Boys and Girls
You ever heard someone say boys don’t like girl stuff? That boys don’t like girl toys or won’t read a book or watch a movie that’s about a girl? I’ve always found this idea ridiculous but have seen plenty of examples of people believing it. Toy manufacturers are the worst.
Related to this, I’ve seen plenty of people complain that if there is a something the focuses on girls (book, movie, toy, etc) then it’s just pushing a feminist agenda. They complain that there’s nothing out there that’s for them anymore. That it’s political correctness gone awry.
Well, to those people, I say, shut up. My son read his first chapter book the other day. We’ve been suggesting he might be ready to read some but he’s been hesitant. He’s always nervous about new things. But you know what got him to finally do it? A book, with a bunch of girl characters on the cover.
He picked out “Forces of Destiny” from the library which features Ahsoka, Leia and Jyn. The book that got him to try chapter books was all about girl characters. And before you say it’s Star Wars that caught his interest, we have some that feature Poe and Luke, who he also likes, but has still been hesitant about.
Ahsoka is one of his favorite characters. He loves playing as Leia in Battlefront (probably because she gets to deploy a giant shield) but he’ll pull both of them out when playing Infinity. He legitimately can’t decide who’s a better pilot, Hera or Han. That’s a dilemma I can sympathize with.
Hell, his first Doctor is a woman and he’s really getting into the show. He loves to see what adventures they’re going to go on and where the TARDIS is going to bring them next. He doesn’t care what gender the characters are.
Related to this, at a recent PTA meeting we were discussing a white elephant gift exchange. One of the mom’s mentioned that they should remember that there is a male on the board (me) so gifts should be appropriate. She was trying to be considerate, which is appreciated. But I don’t think there are girl gifts or boy gifts.
When I mentioned that, I got some pushback. What about nail polish or stuff like that? Sure, I don’t use it. But, again, my son enjoyed getting his nails painted the few times my wife has actually done hers. The only reason I’ve never done it is because I’m pretty bland as far as color choices go. I wear black, grey, brown and blue shirts most of the time. I’m boring.
We were talking about a white elephant exchange in the first place. Gifts aren’t for a specific person anyways. They’re going to get passed around. Why bring it up?
Anyways, boys can like “girl” stuff and girls and like “boy” stuff. Because it’s all just stuff. And boys can like girl characters and girls can like boy characters. Because, again, they’re all just characters. If the character is awesome and the story is good, that’s all that matters.
Course, I may be a little biased. Plenty of my favorite characters from my books are women. Serene in particular. But wait, you haven’t met her yet…
