Is equality really all that complicated?

Gymboree think that if you're a girl you can be pretty like mommy and if you're a boy then you can be smart like daddy. Other options, however, do not seem to exist in the Gymboree world-view.

Is it not the job of a generation to ensure that the next generation is better equipped to deal with life than they are? Would the next generation not be better equipped to deal with life if they weren't surrounded, from infancy, by messages that tell them that, while mommy might be pretty, daddy's the smart one?

If we want to be superficial, and on some level the vast majority of us are superficial at least some of the time, then could Gymboree not have gone with pretty/handsome?

A lot of the things that we shouldn't be passing on, but we are, aren't actual behaviours but rather they are limitations. There is nothing inherently feminine about being caring, being compassionate, and having feelings; boys can do that too, they're just told that they're not supposed to because that's being like a girl. There is nothing inherently masculine about being determined, being smart, and being able to take charge; girls can do that too, they're just told that they're not supposed to because that's being like a boy.

The message that everyone will think that you, as a girl/boy, is a freak because you're acting like a boy/girl is dangerous garbage. It's dangerous because it's been so ingrained in society that people, people who generally find being judged along the same lines to be painful, will judge you.

This needs to stop but for it to stop we have to recognise the things that contribute to it. And to do that we need to call it out whenever we see it everywhere we see it.

We may not all have the confidence to tell the next generation that they can be whoever they want to be as long as they don't hurt anyone but at the very least could we not stop telling the next generation who they have to be? That would be good.