest jobs in the world.
So first of all ... brilliant post. I noticed those Tonka commercials too, and thought, "hmmm ... those were never the toys I gravitated towards as a kid." Then again, we all know that I'm exactly the type of boy that Tonka demographic moms don't want THEIR little boys to turn out to be.
Tho' you didn't mention it explicitly, these commericals all seem to say, "Mom, want to make sure that your kid doesn't grow up GAY??!! Here, start enforcing those gender roles NOW!!!"
Second, I noticed that the sensitive stay-at-home dad knows how to fix a furnace. Don't think we didn't catch that. Ha!
I think about this from time to time,and wonder how to implement non-gender specific attitudes towards play.
If a boy rushes out to the tree on Christmas morn,and discovers that easy bake oven he had his heart set on...Cool!
I'll stay up all night trying to assemble that remote control B-17 bomber my little girl begged to receive for her 12th birthday..Really...and screw anyone that feels like they have a right to *tsk,tsk*.
For toy manufactures to take it upon themselves to determine what the proper toy for a child should be,is inexcusable.
These days,Women serve on the front lines in combat.
I was a house husband myself for the first five years of my youngest son's life...and I really do enjoy a clean house.
Still,..just how gender nuetral can we ever be?
How gender nuetral do we really want to be?..Total androgeny?
I just don't know the answer.
Nope. Changed my mind. I would have lost sleep over it anyway.
ooh, this one hit on nerves - which is good, because then I'm not the only one not given to brevity, ha!
DL: thanks on the pics. total excuse, there. And thanks for the parental encouragement - who can't use that? I actually didn't try to go gender neutral back then, I just wanted them to have BOTH, and for that to be OK. Gender neutral wouldn't have worked for Teen Demon - the girl loves to cook, craft, and loves her some pink. BUT, I don't want her getting messages that that's how she HAS to be, or that it's a "girl thing."
Red: right on w/ the furnace. And yeah, it's so blatant, what's considered "normal". It just bothers me. When that "built for boyhood" one came on, TeenDemon looked at me and was like, what the hell was that about?
Sling: Exactly - I want it to be OK and "normal" for the boy to love his Easy-bake, and the girl to have her airplane model AND not like the Easy-bake. I say 'AND' b/c I think this is one area where little girls have the advantage: although both genders are bombarded with "gender appropriate" toys & messages, society accepts a tomboy a lot easier than it accepts a boy who loves his Easy-bake but hates action heros. I'm not so much advocating gender neutral, just equal - and OK - for all. And good on you with the stay at home dad thing.
Hat: I'm actually in total agreement with your whole statement. Girlie toys should not be frowned upon at all - my problem is how they're marketed to reinforce antiquated gender roles. I'm not advocating gender-neutral, there's nothing wrong with certain types of toys, it's the expectation that these toys draw a line based on gender.
Like I said in the post, baking and domestic talents should be an ACCEPTED (and celebrated) option for BOTH genders, not an expecation for one. You are right on when you say we still see "women's work" as "less than". That's where I'm calling bullshit, because, if it were acceptable for men to be domestic, to stay home, you can bet your sweet ass it would NOT be seen as "less than" any more. Why? Because then it would just be "domestic", not "women's" work. It's the fact that it's put on women to do it, whether it fits them individually or not, that makes it "less than".
I was a SAHM before the big D, and I credit a lot of my kids' successes to that - that's not "less than" in my book. It's important! Hell, I'd love to have a partner of either gender take over the domesticity in this house, because I sure as hell suck at doing both, and everyone's a lot happier & healthier when the household is run well.
My issue in taking a basic look at these commercials - how dare you tell my daughters, Tonka, that your trucks are "built for boyhood", with all the subtle messages that go with that. And you, PLAYSKOOL, how dare you send the message that doing laundry and baking is an "entire world" for my daughter - like she needs nothing else - but with the clear message that it's not for my son - not "normal", and not important enough for him. What the fuck is up with that 'Dr.' Lawrence's crap, that advice for moms? That's what I have an issue with.
I hope I didn't come across as contributing to you feeling as though you've "let down the female collective" by liking domestic stuff. Maybe I should re-read, because I'm actually not supporting gender-neutral. Difference is good, I just think it should be for anyone who personally identifies with either side, not based on genitalia or genes.
Little boys and girls are going to play with whatever toys strike their fancy. And I agree with you cowbell, we shouldn't be forcing societal expectations on would they "should" be, but rather what they "want" to be.
When I was a young lad a loooooong time ago, I never gravitated toward the "boy" toys (well aint' THAT a surprise) and always wanted to play with stereotypical "girl" toys, much to the consternation of my parents.
