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| Photo from Sociological Images |
I don't quite know what to make of it. I think it shows that the status quo can be so embedded that challenging it feels impossible. The families don't let girls do the forbidden things, they have to create a 'boy' instead. It also tells me that people will perform any kind of mental gymnastics to enable them to support the way things are.
What I can't help wondering is if girls can do those things when classed as boys why can't they all be allowed to chop off their hair and dress as boys with all the freedoms that allows.
16 COMMENTS:
I was completely unaware of this fact. How sad and confusing for those children. Thank you for the link.
Kelly, I didn't know about it either. I wonder which is worst: to have the taste of freedom when you're young and have it taken away at puberty, or never to have it at all.
I'd go for the brief taste of freedom any day.
In a much more minor way, many parents in the West restrict their daughters (what's with all that pink?) My daughter says if she has a daughter, she won't be buying her any dresses at all till she's a teenager. But then I honestly don't think I'd have brought her up any differently had she been a boy.
Lexi, your daughter sounds very lucky! I grew up in a much more gendered time, which I hated, but my Mum did support getting dirty and tree climbing, which was great!
The only conclusion I can come to is that Afghan pantos must be like soaps.
Hi!!!
I tried clicking on the link but when I do I get thrown out of blogger and I have to sign up again. LOL!
Nevermind!! What a crazy situation. I grieve for women the world over who are subject to such (male? patriarchal?) madness.
Take care
x
Whirl, you always have a sideways view of things!
Kitty, it's really sad, isn't it? Oh, and the link is now mended - thank you!
Interesting and, yeah, very sad. Patriarchal nonsense.
It's incredible, isn't it, how people can go about their lives holding these huge contradictions in their heads?
Simon, it makes me wonder what contradictions I'm living with without realising it.
How bizarre.
But then again during the war women were suddenly thought capable of doing bloke work when the men went away to fight.
Sx
WV: maningle
I find this absolutely fascinating, from a writer's perspective. But sad-making from a human perspective...
Thanks for the link - I had never heard of this before.
Scarlet, yes and then after the war they were expected to go back to "women's work" i.e. being at home.
Rebecca, it was new to me too.
I like to think of myself as an intelligent and open-minded person, but...I so don't get it.
Wendy, it's a whole different world, isn't it?
And in Tonga and Samoa a family with no daughter (needed for cooking etc) can designate one of the boys as a girl. He wears his hair long, dresses as a girl, and does the cooking, looks after other children, etc etc. Such is human culture.
Thanks, Igor, I didn't know that.
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