Gender Neutral.

Feminism has been in the OPED section of the Post a lot this past week.  The original article that prompted me to write this is in the recycle basket, and I don't feel like digging through papers to retrieve it.  Mostly because I can't remember which paper featured it.  Anyway, I don't remember the author's name is the point I'm trying to make.

The whole article was written bemoaning the fact that little girls (of age 3 or so) are inclined to choose dolls as toys and love the color pink.  In the same paragraph the author says little girls should be more interested in race cars and less frilly things while little boys shouldn't touch dolls lest they be gay.  She does give statistics on boys who choose "feminine" toys growing up to be gay men, but it seemed that her opinion was little boys who play with dolls are going to be gay (which is bad).

First off, discouraging a little boy from playing with dolls will most likely do nothing to "alleviate" the chances of him being gay.  This idea strikes me as ridiculous.

Second, what is wrong with little girls playing with girly toys?  Or liking pink, for that matter?  There was one sentence in the article stating that if your little girl happens to continue liking pink as an adult, that's okay.  It sort of felt like throwing a dog a bone, though.

It's articles like this that make me think feminism should actually be called masculism.  The basic idea here is that women should strive to be like men, from the age of 3.  Because playing with dolls and liking pink is detrimental to women's rights? 

And what's with the double standard here?
What does it say about society that women dressing like men is touted, but men dressing like women is considered wrong?

I'm not buying the feminist movement.  If it were worth anything there would be feminists pushing for office jobs allowing babies in the workplace or something similar.  Since when did fighting for women's rights include shunning the differences of the sexes?

There was another article in today's OPED by Kathleen Parker.  The second to last paragraph put it very nicely.  Friednan's movement has reached full adulthood and, one hopes, is seeing a shrink.  While women have the same need as men to lead meaningful lives, the feminist mystique's great failing was in advancing the notion that caring for children posed an obstacle to self-realization.

As my dad said (hilariously after a glass of wine):
You can run faster with your skirt up than your pants down.  But that doesn't work anymore because everyone's wearing damn pants!