tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25425497.post8995399732184687955..comments2010-09-04T20:45:42.915-07:00Anne Corwinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04940566603711834053noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25425497.post-50170084238016794402010-09-04T20:45:42.915-07:002010-09-04T20:45:42.915-07:00<i>&quot;Wow! I&#39;m impressed! I didn&#39;t think women were supposed to have the spatial ability to use maps!&quot;</i><br /><br />Oy. :(<br /><br />I wish people understood that the variance in spatial and language abilities among males and females in the general population is much greater than the difference between the male vs. female population means.<br /><br />As for gender roles.. when I was a kid, someone in my family (don&#39;t remember who) gave me a child-scale fake kitchenette. I used it as an enormous landscape for my inch-tall cat figurines to explore.403http://403.livejournal.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25425497.post-57824897874491407982010-09-04T11:23:03.485-07:002010-09-04T11:23:03.485-07:00Norah wrote: <i>Anyway, my brother liked wearing my dresses, and trying make-up, and wearing the neighbour&#39;s heeled shoes. Also ninja turtles, knights, pirates, and gory drawings of said things. (And so did I :D).</i><br /><br />Oh yeah. That sounds kind of like me and my brother...we had random buckets of toys that included Barbies and Gi Joes all mushed together and everyone played with everything.Anne Corwinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04940566603711834053noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25425497.post-87202563832425552172010-09-04T11:12:11.555-07:002010-09-04T11:12:11.555-07:00<b>Norah</b>: Oh yeah. The math thing is a whole other mess entirely. I spent many years as a kid terrified that I was &quot;bad at math because I was a girl&quot; and that I&#39;d never be able to be a scientist. But then I took geometry in high school and everything sort of &quot;clicked&quot; -- turns out I&#39;m actually quite <i>good</i> at math. I just suck at arithmetic. <br /><br />What&#39;s more, apparently the sorts of math I&#39;m best at (geometry, trig, multi-variable calculus, stuff involving surfaces) are widely considered to be Boy Math(TM), at least by folks heavily invested in Stereotypical Brain Differences.<br /><br />Of course some might suggest that I&#39;m not a &quot;fair example&quot; being on the autistic spectrum and all, but I&#39;m really skeptical of that Extreme Male Brain business.Anne Corwinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04940566603711834053noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25425497.post-55491115313433710002010-09-04T05:48:23.913-07:002010-09-04T05:48:23.913-07:00My parents tried to actively raise usall as gender-neutrally as possible without also forcing us into anything (though on some points they insisted: I could not have shiny lacquered mary-jane shoes, for which in hindshight I&#39;m very glad). So you encounter society at some point anyway and I eventually went through a period of wanting only dresses and pink, or trying to conform to the norm anyway (since actually, my favourite colour was yellow. The mind boggles. These days I abhor yellow), and they didn&#39;t refuse that either. Went away quickly enough. I never had a pink frilly room, though my little niece now does (apparently she did ask for it specifically though, although that doesn&#39;t mean she really wants it, it may just mean she thinks she has to want it, like I did). The fact that she also likes dragons and snakes cheers me up.<br /><br />Anyway, my brother liked wearing my dresses, and trying make-up, and wearing the neighbour&#39;s heeled shoes. Also ninja turtles, knights, pirates, and gory drawings of said things. (And so did I :D).<br /><br />Me and my mom are both incredibly bad at anything remotely related to mathematics, I can&#39;t tell left from right, and my mom has no sense of spatial awareness. I hate that these are sometimes held up as evidence of the difference between men and women (especially when my mom was young, but I know it is still around, *maybe* less loud and blatant), since actually, these things are related to stuff like dyscalculia and dyspraxia.Norahhttp://blogwithoutatopic1.web-log.nlnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25425497.post-23071048875260223522010-09-03T15:25:36.975-07:002010-09-03T15:25:36.975-07:00CPP: Oh good grief, those are not stoner boots, they&#39;re just hiking boots (sorry but stoners really really annoy me). And I loved those as well, even though people at school called me a lumberjack when I wore them...Anne Corwinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04940566603711834053noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25425497.post-84460774733076651942010-09-03T14:24:15.883-07:002010-09-03T14:24:15.883-07:00Nice stoner boots you&#39;re wearing with the camos!Comrade PhysioProfhttp://physioprof.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25425497.post-91820215561461649532010-09-03T09:29:47.353-07:002010-09-03T09:29:47.353-07:00<b>Audrey</b>: Oh yes that is indeed nifty. :D And I don&#39;t think pink is OMG TEH EVIL or anything, it just irks the heck out of me when people (not you, obviously!) act like it&#39;s the only option for girls. Or when some toy company decides to make an Official Girl Version of something awesome and gender-neutral (like when those pink, domestic-themed Lego sets came out, gack!). <br /><br />On that note, though, I&#39;ve actually read some blogs lately by parents of young boys who want to dress up in pink and sparkles and I think THAT absolutely ought to be okay as well. Sexism doesn&#39;t just hinder girls, it reduces options for boys too.Anne Corwinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04940566603711834053noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25425497.post-71890378739753952022010-09-03T05:59:20.517-07:002010-09-03T05:59:20.517-07:00You will, perhaps, be happy to know that our pending female offspring will be residing in the same cyan colored bedroom as her elder brother did when she enters the world. There&#39;s pink in the curtains, but if it&#39;s good enough for him it&#39;s good enough for her. ;)<br /><br />My parents were partial to brown and yellow in my childhood wardrobe. And I have to admit..I&#39;ve been drawn to the same when looking at girl stuff.Audreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11932948160120089696noreply@blogger.com