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Boy Haircut

Submitted by Zen on October 7, 2007 - 6:22pm.
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I went to a baby shower yesterday, and an aquaintance of mine, who works with my mother and the woman having a baby, came in with his son. Connor was being shy, wrapped tightly around his father's neck. Someone asked what happened to his blonde curly locks, and his father said, "Well, I said that when he was a year and a half he had to get a boy haircut."

"Why?" my mom asked. I was wondering this, too. Why is it vital that this little boy should have short hair?

"Because...he's a boy!" (laughs)

Maybe I'm just really thinking hard about my Sociology class, but I don't know if this is putting the right idea in that little boy's head. If he has to fit rigidly into his gender role, then he will almost inevitably believe that girls must do the same. The struggle for equality for women begins by raising children to think differently about gender and its link to appearances.

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If he has to fit rigidly

Submitted by Jill on October 8, 2007 - 6:47am.

If he has to fit rigidly into his gender role, then he will almost inevitably believe that girls must do the same.

That's a very good point. Not only that, but if other children see that their peers MUST conform to gender roles it will be harder for them if they don't fit into their own roles.

I'm not sure people realize that when they put one child into stereotyped gender roles it ripples out into many more children.

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Choice

Submitted by rainbowpenguin2008 on January 10, 2008 - 5:05pm.

I don't know about anyone else but I think that if you allow a kid to have a choice they will end up making the right one in the end. My cousins all have longer hair than I do, and they don't feel the need to rebel through drugs or getting bad grades, because they get to have something like their hair the way that they like it.

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