Reply #113: This. [View All]

Like I said before, American society beats this stuff into us from the minute we check out of Hotel Vajayjay. It's so pervasive in almost every aspect of life in this country, from TV commercials and the media, to our consumer culture. It's a wonder there are people who learn to question it at all, frankly.

I'm a child of the 80s, and growing up my mom was hardcore about enforcing the gender line with my toys. I wasn't allowed to have Transformers even though I wanted an Optimus Prime SO BAD. I wasn't allowed to have GI Joes or He-Mans. She-Ra was okay though, because they were all girls. It sucked because the only girly toys I liked were My Little Ponies. I thought Barbie was boring and lame. Jem dolls were where it was at for me, because they were bigger, had bad ass hair and funky clothes. And Jem wasn't some boring blonde Malibu bimbo, she was a rock star. I directly blame Jem for my propensity as an adult to dye my hair colors that don't occur in nature. I even made a couple of them into a butch/femme couple, without even knowing what that was. I accidentally broke Jem's boyfriend Rio, so she was without a gentleman companion. I had an extra Roxy lying around so I just cut off all her hair, stuck her in Rio's clothes, and declared her Jem's new boyfriend. My mom was sort of horrified, as I recall.

It's really funny now that I think about it, because despite all the neurotic policing of my toys, I still ended up queer as a three dollar bill and indiscriminate about gender.