If you’re sure about your conviction, fantastic!īe vigilant. Ask yourself if you truly want your boy to grow into a man who advocates for this notion.
Really believing in gender equality means that you think men and women should have equal access to the exact same resources and opportunities, regardless of gender. One of the hardest things we have to do as parents is to look at ourselves objectively to make sure we actually believe the stuff we’re telling our kids. Here are some suggestions: Examine your own judgements. The relevant piece is to let him play with either one so he can explore who he is without stressing about who he thinks other people want him to be. Whether he naturally gravitates toward trucks or dolls is irrelevant. The goal of this article is to help you find ways to encourage your boy to be proud of who he is. Instead, if we enable boys to be themselves, teach them to be proud of who they are, and help them connect with their emotions, they have a much better chance of growing into caring, honorable men. Then toxic masculinity slams down on them and they disconnect from their emotions. For young children forming their own gender identity, it’s important that they understand they can still be a “tough guy” (if that’s what they want) without having to sacrifice the very real emotions that they feel.Little boys are sweet. Society often positions people at the extreme ends of the gender spectrum - but this mixture of traditionally “feminine” emotions with traditionally “masculine” characters will help children understand that there’s no reason they can’t have both.
But this book may actually go a long way towards dismantling rigid gender roles. That’s why this new children’s book by Keith Negley, which was published in October, is so great: it teaches little boys that they don’t have to feel like Superman all the time.Īt first glance, you’d be forgiven for thinking this picture book further perpetuated gender stereotypes after all, the male characters are all shown as archetypes of machismo (such as a wrestler, a racing driver, and a cowboy). Little boys can often suffer under pressure to hold up a strong masculine ideal, and the saturation of the media by endless super-hero films doesn’t do much to help that. Feminism is for men, too - and the picture book Tough Guys (Have Feelings Too) is here to prove that to you.
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