As I've posted before, I cried when I didn't get my Barbie Make-Up Head one Christmas, but instead got a G.I. Joe with Kung-Fu (Masturbation) Grip. And of course my G.I. Joe had that beard. Talk about reinforcing gender roles.
I still turned out fine, at least that's what my therapist says.
Brilliant post my dear. I wanted to puke when I saw the Rose Petal Cottage commercial, but probably would have loved to play in it as a kid. That would have been followed with the parental induced guilt for non gender conforming play, however. The parents of our generation being led to believe that we were fucked up developmently if we chose non conforming play. You hit the nail on the head with this post. My father actually mumbled that I was a pansy for wanting to play dolls with my sisters, instead of playing catch in the yard with him. The truth was that I enjoyed both! I was made to feel less than manly for choosing anything less than Tonka, sports, or war (G.I. Joe, army men, cowboys and indians). Why are most toys for young men based on violence and aggression, btw? We wonder why we are a fucked up and compassionless nation? REALLY?
Glad I was able to incorporate both gender roles into my repitoire. I can bring home the bacon, fry it up in a pan, and never ever let him forget he's a man, cause I'm a Homo, b-i-g H-o-m-o. Don't even get me started on the mysoginist commercials of the '70s and '80s...
" Difference is good, I just think it should be for anyone who personally identifies with either side, not based on genitalia or genes." That's the entire point!
For the record - that's my version of gender neutral, letting them decide what they want, not Madison Avenue.. mine both played with whatever struck their fancy and I didn't get real hung up on gender lines. She had tu-tus and trucks both. And is about as "girlie" as they come, and kicks all the boy's butts in any video game you want to choose. The boy was making bazookas out of paper towel rolls at the age of two.. and can destroy a Tonka in one afternoon- but loves to cook and is a very sensitive guy.
And personally I dig being a domestic goddess, and quite like being female. And if that makes me a traitor to the feminist movement- hang on a second while I touch up my lipstick so I can kick some ass with my 4" heels..
PS- Hat, you should have left the comment up- it was an excellent one.
I've watched those commercials through the links on Belle and franky didn't have the stomach to spend much time on the Tonka website. There's very little I can add to what you have so justly said.
Sadly I'm here in a land where TV interviewers, hosts and newscasters are mostly women - young women with big (perhaps augmented??)breasts, even tans, white teeth, perfect features that they may just not have been born with, great hair and a really tenious grasp of Italian grammer and the world. They are surrounded by dancers and models - young dancers and models with big (perhaps augmented?) breasts, even tans, white teeth, perfect features that they just may not have been born with and the grammer and world thing, well it isn't important because they just have to bounce and jiggle. But that's all okay because they're on television and famous and ...
What the hell sort of message does that send to a teenager girl in this country?
And agree with doralong - damn woman you make great looking babies! Oh crap this place is rubbing off on me - I'm becoming politically incorrect. Scuzi tanti?
What Doralong said. The second time. Probably the first time, too.
And for the record, not only did The Child play with whatever she wanted (which included trucks and balls, but actually, no guns so I guess she didn't play with whatever she wanted), but so did I. I climbed trees, played with Matchbox cars, dug up stuff, built forts. My Bartbie doll put on fatigues and hung with GI Joe and Ken (before women were in the force) and yeah, I baked mud pies and played house. And so did my brother.
Perhaps what is in order is for parents all over America to take photos of their darling little girls smashing around with Tonka trucks and their sweet little boys whipping up something in the Rose Petal kitchen (which, I admit, I saw that thing and wanted to be little again. Obviously, I was too busy ogling to listen to the jingle. Bad, bad) and send those into Hasbro. And then tell them to cool it with the less than progressive jingles if they want us to keep buying toys for our kids. They don't have to know that we actually don't buy toys for our kids anymore.
I totally see your point and outrage, Cowbell. But I'm also one of those girly girls who digs being a domestic goddess and staying home with my kid and I have taken more than my share of shit for not being "faithful" to the movement because of my choices. Which I find so ironic because I always understood feminism to be precisely about the freedom to make choices.
But that's not even what you were really talking about. I was just digressing and getting my dander up and hi, I hate long comments.
I'm going to bake something.
Okay I should learn to spell the word "tenuous" before I start sounding off about young women with big (possibly augmented....etc etc etc
This topic always gets me hot under my starched collar. I hate the gender role BS that is part and parcel of toys. Going to McDonald's and having to identify my child as "boy or girl" so the happy meal toy can be chosen for him is insulting. One more excellent reason not to go there!
And yes, while I do extole the virtues of homemaking on my own blog, I think women should follow their interests, be that in baking cakes, electron microscopes, or driving garbage trucks. Whatever makes you happy, lady - that's my thing.
