Gender

I don’t recall being taught gender specific roles. I have a younger brother and sister. We are only 3 years apart, so we always played together.  My brother had a doll, just like my sister and I. My parents never said he couldn’t play with dolls.  My sister and I played with his train set and we all would play basketball in the driveway. We all played the same sports, so we could always practice in the back yard together. 

My parents never said blue was for boys or pink was for girls. My younger sister has always loved the color blue, and still to this day likes wearing blue, and her room is even blue.  My parents never told her boy is a blue color.  My brother likes wearing pink- he has pink shirts, pink pants, pink socks.  It never was an issue in our house.  I guess my siblings and I have been taught to be your own person, do what you want, not what society tells you to do. 

  

I think going to all girls high school has shown me that women can do anything.  I think that without the boys here, we don’t have all the boy drama that a coed school would have.  No one worries about how they look coming to school, just look at how we dress on dress down days- we are not dressing to impress anyone.  I think the all girls school has also shown me that girls can do typical male fields- science and math.  I love science and plan on majoring in biology in college- here we can do the labs ourselves without the boys looking on.  We are taught that girls can do everything that boys can do.

I think relationships should not always follow the traditional roles of men and women. I expect a man to hold the door and be courteous, but I don’t expect him to all the physical jobs. Just because he is a man does not mean that he should have to shovel the snow or mow the lawn. I can do both those things too. I want to model my relationship off my parents, who have been married for 21 years. I see my parent’s relationship as a sharing one.  While my Dad is the one who earns the money, my mom’s work in our home and our schools is just as needed, she just doesn’t get paid for it.  I think that everyone, regardless of sex, can perform the same tasks and men should not be expected to perform the physical tasks just because he is a man.