Agreed. The capacity to deal with science-based topics should be treated as entirely gender neutral. Women can be geniuses too.
The purpose of this bill was to bring attention to a problem of sterotyping. The bill has no teeth in it. Evan Low, who authored the bill, said as much: “My hope is this bill encourages more businesses across California and the US to avoid reinforcing harmful and outdated stereotypes.” State and local and federal lawmakers pass bills like this all the time. It gets people talking about a subject. Of course this particular bill set the hair on fire of those with a knee jerk reaction against the title. But there are others who will think. Thinking is good. It's the first step in addressing a problem. Simple Example: Benefits From Playing With Building Blocks “Playing with blocks helps children develop math skills ... including spatial visualization, balance, symmetry, and even weight, height and gravity." In a study recently conducted by the Lego Company, 76% of parents said they would encourage their sons to play with Legos, compared with 24% who would recommend Legos to their daughters.
I understand that there are those who would like to have laws mandating everything they consider good and banning everything they consider bad but, while I agree that girls should be able to have access to the things that might help them succeed in life, I think it's preposterous for a state to pass laws specifying where toys should be placed in a department store.
For the placement of a major portion of all of the products which are displayed in ANY type of store, the manufacturer and wholesaler have a lot to say about where their product goes. The deal starts behind the deal making doors between owners [or their representatives] and wholesalers and whatever they come up with determines where and on what shelf a product is displayed. Whilst I do agree that many products are crossover products regarding gender, wherever the wholesaler has made the deal for their product to be displayed is where it goes. If the wholesaler can’t find a profitable reason for say, putting that chemistry set on a shelf that’s gender neutral then that is their choice and perhaps their loss. If any law is put into place then that law has to go after the manufacturer and wholesaler as well as the store where it is to be sold.
I was a tomboy kid... never wanted dolls or any of that "little girl" stuff. Somehow my parents managed to buy the cap pistols and cowboy hats that I wished for without damaging my psyche or having to wear disguises in the "boys" department. But then I was a normal child so no one had to worry about my fragile mental state.
What in hell happened to normal parents? It seems that some of us(not anybody on SOC) gave birth to people who are now "woke".
Same here! My toy of choice in pre-school was a sturdy metal dump truck, which made sense because I spent so much of the time there in sandboxes.
As for toys, I think it's flat-out stupid- I don't see any reason toys should be gender-specific. As for clothes, though, I don't think it's ok to let boys wear dresses.
What may have started as some kind of dopey fad is making a real mess of things. Even the littlest children are pressured to not know who/what they are.
When I think of the way the world is changing, and not for the better in areas like this one you are talking about, it really sickens me. No one will ever convince me that boys and girls are supposed to be interchangeable, or, men and women. I am not a religious person, I don't think I am, but there are things I believe and that is that we were created. Some people have lost their minds, for one reason or another, and when it spread to little ones it's unconscionable. That isn't even a bad enough word, I can't even think of a bad enough word to describe my feelings. I'll just add that what grown-ups do is on their own conscience to deal with or not, but when they want to force others to believe, accept, and even celebrate their ways, you can count me out. I live in California and a lot of us are fighting any way we can to overcome the rottenness that seems to be in charge.
I found out our Walmart (small town America) allows men in the women's dressing rooms, and to be honest, I just felt really uncomfortable even with that. Walmart can't afford to have a men's dressing room??
This reminds me of something that has been pissing me off lately. When I go for radiation treatments, the radiation department waiting area is a huge area with the women's dressing rooms and treatment areas on one side, and the men's on the other side. This is because most women are there for breast cancer or female cancers, and most men for prostate, and everyone has a reasonable expectation of propriety. (The radiation departments for brain, colon, various other organs are in different areas of the medical complex.) There is one old man who WITHOUT FAIL goes into the women's dressing rooms, and always uses the toilet in one of the women's restrooms. He leaves the damn seat up, which makes me so angry. First, that he is in there where he has no business being and NO ONE says anything to him. Then if I need to use the facilities I have to wait on a jerk who is not supposed to be in there, and then I have to put the damn seat down where he has dribbled. SO DISGUSTING. As usual, we rule-followers have to defer to the chicken-shits of society because they hold all the cards in the new world order.
I gotta admit I laughed, at first, @Beth Gallagher, but the rule thing gets to me as well sometimes. Why make a rule if you aren't going to enforce it, why draw a line, if the enemy goes ahead and crosses it and you do nothing. Sometimes for my own, peace of mind, I have to let it go, but I admit I don't always let it go. I think I had a stroke 3 months ago, mini anyway, whole left-side went numb for 2 days, arm is still numb on left. But that's another topic. My point is, I got so worked up over some things I actually believe I made it happen to myself. Now I'm learning to calm down about things I can't control. I hope this didn't sound like a lecture, I do feel angry, and like I want to "make" things change somehow.
Unfortunately a lot of the adults don't even think that forcing this stuff on kids is wrong. Delusional is my word for them