The Anti-Click Click

Six years ago I found myself knee-deep in research for my masters' thesis. I had chosen to focus on the status of feminism as it related to women in their twenties. I had done my research and culled various information from previous studies and data. I had the hard facts, but what was missing were the voices.

I wanted to know more about these stark facts and figures I was reading about,  so I added an extra component to my own research - interlacing the public with the private. In addition to all of the published resources that I poured over, I also began gathering the stories of women in their twenties from all over the country.

I started out by contacting my friends. I emailed them a questionnaire and urged them to forward it along to anyone else they knew that fit into my criteria of being a. 20-29 and b. female. I also used the Internet and found myself posting my contact information all over various message boards and forums. In addition to the questionnaires, I grabbed my video camera and hit the road, traveling across the country to interview women, all because I was curious as to how the "average gal" viewed feminism.

My results were mixed.

Labels

We live in a society where people love to box others up and add labels to them for easy identifying.

Republican/Democrat

Bookworm

Feminist

Mother

Immigrant

Hippie

Middle Class

...etc...

Lock & Load

From a 2007 UK Daily Mail online article

A couple of days ago, a friend posted this as her Facebook status:


It makes me sad to see little boys who only know how to play fighting, guns, chase and whatever other aggressive tv-related things. 


Her words gave me pause. I had been mulling over something similar the past week, and only after seeing her post, did I feel prompted to want to write about them. 

I've noticed that in the last couple of months my son has been focused on gun play, and I'll be honest - it unnerves me.

A Sticky Situation

It's always interesting to me to see where random gender stereotypes pop up in my day-to-day life. Sometimes we can go an entire day without anything making me pause and go hmm... Other times I feel as if my day is just one huge flashing advertisement for gender stereotyping. And then, there are those times when it happens to take you by surprise.

Today was one of those days.

Amongst a string of today's errands was a quick stop at the local bank. In fact, we didn't even have to go inside, but rather were able to accomplish our task from the drive through window. As we wrapped up, the teller took a look into the backseat. Normally they ask if we'd like a sticker, so the words "yes, please" were right at the tip of my tongue. So, the actual question that came out of the teller's mouth certainly threw me for a loop.

"Boy or girl?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. If I was a less secure mama, I would have thought a passing look of judgement crossed her face.