h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I enjoyed this

It is something I quite often ponder, as I do evaluate the gender of things in relation to myself in order to make sure I'm perceived in a way I'm comfortable with, but in getting to know more people, the notion of "man things" and "woman things" is pleasingly mixed...

Inspired me to write a little something A87828853

I also did the ASI, and scored less than 1 on each. Fascinating...

I like your story.

It reminds that a fair long time ago, I wrote a piece of fiction for here, about a tribe that chose their gender. Let's see if I can find it...this place is like an attic sometimes...

Ah, here it is: A48350612

Sorry, I haven't read this in years, it may not be very good.

I like the way you demonstrated that so many things people think are gendered....well, simply aren't.

Margaret Mead, I think it was, found two Pacific islands. On one, men fished, women made baskets. And that was the way it was. On the next island over - exactly the opposite.

Thanks Dmitri - I enjoyed writing down the scene that your article inspired

Yes, culture does have a big part to play in relation to defining "man things" and "woman things"...

The story you wrote is very thought provoking too. I like the way you avoided pronouns I slipped a "hir" in to see how it worked, but I quite easily managed to avoid pronouns for the child, which surprised me a bit, but then again such knowledge wouldn't add anything to the scene!

Your story raises the issue that even though other places may have different cultures in relation to gender, they aren't necessarily better or worse just because they're different. I really like the idea of being able to choose what happened at teenage time, as it wasn't a pleasant surprise when my body chose for me, but the culture you described didn't seem to allow for the options not to choose a fruit, or to have a bit of each, so for some people the society would still be rigid in relation to aspects of gender.

It would be interesting to find out if it made a difference to children in UK culture, for example, to have the options of doing "child things" rather than things encouraged by gender roles... I think schools are doing better at that these days (for example my mum wasn't allowed to take maths as well as secretarial skills at school, because one was for boys and the other for girls, whereas 'in my day' I had quite a bit more choice of subject options) but marketers of toys tend to prefer children to each want to buy different toys rather than sharing one toy, so it can be quite hard to escape from expectations like that if you see things differently...

You're so right - I've noticed how they do that now.

Now, I suspect that compared to you, I'm ancient. And I come from a backward culture, the US South. We were far less gendered when I was a kid. Seriously.

My sister's favourite toy when she was four was a tractor.

And I remember my mom and the neighbour lady laughing themselves silly over mysister's conversation with her playmate, the neighbour's boy:

'Tim, I'll play dolls with you, if you'll play cowboys with me.' Mothers thought it was fine, btw, they just got a kick of my sister - she was kind of an organiser...

So yeah.Down with marketing.

SashaQ -here is something that happened at an American prom, which seems to indicate that there has been a gradual improvement in this 'gender role' position as perceived by younger people.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/oddnews/girl-crowned-prom-king-at-a-las-vegas-high-school-211838334.html

I noticed that the girls dates were supportive of this! Well done guys--teach those silly adults that you have a better lot handle on including EVERYONE and not discriminate.

That's true, that children often do choose things for themselves, which is great (such as if parents don't allow children to play with pretend guns, children can make pretend guns just with their hands and a bit of imagination if they so wish). I have good memories of playing dolls as well as knights with my cousin and my mum made us some knightly liveries so we could gallop about and look the part

It's funny how some things seem to be pressured to be more gendered these days, and yet other things are not - that is an interesting link, thanks Elektra, which is challenging the stereotype of prom... Reminded me that the role of Mayor and Mayoress has changed in many counties here in the UK, so the Mayor can be female now, and the Mayoral companion may be female or male rather than being restricted to being the Mayor's wife.

Is Mayoral Companion the terms the newpapers use over there? What did they call Dennis Thatcher when Maggie was PM?

No, I see the newspapers didn't use that term - I thought more variety would be possible, but the female mayors of my town both had female companions, so they were just called Mayoress...

Sometimes the wife of the Prime Minister is known as the First Lady, but mostly it looks like they're known as the Prime Minister's Wife, so Denis Thatcher was the Prime Minister's Husband.