The flipside of this discussion is that girls who are into homemaking shouldn't be dissed for wanting to pretend in their little dream houses. Get little Suzy the doctor kit, the microscope, the Tonka truck and the pretend kitchen, if that is what she likes. Just because women can choose different roles now doesn't mean the ladies who like homemaking (who consciously choose homemaking)are any less feminists than those that don't. I think the key is to expose girls to all facets of "play" and let her decide what rings her bell. Keep the advertising BS out of the equation and everyone is happier. I'm trying to get my son out of the advertisers' clutches now and it is hard, but worth the effort.
Holy Crap - look at all the comments - I haven't even had my caffeine fix yet. Guess we're all touched in some way by this subject.
First, I went to bed late last night after actual (as opposed to cyber) conversation w/ our Dear Hat - she'd left a wonderful comment that she took down, thinking it maybe had an adversarial tone (it didn't), and I went to bed without taking my reply down. Went to do that this morning, saw a buttload of comments, and thought, fuckit, too late now, plus, the reply still references some of the excellent points made by Hat's original comment.
RG: GI Joe 'masturbation grip' -- bwa-ha-ha! Yeah, this is one area where little girls come out ahead - it's acceptable, to an extent, for girls to be tomboys, but not for boys to have make-up Barbie heads. Too bad.
Tater Toy: HA - love the song! Again, boys get the short end of this stick. Suzy can play w/ the truck, although she'll be encouraged to go for the kitchen as well. Johnny, well, he gets razzed if he goes near the kitchen even if he has the trucks TOO.
The story about your dad made me sad - that affected you; you remember it. When Male Offspring came out in his sisters' dress up clothes (just as described in the post), the Ex reacted so strongly! From the look on his face to him starting to say those were "girl clothes" - the look on my son's face! He'd been so proud! He was 3. I was sitting next to the Ex, pinched the fuck out of his inner thigh, and said, "Look Daddy! Doesn't he look fancy! What a good job he did putting on those gloves!" Then he got it and fixed his face and said good things to the son. We had a "talk" afterward. He'd been socialized to react negatively, afraid his son would end up, what? A sissy? Gay? Get teased?
DL: whoo-hoo, I bet you could kick some ass in your 4" heels, honey! In a leather dress, too...
Willym: I love it when you bust out with a "Damn, woman!" (Thanks on the pics - the son looks so little in that last pic! Sweet!) Yeah, the girls get the girly toy messages young, and worse, it turns to sexy clothes messages for pre-teens, fucked up standards for beauty for teens - hello eating disorders, dumbing down, therapy and plastic surgery.
Lorraine: Actually, I deleted parts of that outrageously long post, one of which was a link to Tonka's "Tonka Boy" photo contest. I thought about sending a pic of Teen Demon in her pink overalls roaring around on her truck. Bastards - why can't it be Tonka KIDS?
And yeah, it's about CHOICE for both genders. My girls totally loved their Little Tykes pink playhouse, their kitchen, their dolls, all that stuff. Teen Demon is very "feminine" as far as baking and domestic stuff. (It skipped me, apparently, but my mom and sis are that way too) That's fine, but I don't want the toy companies shoving their gender bias down our throats for profit.
I took shit too for being a SAHM - and that was the most important work I've done. The things my kids are doing now? I credit a lot of that to me being home w/ them those years. I think the got shafted, actually, because I had to start back to work when he was only 3. I worked in a daycare center for $6 an hour, so he could still be with me, but it wasn't the same. I grieved over that, more than the divorce, I think.
But the domestic stuff should be determined by individual interest, not penis status, and no one of EITHER gender should get shit for being good at running a home or baking kickass pastries.
My beef is that if it were acceptable for MEN to do that stuff, it wouldn't be seen as "less than". Just like if men had periods, tampons would be covered by health insurance, and we'd have sick days, vacation days, and period days.
KimberlyAnn: Oh the McDonald's thing! That was another thing I deleted out of this longass post! What is UP with that?! Girl happy meals and Boy happy meals? WTF? And to the rest of your comment: Exactly. See above, ha!
I heart you. Pie?
Hallowing Hat: of course! Please, like you think I'd say no to PIE? Wear your Halloween hat. Pie is even better with a hot hat. Or a hot Hat.
