I don't think we're gender neutral in this society. More so than 50 years ago, yes. More so than other cultures in the world? I don't have the necessary information. But it sometimes seems to me that we're getting less gender neutral by the year.
When I do library events, a hundred percent of the little girls turn up wearing pink, all covered with bows and ribbons. When I was 8, my friends and I all dressed in trousers and detested pink. We refused to do anything that seemed "girly", but I hardly ever meet a little girl nowadays who thinks like this. Children's books aimed at the 5 - 9 market are almost entirely "girls'" (pink covers, with fairies and princesses) or "boys'", with no overlap. It wasn't like that five years ago.
And ten years ago, there were a few women's magazines. Now there are millions of "women's" magazines, and lots of "men's" one, too. I've read lots of TV critics going on about how few TV dramas there are now for men - i.e. assuming that all drama is aimed either at women or men. I don't remember seeing that sort of thing being written five years ago.
One could argue that such things are trivial, and it's far more important to judge these things on the number of women in management roles, etc. But I think things like clothes, reading matter, films etc. can say a lot about how society views an issue. And until a man can go to work in a dress, without anyone thinking any less of him, I don't think we have a gender neutral society.
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Date: 2006-12-15 09:34 am (UTC)When I do library events, a hundred percent of the little girls turn up wearing pink, all covered with bows and ribbons. When I was 8, my friends and I all dressed in trousers and detested pink. We refused to do anything that seemed "girly", but I hardly ever meet a little girl nowadays who thinks like this. Children's books aimed at the 5 - 9 market are almost entirely "girls'" (pink covers, with fairies and princesses) or "boys'", with no overlap. It wasn't like that five years ago.
And ten years ago, there were a few women's magazines. Now there are millions of "women's" magazines, and lots of "men's" one, too. I've read lots of TV critics going on about how few TV dramas there are now for men - i.e. assuming that all drama is aimed either at women or men. I don't remember seeing that sort of thing being written five years ago.
One could argue that such things are trivial, and it's far more important to judge these things on the number of women in management roles, etc. But I think things like clothes, reading matter, films etc. can say a lot about how society views an issue. And until a man can go to work in a dress, without anyone thinking any less of him, I don't think we have a gender neutral society.