Was out in drab mode this week, and happened upon a shoe store. Discount. Extra cash in my pocket.
So of course I wasted a half hour...boys and girls shoes.
That is beside the point.
A father was shopping with his son and his son wanted Dora sneakers, which of course were purple and pink. Cute. Ol' Dad didn't handle it too well. He wasn't angry, just uptight. You know, so much you could tell that it really, really bothered him.
He reinforced several male gender rules:
Boys don't wear girl's shoes
Boys don't wear articles of clothing with girls on them
Girls are inferior
Girls opinions do not matter
The latter he did as he dismissed his wife's suggestion to allow the child to hold the shoes to at least calm the child down.
It made my stomach ache.
Believe me it was only horrible for me and the child. Everyone else in the store were oblivious to the rigid social structuring occuring in the back aisle. Possibly the roots of prejudice?
Anyhoo. No new shoes, only a brush with the blues.
