Being Socially Accepted

After watching the documentary, The Mask We Live in, I began to think about the way I was raised and the way I was taught to think about what was for girls and what was for boys. I had always wanted to play with dolls and what we as a society consider “girly” toys. So I never really had the issue of wanting to play with something that wasn’t acceptable for me. But I'm sure if I wanted to play with Nerf Guns or some other male toy I would have been able to. My parents never really pushed me to do girly things or be more feminine, they bought me whatever toy I wanted no matter what they thought I should like. They knew that if I was constricted to just what was socially acceptable I wouldn't be able to reach my full potential as a person. The idea of what are girl toys and what are boy toys were made up by society and followed so strictly that young children feel from a young age they cannot really be themselves. Some parents try so hard to make sure their son and daughter is raised to the standard that society accepts, but when doing so they don't let them reach their full potential and feel comfortable in their own skin. This is what leads to men feeling like they always have to be emotionless and the protectors and women feeling like they have to be quiet and can't live alone without a man. It really does more harm than good when children are taught what is socially acceptable for them based on their gender. Just a couple of weeks ago I witnessed my nephew get taught the hard lesson of how to be manly at the young age of three. He was over visiting and we don't have him over a lot therefore we didn't have many toys for him to play with. He was beginning to get on everyone's nerves because he was bored so I improvised and filled a latex glove with water and drew a face on it. He immediately cuddled it close and was carrying it around like a baby, he wanted to be able to be like his mommy who he watched take care of his younger brother. All day he carried this thing around with him being very careful not to pop it, and he absolutely adored it. And when four o’clock came around and his father came to pick him up he was so excited to show him the new “toy” he was given. The second his dad walked in he ripped the glove out of his hands and threw it out. This of course made my nephew cry and he was told to stop being a baby, and that he isn't allowed to play with dolls because he was a boy. I was yelled at for giving him the doll which confused me because it was a sack filled with water I don't really constitute that to be a doll. But I apologized because I know it isn't my place to tell them how to raise their son especially because I’m only a seventeen-year-old with no children. But can you imagine the long term effects that is going to have on that child. He isn't going to be able to express himself for fear of being too girly, and in the long run will end up raising his children this way. I know it's too late to convince others that what is girly can also be for boys and what is more masculine can be for girls because it's so ingrained into society. But if you think back, who decided what was for girls and what was for boys? When did the color blue become only associated with boys? And when did people start to make sure their children were what society wanted to see? If everyone were a little looser in how they raised their children as a society, we wouldn't just have manly men and helpless girls. We would have all different people from all over the spectrum who can contribute more and keep bettering the way society thinks.