CC 3.2 Will Boys Be "Boys"?

As the world continues to become more open minded, people are breaking tradition for the better. Gender roles have somewhat of a bubble effect on society. What someone thinks of another basically puts them into a bubble so they are not singled out, or judged; however, society is changing. Not only adults, and adolescents are becoming more open-minded, but children also.

New York Times Boys Will Be Boys? Not In These Families, tells about a male toddler named Harry who "selects a dress from the costume box and wears it through recess, even as he scrambles on the jungle gym." Harry is a little boy who enjoys playing with Barbies, and enjoys playing dress up. Every day he makes sure his Barbies are properly dressed, and plays with them. At school, he plays on the playground in pink tutus and princess dresses.

As Harry began to start taking interest in these things, "Harry's father had a hard time watching his son twirl around in princess wear." Harry, a male, should like sports, or monster trucks, or something that boys would generally like, according to his father. Gender roles and tradition have limited Harry's fathers variety of interests.

Since Harry is 3 1/2, he has not grown up with these traditions, knowing what boys like, or what girls like. He just knows what he likes, which lead to a gift from his father "a sparkly princess Barbie doll". When Harry opened the bag, he reacted with a joyous gasp. His gift of the Barbie doll symbolized acceptance. His father said, "We are following his lead and supporting him for who he wants to be." 

For my sons birthday, we let him go into the store and choose his own cupcakes. All but one set of cupcakes were "for boys". They had darker colored icing, and rings with Batman, and Cars. But the one set my son Camden decided to choose was the one with pink and yellow icing, with Disney Princess rings. After reading this article, I feel remorse for not letting my son have these cupcakes for his birthday due to worry about what my family, and friends at his party would think. 

Gender roles hold people back from being who they want to be. Also, make parents make decisions that they may end up feeling remorseful of in the future.