Put that back now!!!!!

[Madam Rose]

Hey girls sorry I haven't been on I have been busy I got my GED and am thinking of going tot collage soon. Well anywho last week at Wal-Mart I was shopping and next to my aisle was the toy aisle and there was this little boy about four give it take. Any way he just picked up a barbie toy box and all a sudden his I assume sister came and yanked it saying ''put that up that;s for girls '' The Sister could be no more then say 6 or 8 tops. I just thought wow homophobe much?

[Diane Maple]

Yep, it is all over :\ nasty stuff. It is much better than when I was a teen... But, still... Lots of this out there

[Melissa73]

yeah how sad! once i witnessed at work, a father taking away a Pink balloon from his son, thus saying he should get blue. smh

[sandra-leigh]

"that's for girls" is sometimes a way of saying "I don't want to share my toys" -- which can have to do with whom the toy was "given to" but can also have to do with wanting to have one's own interests, a form of independence.

[Melissa Rose]

I doubt a 6 year old has developed or is exhibiting homophobia since the concept of sex is foreign at that stage of development. Unfortunately, she is repeating what she has heard and observed. It is more gender specific, conditioned behavior and little to do with her feelings about sexual orientation.

[ReineD]

Not everyone does this. I never bought Barbies for my boys (they never asked), but we did have an elaborate doll house one summer that I was crazy-gluing together for the toddler's class at school ... that everyone played with BTW, boys and girls. Anyway, we did have a lot of fun playing with that. :)

Honestly, I think that half the time the parents/siblings who say, "don't touch" are trying to prevent the child from being laughed at by the "real" homophobes. It's a shame to perpetuate this, but the motive for doing so isn't always homophobic in itself.

[Mythic]

Well It's not exactly homophobia at that age I think. It's more of just the programming of adults telling them what they can or cannot do based on gender before the child has gained much of a personality and there own point of view. My grandparents used to tell my sis she couldnt watch cartoons for boys so she would just act like she was spending time with me while I watched stuff like transformers. I had long curly blonde hair as a toddler before it turned dark brown an straight. i screamed an cryed when it was cut, but my father didn't want me looking like a girl.

[Tracii G]

Very interesting topic IMO good thread!!

[noeleena]

Hi,

Going back 55 years i had toys & very few mind you were of girls though my teddy was female, & i had one of our that were inkeeping with my other play toys,of the Queen .Plus i did scrapbooks & funny as yes most were women & of cause our Queen most pages were of the royal household,

Another scrap book was allmost all women,,,,, gee i wonder why.

Our daughter Kaylyn her kids two boys & two girls, are brought up with both boys & girls toys one little boy liked to have nail colour on his toes, all we said was, oh wow, he'll play with most toys girl or boy..

So i spos if any looked at me they would have seen it nope it was glossed over, i forgot about my books all filled with women's pic's,& the pics made the impression not the words as i could not read till age 12,

When Mom brought the mags, after she had read them they were mine to cut out, i never hid my books & Mom helped me as well. so make of that what you will. & i still have them so who's weird.....

...noeleena...

[ColleenA]

Last year, Jimmy Kimmel asked parents to pull a "prank" on their children by giving them something "terrible" as a Christmas gift. He asked the parents to record the child's reaction and post the video on youtube. Some of them are compiled here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4a9CKgLprQ

The reactions of the children are much what you would anticipate. After all, who wants an onion or a half-eaten sandwich as a gift? But some of the strongest reactions are from boys who were given something blatantly "for girls." To me, it's not necessarily just social conditioning from the parent that produced those reactions.


On the other hand, this thread reminded me of something that happened 20 years ago. One of my cousins was in an auto accident in November. His wife was killed, and he was hospitalized for more than two months. During that time, my parents took in his children - a girl, 8, and a boy, 4 - and cared for them. I lived nearby and often went by to help out.

Many of my cousin's co-workers saw to it that his kids received many Christmas gifts. A day or two after Christmas, I was at the house with my sons, ages 9, 7, and 5. My cousin's daughter had received a game called Pretty Pretty Princess, where you're supposed to collect rings, necklaces and other jewelry, but there were no girls for her to play it with. My sons offered to play it with her. They did this on their own; it's not like I told them to be nice to her. They made it a silly but fun time, and I was very proud of how they treated her.

