Brainwashing: So Easy a Caveman Could Do It

Upon my inquisition into the nature of social structures and the often-absurd stereotypes of the sexes, my father told me, in a gruff gangster voice, that men must deal with what they euphemize as "respect". There are ranks and categories that men place each other in based on their advertised conquests over career, women, and burger beer belly bragging rights in an attempt to make sense of their confusion with all of the above. The man's world has become a bubble coated in ostentatious assuredness to mask the soft nature of the heart, lest he be labeled a "fag" or a "sissy" for admitting to actually having feelings. We tend to label these characteristics as "female" traits.

Being raised for the most part under the influence of a man who both fulfills and mocks these defining characteristics of "man-hood" perhaps explains my own guarded approach to social revelations, and the cynical commentary I use to cover up my own sensitivity to the complexity of living in such a fast-paced yoyo world of ideals and values. And perhaps too, this rearing has instilled a pained irreverence to the traditional methods of gender treatment in children.

The more I see the behavior of parents toward their children, the more awkward I feel with the manner in which the divisiveness is instilled at such a vulnerable age. A mother recently commented that should she have girls, she would exercise more caution with her slips of "adult" slanders and swearwords. Biting my tongue to appear unfazed by the inner turmoil I so arduously suppressed (and fitting in with the masses my father points fun at), I assumed that the "norm" holds value in the differentiation between rearing styles in boys and girls.

What I wanted to ask her, in baffled bewilderment, was, "why on earth would you try and cover up the truth that you readily give to your boys? Why mask something that, under its disguise, can more readily harm your girl upon her maturation into adulthood?" If we euphemize everything for a little girl, if we cover her eyes and plug her ears and wash out her mouth, she will not be prepared for the ugliness that is, unfortunately, a part of life. Or, if she is the inquisitive type, her curiosity would beg reason for the masquerade, and perhaps instill a tinge of bitter resentment for what she had to self-discover, rather than learn unabridged from those who are supposed to teach her about: her parents. Why pretend that people are better than they are to a youth that would, upon this learning, be more susceptible to the dark dangers of the "bad guys"?

You see, if we spoon-feed double standards into the soft, gullible mouths of our youths, we will give them reason to suspend good judgment in favor of prejudice; they will trust their instilled bias, rather than examine with curiosity. Little tykes are capable of becoming anything, so why would we mold them into archaic beings that still believe in pseudo-science and stereotypes? While generalizations can help us understand concepts, they will never be enough to overcome ignorance, expand awareness, and let us leap off into new, earth-shattering territory. Training kids to trust ignorance does nothing for the productivity and evolution of our human race, and stifles the uncommon thoughts that sometimes only children are capable of.

The x and y chromosomes get way more credit for personality than they deserve. They are the new skin color, the new "predisposition" excuse, the irrational rationale that we are somehow possessed by a fraction of our anatomical makeup to like barbies, guns, or barbeques. Child development psychologists have determined that gender roles are indeed shaped by their parents and peers:

children are shaped by the cultural beliefs and practices of the society in which they grow up (e.g., via parenting, schooling, media influences etc.). For example, a boy might be actively encouraged by an adult or peer to play with 'masculine' toys and actively discouraged from playing with 'feminine' toys . . . here are some illuminating findings which show that other people's reactions to children's behaviour can be very important. For example, children's fathers and peers often react very negatively - sometimes with clear ridicule - to 'gender-inappropriate' behaviour (e.g., boys playing with feminine toys such as dolls).1

Even the experts admit that gender is an isignificant factor in determining personality. Silly little humans, when will we learn? When will we realize that kids can grow up to change the world - but only if we let them figure out that most of us have tapered off our curiosity in favor of our conditioned lenses? I say let curiosity thrive, dismember the gender-stereotypes that we have trained ourselves to believe in, and the next generation will lead us to the truth - unabridged.

1 - http://www.open2.net/childofourtime/2005/gender_development.html