On Gender Roles

Hi there everyone! So I'm back, and I'm here to talk about something I read on the internet today. I found it on Facebook (because there are some GREAT links there :) ) and I wanted to share it with you all. Cop's Wife of Nerdy Apple Bottom wrote a blog post recently about her son. This details how her five-year-old boy, an avid fan of Scooby Doo, decided to dress up as Daphne for Halloween. Her son expresses concern that "people will laugh at him...[and] their laughter would be of the 'making fun' kind". However, its not the children that are bothered by the costume, but the parents (the other mothers). She makes the comment that, were it a girl dressed up in a boy's costume, no one would care, and that started me thinking ("A dangerous past time" as LeFou would say). 


Recently we've been learning about sex and gender in our sociology class, and one of our topics was "gender roles". Now gender roles are attitudes, behaviors, and activities defined as appropriate for each sex and learned through the socialization process (taken straight from my textbook). Now why is it more socially acceptable to dress like this: 

This is one of the few pics I could find of a cross dressing
woman. It's a pretty awesome tux she's wearing, too!

Rather than like this:

For those of you native Austinites, you'll know this man as Leslie
Cochran, a local celebrity of sorts. He is WAY AWESOME!

Its just a bit bothersome that people make such a big fuss about how people in this day and age should dress. 

Granted, parents from the past generation look on today's culture and think "Why in God's Name are Hot pants coming back into style?". I know my parents do, and in a way so do I (hotpants...you'd never catch me wearing them...) but I try not to go straight up and say "Hey, those look absolutely hideous on you and everyone else wearing them" (no I don't think that, they work on some people...very few...).

Anywho.... if Cop's Wife is reading this (though I doubt she will be, no one has read my blog or commented yet to my knowledge) I just have this to say:

Tell your little boy he looks absolutely ADORABLE in that costume! Go for it, wear whatever you want, and don't be afraid of who you are. You're awesome!

That last line sounded incredibly cheesy, no? Sorry...