21st Century Sexism

It always amazes me that sexism is still very much prevalent in the 21st century and not only is it still prevalent but it seems to be used against both genders yet still remains largely ignored.

The image above is a perfect example of this. It's seen as perfectly normal to discuss with our daughters methods of reducing the risks of being sexually assaulted, it's even taught in schools, yet it's almost unheard of for boys to be advised on ways to reduce their risk of assault, despite us all knowing that they are just as much vulnerable to such crimes, or for what does and does not constitute as consent to be discussed with children of either gender.

You can see another example of this gender bias when you walk into almost any toy shop. The boy's aisles are dominated by Construction, Vehicles, science and weaponry often in shades of blues, reds, greens and blacks. While the girls aisles are awash with cleaning and cooking, crafts, ponies and babies all in overwhelming amounts of pink, purple and yellow (often with an unhealthy dose of floral patterns and butterflies thrown in for good measure!)

It's almost as if we're teaching our kids to see men as being simple minded workhorses who must keep a stiff upper lip throughout everything and unable to control the marauding whims of their genitals, while women should be viewed as delicate and vulnerable baby factories who would never dream of anything as complex as a career and must be kept as pure as possible for the stud who deigns to trust her with his progeny.

Yet nobody nowadays wants to live by those narrow and ridiculous stereotypes, so why are we still inflicting them upon our children? When we invest so much time and energy giving our children the confidence and support for them to be anything they want why are we allowing society to bombard them with bullshit messages telling them what they should want? 

Surely it's time to let go of our outdated, Victorian gender roles and let kids be themselves for a change?