Gender Funneling Part II

I love reading pieces where folks take on normative conceptions of gender roles. Or how society tries to force folks into prescribed molds, even if it means stuffing a round peg in a square hole.
A wonderful example, here, on Rachel Maddow and how the mainstream media deals with their discomfort around her butchiness. The author, [...]

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Are you kidding me? Why?!?!?

Is this really necessary? I like this company usually, but please.
I usually like this company. They do some good stuff, but really.
Please.

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Superbowl thoughts

As Bruce Springsteen plays in the background and the wife and I work on dualing laptops, I HAD to add a few thoughts about the Super Bowl. I’ve been a waxing and waning football fan since my early youth. Diehard Redskins fan. Then not so much. Then in college and a bit after it wasn’t [...]

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Limited Options/Gendered Options

I was recently perusing a catalog for a Scholastic book order. When I was a teacher, I gave them out half-heartedly. On the one hand, they enabled some students to get books at a very low cost, they encouraged reading, and they also helped me to build my classroom library. On the other hand, I [...]

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Don’t box in those kiddos when buying gifts

No, this is not turning into a consumer blog. But, I thought I’d share a bit of my thinking around gifts as it’s on my mind a lot at this time of year. I cringe when I see some of the things people get Q. If they really knew him, they wouldn’t get him pirate [...]

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“The Look.”

Yesterday Q wore a skirt to school for the first time this year. I admit that I was glad he held off until after the first week…for many reasons. There are lots of new kids in his class, and I guess I wanted them to know he’s a boy before he wore “non-boy” clothes. I [...]

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Gender Funneling

Last night, as I was watching random television, I invented a term for this phenomenon that bugs the heck out of me: gender funneling.
Gender funneling — verb. Actions that serve to constrict the choices available to children because of their sex. Actions ascribe certain identities, proclivities, and interests to children because of their sex. (I [...]

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