welcome to the fest

I can relate to this one somewhat. When I was a kid I remember seeing a Kitchen Playset advertised on TV. Cant remember it exactly, but it had different cooking stations, like an oven, grill, microwave. Cooking utensils, toy food, condiment bottles, etc. I thought it looked really fun. But did I ask my parents to get it for me? No. And the reason? Because the toy was being advertised as a girls toy. And I didn't want to be mocked by my friends for playing with it. I still remember feeling a sense of injustice that I was "forbidden" from playing with a toy because I was the wrong gender for it.

It’s not adult dog catchers that enforce society’s preferred gender preferences, it’s *the children themselves*.

I watched my own scion delightedly clamor for every toy that was advertised on TV. Then, right about the age of three or four (yeah, pre-school), he suddenly started only wanting the things in blue and brown and black ads, and repudiating the things in pink ads. He didn’t get that from us, and certainly not the teachers, which only leaves the other children.