This all started in a homeschool group with a women asking for craft ideas for boys 10-13 years old. It was a bit like the image above, though that image she edited later to be more clear that her request was about ideas for a homeschool group and not just her sons.
But Crafts should be for both boys and girls right?
A simple enough request and hundreds dove in to help assist. Some of us also took the time to point out…. crafting doesn’t require genitalia! This is an important point right? Well to some of us it is.
Some joked about maybe teaching a gender studies class along with it as some of the views were rather gender limiting. Comments were not unkind and most were light hearted.
I shared a great many ideas and loved seeing so many people share ideas and how boys can knit and girls can wood work without shame. A lot of the ideas were gender-neutral as we learned the classes are infact done with all kids. We were asking about what the kids liked to do so we could be more specific with ideas. The reply we got though was rather alarming.
Then this….
Are people still defending Gender Stereotypes in 2019? Yup.
Her: THIS IS HILARIOUS! Seriously this has gone from a simple topic of asking for ideas that boys will participate in for a homeschool group event to a big old three ring gender neutral agenda circus. My boys have no problem learning to sew, make suncatchers, paint, and other such things. I am not straight, and I have a 23 year old gay daughter who has been openly gay since high school and supported 100% for it.
You all are not going to push your wacky new gender neutral extreme TREND on me. I am 43. It is so bizarre that you all have turned asking for boys crafts into a political war. I feel that it is 100% ok for kids to be as they want to be, but this gender neutral thing has gone off the deep end. You all are making kids who are girls feel that girly stuff is not ok and boys feel like boyish stuff is not ok. YOU ALL ARE EXTREME!
I literally just want some ideas that 10-13 year old boys will enjoy doing at homeschool group events. Right now only the girls really participate in the activities I host. The boys kind of just don’t bother or start and do not finish the activity.
Well that just took a turn didn’t it!
How does one confront gender stereotyping?
Me: Honestly, this post just screams… “but I have a black friend” just so you know. It proves the vibe some of us had was spot on and why it is important to keep talking about gender stereotypes and battling boys and girls being put into boxes. No one was really into politics until your post. NO ONE WAS YELLING. Most of us were having a light-hearted open discussion along with sharing helpful ideas. We didn’t attack… but this…. you did. Interesting. I do hope you found some helpful ideas in all this.
While some people were still posting ideas after that, others were trying to form a discussion. Some just wanted to reply to her.
She turned the comments off.
I find it especially sad when homeschool parents can’t have discussions and show poor social skills like this, it doesn’t look good for the rest of us for us.
— Sexism is alive and well in America —
I wish it wasn’t but it is and I think we need to step up to when we see it, and yes, it starts even before our little ones are babies and just keeps going until you end up with “just locker room talk” being some how acceptable to part of the population.
I did go back to the list to try and pull some great crafting ideas off it that I wanted to include here but alas, not only was the thread comments turned off, she couldn’t deal with people not agreeing with her that she deleted the whole thing.