OMFG
I am soooo with you on this. And no matter what we do, they still put these rolls on our kids. My son and daughter know they can do and be who they want. BUT when i deal as a leader in my various groups I want to really kill the dad who takes the pink crayon out of his hand. I could write a book about this. My son loves dance and movement, my daughter likes to control little worlds and so she loves to build things. And everyone is suprised when my son can catch a football because he likes to sing. Thanks for this and I hope you son gets to be a cheerleader if he wants to be one.
i used to beg this one group of boys at my after school program to let me play d&d with them and they (including my brother) would never let me. apparently i was too young (uh...some of those boys were my classmates) and a girl. later in life, some of those same boys, upoin being reminded that i had wanted to play back in the day, were like "oh man, if only we would've had a girl!" was that off topic? hmm
oh and your youngns are quite cute, which you know :)
No doubt I made my parents completely unhinged with my interests as a child. I was the kid who was equally comfortable playing a drag down game of football, then going in the house and setting my teddy bears up in chairs and pretending I was the flight attendant, serving them tea.
Sometimes it's more challenging to have a kid who doesn't fall down on that clear distinction. Though I have to credit my parents with being completely fine with(or maybe they were just good actors) my "dual sensibilities". either way, I think that was why I enjoyed doing both of what are usually one or the other.
One thing my mom did for us boys was teach us "homemaker" skills. We all know how to cook, clean (although my brothers are slobs)sew upon necessity (Alright I CAN do pillows and curtains and an occasional ball gown) shop for food and NOT look like a confused mama's boy in the canned goods isle.
So even though I didn't get the Barbie Make-up Head, I eventually learned how to put on my own lashes while wearing a leather harness.
I saw the commercial for that Rose Petal Cottage on TV and I nearly screamed with rage.
CM: crap, that's crazy about the pink crayon. Who decided that dumb color dichotomy anyway? Male Offspring doesn't want to cheer, he's more toward the football end of the spectrum, but I just want it in his head that it's cool if a guy DOES want to cheer. I hate when I hear kids say, "Dude, that's so gay!" in reference to guys who cheer, or sew, or whatever.
Monica: Ha, they're sorry now. Serves 'em right. YOu so would've been dungeon master. Or mistress. Whichever you prefer.
Al: That's so cool that you could play all those different ways. Also very nice that your parents were cool with it.
RG: I'm so sure you can handle that mascara and harness. And the ballgown. And your mom rocks.
Whim- yeah - when I saw that one, I was like, WTF?! Then when I saw the Tonka one that actually SAID "for boys", and then went to the site and saw that so-called Doctor with his crappy advice, blech. Retch. Spit.
Guess I was lucky, even though we're talking the 50s, my parents didn't push anything on me. I wanted to play with puppets - I played with puppets. I wanted a Disney Theatre set so I could stage plays - I got that Disney Theatre set one Christmas. At 6 I wanted to go to the ballet and opera - I was allowed to go. My first Broadway musical at 8 (Roadshow Company of Lil Abner with a muscle hunk called Peter Palmer, must Google and see what happened to him.) I don't honestly think my parents ever thought of these things as a "gender" issue.
Slightly off topic but not really: Every May the Metropolitan Opera came to Toronto and played Maple Leaf Gardens, the huge hockey arena. Tickets went on sale in April and the cheap seats (the Greys - up in the rafters) cost $2.00 - a lot of money in those days. When it came to Opera my father preferred Grand Old to Grand but every year he would take me. The deal was that I had to pay for the tickets out of my allowance. Starting in December I'd save every penny including birthday and Christmas gifts. Math was never a strong subject but I always had a bad feeling that come April there wouldn't be that need four dollars and 25 cents (money order and stamps.)But every year when the tickets went on sale and I opened my piggy bank there was always exactly four dollars and 25 cents.
And God love her, my mother - who was a tailor of no little skill - made me a white dinner jacket when I was 14 to wear to the opera when they finally played in a proper theatre. Guess she figured if I was going to play Mr Dressup I should do it in style.
Willym: What a wonderful story! That's great how your parents handled that - tying budget skills and delayed gratification with the reward of something you loved so much. How good of your dad to take you, even with tastes leaning toward "Grand Ol'" style - HA! And the dinner jacket - I bet you looked quite the dapper young man.
There is pumpkin pie for you over in EG's comment section, bring a fork!
i'm still pissed about this one. didn't know about tonka. i guess no progress is permanent. we just go forward and back and back and a little forward and back and back and back. i expect before i die it will be 1850 all over again. it's the lunatic christian right, i fear.
Lynette: The extreme right wing evangelicals really scare me. I mean, I know they feel the same about my beliefs (or lack thereof), but the difference is the left isn't trying to force our beliefs on others. To each his own. The rightfanaticals though, it's not enough they live according to their "moral" code - they want the rest of us on their bandwagon, like it or not. We're getting more and more polarized, and those folks are as scary to me as the Muslim extremists are to them.
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