Foreword

     Genders are nothing but male and female. Society has confused our genders with our personalities. Girls can find themselves not wanting to play with dolls or paint their nails and that is perfectly fine. These girls who act like “boys” are called tomboys, but what about boys who act like “girls”? These boys are called weird or gay. Parents are shamed upon if they allow their son to wear a pink dress or rainbow backpack. In the article “‘Men are Stuck’ in gender roles, data suggest”, Emily Albert Reyes quotes two parents who allow their six year old son to do generally “girly” things. Matt Duron, their father, said, “‘If a little girl is running around on the baseball team with her mitt, people think, ‘that’s a strong girl’, but when my six year old [son]is running around in a dress, people think there’s something wrong with him.” This explains how society has made girls who do “boyish” things strong and ambitious and boys who do “girly” things weird. A part of my inspiration was a children’s story by Charlotte Zolotow, William’s Doll. In a note she wrote on that book Zolotow stated, “… there was a little boy who wanted a rag – doll. I overheard the father say, ‘oh get him a gun instead.’… It all came together: how men missed out on the pleasure of being with very young children, and how, because they missed it and because they had never had it with their fathers, they had no concept that war and harshness and so much unpleasantness came out of playing with guns as children, and growing up thinking it was unmanly to play with a doll or stuffed toy bear or lion.” This made me think about why stereotypically males are more violent. Is it because they were raised to play physically rather than take care of a doll? If so, we need to change this and allow boys, men, girls, and women of all ages to be themselves.

     At school, at home, and outside I see males that aren’t comfortable with who they are or are afraid to act feminine. It is especially important that younger boys are allowed to explore who they are. When parents forbid their children to do things that usually don’t fit their genders, they are making them form into a character they don’t want to be. At first I thought about writing this story about a young girl who wants to do normally “masculine” things, but after thinking about it, I decided to write about a boy. Even though tomboys are not fully accepted by some people in society, boys who are feminine are far less accepted. I wanted to write a story for children so they could see that they can be themselves.