The other day Sid and I were walking in a park and there was a lot of graffiti on the walls, benches etc. One said "F*$# Gender roles". Sid was curious and asked what that meant. Well, since the first word wasn't written properly, I didn't really go to the details, but told him that it was a way to tell that fixed gender roles are bad.
We then had a good discussion of what Gender roles are, how society is conditioned to believe certain things to be done or liked by only boys or girls and that it cannot be mixed up. How that is so wrong and that people can do what they want irrespective of their gender. He was quite interested and listened to everything I had to say about it.
Imagine my surprise when I heard Sid talking to his father about the same yesterday. It went something like this:
Sid: You know about gender roles right?
Sam (I am sure he must have been pretty surprised!): What?
Sid: Gender roles, you know, like boys can only do this and girls can only do that.
Sam: Yes.
Sid: Today in my school 1 boy said that 'Boys play with cars and girls with barbie dolls'. I said that it is not right and that boys can play with barbie dolls too!
Sam: That's very good.
Sid: It is wrong no? gender roles? Anyone can do anything right.
Sam: Absolutely!!
