Driving home from parent-teacher interviews and feeling a bit peckish, I decided to detour via the local macca's drive thru...
Cashier: Hi, what can I get you?
NB: A cheeseburger happy meal, thanks.
Cashier: Would you like a boy's toy or a girl's toy with that?
NB: (silently thinking) Oh... my... god... She's joking, right? What century are we living in? Post feminism era, gender equity... and good old maccas still thinks that it's ok to have separate toys for boys and girls. Why not ask me if I want a skateboard or a pony? But a boy's toy or a girl's toy? And I suppose it's not difficult to guess which one would be pink and which one's blue... I can't wait to tell my year 10's when I see them next- they've been discussing binary oppositions and stereotypical representations of masculinity and femininity. They'll be outraged...
(after a definite pause)
NB: (aloud, with a nonchalant wave of her hand) Whatever.
(The cashier hands her the girl's toy- a stuffed pony.)
* * *
Then, to add insult to injury, I stop at traffic lights and a dimmy van full of confident young lads decide that they need to roll down the window and wink and wolf whistle at me to prove how masculine they are. I won't tell you what I felt like telling them they could do with their 'boy toys'...
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