In our androgynous society, where women do men’s work and men do women’s’ work, one would expect that a girl playing with trucks and a boy playing with dolls would be accepted and normal.
It floors me that when I take Shlomo out, he is a boy, dressed like a boy, who looks like a boy. Everyone assumes, correctly, that he is a male child.
But the moment he is holding his doll, he becomes a girl. Robot sweatshirt, gray pants, and gray sneakers notwithstanding. And everyone comments on what a lovely little girl I have.
Sometimes I want to say, “Does your husband never do the dishes or help with the kids? And if he does, why is it so out of the ordinary for a little boy to practice being a father, just like little girls practice being mothers?”
Maybe our society is more traditional than we think, and less open-minded than we give ourselves credit for.
