You've heard the lines on the playground as a kid: "Only boys play with trucks; only girls like dolls." You've seen all the pink and blue in the baby section of every store. When it comes to parenting, one thing is clear: The gender binary is hard to avoid.
But that's not helping anyone, Dr. Christia S. Brown, a developmental psychology professor at the University of Kentucky and the author of Parenting Beyond Blue and Pink, says. She notes the gender binary, the division of gender into only two, opposing categories (masculine or feminine) rather than acknowledging the broad spectrum of gender identities, hurts all kids: The gender binary gives kids who don't fit neatly into it "the implicit and explicit message...that who they are is flawed or wrong," which Brown calls damaging. Read more...
More about Social Good, Parenting, Gender Equality, Gender Stereotypes, and Gender Binary
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