No.Originally Posted by Jesse Six
I was pointing out that Campbells is not making a statement about crossdressing. It's not about the clothes, it's about the inner self. Campbells applauds women's changing roles in society. Women are all but closing the gender gap (except for salaries), by making great inroads in academia and in the work force toward being accepted as equally capable as men. Men haven't been moving the other way. They don't need to, they're already there. This is a social issue, not a presentation issue.
The OP chose an example of opposites: a girl in a Superman suit vs. a boy dressed as Elsa. I wanted to point out that the opposite of a strong inner self is weakness and not an Elsa costume.
We don't have to be heroes in order to be strong.
And if a boy wants to dress like Elsa for Halloween, I actually admire his courage because his male peers will give him a hard time over it. No matter how much we all wish that all men could present as women without anyone raising an eyebrow, the rest of the population simply isn't there, because most men do not want to present as women.
That said, young people are increasingly doing away with gendered differences in the last remaining gendered area, which is clothing and hairstyles. This is a good thing. But, unisex styling is not as feminine as many members here would like, I'm afraid. Unisex clothing tends to be not traditionally feminine or masculine.
EDIT - Just looked at the Campbell's Spiderman commercial. LOVE it!
An annecdote: today I spoke to a 22 yr-old female art education major about Barbie dolls. I asked if they had them in secondary roles when she was a little girl (secretary outfits, airline stewardess, or in pink, flimsy little skirts, etc). She said they did and for this reason her mother encouraged other toys. But, she did have a few Barbie dolls, which she engaged in battle with her twin brother and his GI Joes. I asked her who won the battles, and she said she did. I gave her a high 5.
And look at all these great gender-neutral toys! The gender barriers are breaking down here too, because these little boys will need to grow up learning how to share childcare and household responsibilities with their wives! This is one area of "boys going the other way" that I missed earlier, but again it's not about dressing like a girl.
http://static.boredpanda.com/blog/wp...-top-toy-5.jpg
http://laughingsquid.com/wp-content/uploads/Cars.jpg
http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/im...1129132050.jpg
Not to mention musical intruments, arts & crafts, science sets, books, gameboys, etc.
