Gender Issue #1: Boys and Dolls?

Last week, I showed my class some of the pictures from Weston's first birthday as I took my turn to share with them how my weekend was.  As we came to the picture of him playing with his new doll, one of my students hollered, "Why does he have a doll?  He's a boy.  If you let him play with dolls, he'll become gay."  I laughed out loud, mostly because I was shocked by the ridiculousness of her statement, and told her that he wasn't going to become gay by playing with dolls.  The other students agreed with their classmate and thought I was totally nuts for letting my son play with a doll.

I didn't try to explain gender roles and social constructs to my class; I let it go.  I think it's precious how gentle Weston was with his doll when we first opened it up, and it's super cute when I say, "Molly's hungry!  Can you feed her?" and he grabs the spoon and shoves it into her mouth.

Gender stereotyping is such a funny issue.  I searched on Google for "boys playing with dolls" and was surprised to read how many parents were asking questions like "My one year-old son was over at a friend's house and he picked up a doll and started playing with it.  Should I be concerned?"  or  "My husband got mad at our son for playing with his sister's dolls the other day."  or  "Is it a crazy idea to let my son play with dolls?"

December 1974

This blogger discusses how gender roles have evolved over the past century.  It seems to me that boys are much more protected than girls are from the opposite gender's stereotypes.  For example, no one batted an eye when my older brothers taught me how to dribble a basketball at age 3.  Nor did any teacher call home to my mom in 3rd grade when I played with the boys at recess or in 4th grade when I picked the saxophone when I joined band.  I'm not sure what the current news is about where homosexuality stems--whether it's nature or nurture or none of the above--but I can tell you that this was the most recent news article when I searched for "what makes people gay":

Former Navy Chaplain Gordon Klingenschmitt Says Marketing Makes You Gay

Really?