[Beverley Sims]

I think it would have been more of a posessive thing than homophobic.
The girl probably can't spell the word yet.

[FrancineBrice]

It is amazing to me, the number of young girls seem to start at a very early age, telling young boys, that it is not for them and it is only for girls!

[Launa]

I believe its not homophobic. Its just the way we are hardwired at an early age.
If you were to approach any 2 year old girl or boy and question them on their gender, you will get a quick response out of them. They also learn how both genders should look like and behave at a very young age.

Just ask a 2 year old girl if she is a boy and she will let you know real fast that she is indeed a girl. Then say to her oh, no, no, no, "you can't be a girl, are you sure you are not a boy? I think you have to be a boy."
It will take about 20 seconds at a minimum to enrage that child and have them screaming at you!
Please don't try this as an experiment, you all get the drift.

When I was in elementary school many moons ago, there was a boy in my grade 1 class that went into the girls washroom by accident. He got right inside and then figured it all out with a few girls in there. Well he bolted of there and started crying hard and was a little traumatized for a bit.
Its hardwiring..........

[Karren H]

The back story was probably that she knew that their mother had gotten him that same Barbie already for Christmas and she didn't want him to spoil the surprise!..... yup..... most likely reason......

[Madam Rose]

Well to answer most of you she said it in a rude mean like way. Not a ''o no you will get teased'' kind of way. So I'm guessing it was because she was brought up to believe girl toys are girl toys and boy toys are boy toys.

[Jenniferathome]

She is not homophobe, she is simply socialized as to what "normal" is for boys and girls. This does not impact her ability to accept differences at this age. Kids only know black and white, but can learn gray easily. It's adults that have a problem.

[Pexetta]

Isn't 'transphobic' the word for what's being discussed here? It would only be homophobic if the poor kid in the OP had been slapped down for picking up the Gay Ken playset. Which may well exist.

[mikiSJ]

Homophobia has to start at some age and can anyone say 'Honey Boo Boo'? (This is not a cute child!)

[Launa]

Isn't 'transphobic' the word for what's being discussed here? It would only be homophobic if the poor kid in the OP had been slapped down for picking up the Gay Ken playset. Which may well exist.

Your Right!!!!

The way we can fix this problem for the next generation is to get Matel to make a Crossdressing Ken!

[Tara D. Rose]

I always got boy toys as a child for Christmas. Now days I love it if my wife buys for me on birthdays, Christmas, Anniversary, Valentines, pretty panties, garters, skirts, dresses, blouses, bras, and heels. I love it.

[Cynthia Anne]

Reminds me of my seven year old grand son wanting a dress for christmas! His mother, had no problem of buying him one!

[suchacutie]

This is rather normal at that age, actually. If the girl lets the boy have the idea that it might be open season on "her" things, she'd have to share them!!! Heaven forbid!!!

Sad but normal, but surely not homophobic I would think. Normal greed and insecurity at that age.

[tiffanyjo89]

All I have to say, when that girl asks her brother to play dolls with her cause she's bored of playing by herself and wants someone to play with but none of her friends can come over, he should come back with a response of "I thought you said they were girl's toys. I'm not a girl." Fair, right?

[whowhatwhen]

It's interesting to look in a department store and see an entire isle blindingly pink with toys "for girls".
Often all they seem to be are tools to condition them into being homemakers while the boys aisle has tons of mind expanding and creative toys.

That's why my niece got Lego and an RC truck for Christmas.
:P

I don't see the homophobia though, it's just social conditioning and neither the boy or the girl know exactly what they're doing or why.

OT:
Congrats on the GED though!
Still waiting for the results of mine, hope it's good!

[Mythic]

I have an interest in psychology as a society an what affects it. And it's drove me nuts seeing the simple things that people are expecting of genders when childeren are involved. i don't know how many times I've seen parents telling their kids "no that's for boys/girls". I myself just don't distinguish gender boundaries which is why I can wear a skirt or pants, have a beard or be clean shaven with makeup.