caseylalonde: allthatcombustsareyellowbirds: ...

allthatcombustsareyellowbirds:

doo-da-dooitsallgood:

We are nothing less than human.

I actually enjoyed science class today. We didn’t do much, but my teacher Mr. Stewart was talking about his daughter. Her name is Emily and she is 4 years old. Ever since she was born, my teacher had decided he wanted to let his daughter do anything the way she wanted, as long as she wouldn’t get hurt. He wanted to keep her away from believing she couldn’t do something. One day, Mr. Stewart took Emily to go buy some shoes. He thought the High-Top Converse would look extremely cute on her, but Emily wanted the light-up Spiderman sneakers. He said that they were her shoes, so she could pick out whatever she liked. They went up to the cashier and you know what she said? “Oh, are these for your little brother?” Mr. Stewart realized that the cashier had just planted a seed in Emily’s mind. He is now afraid that she might start thinking, Maybe I shouldn’t get the Spiderman shoes, they’re only for boys. Maybe I can’t do math, because I’m not math smart. Maybe I should stick to playing with barbies, because that’s what girls are supposed to do. You see? He’s afraid that she will one day believe that she is less than human. That she’s only supposed to do this, because that’s what society says she’s supposed to do. Mr. Stewart didn’t want that for his daughter. He continues to let her play with monster trucks while wearing a princess gown and her Spiderman sneakers. He told her she can be anything she wants to be. But before they left the store, you know what Mr. Stewart said to the cashier? Thank you for your ignorance.

This.

Now hold the fucking phone.

The way this is written, there was no verbal interaction between the parent and the cashier after the cashier asked the assumptive but entirely innocent question about the shoes. There was nothing about what the cashier said that warrants the parent berating the cashier.

Fuck this guy. How about you respond with “They’re for her” and engage in an actual conversation before you whip your head over your shoulder as you’re leaving to insult the person who was just trying to be friendly. Maybe you could enter into a constructive discussion about gender roles and identity amicably instead of being one of those customers that just expects retail employees to be ignorant goofs who’re obviously “too dumb” to do much more than sit behind a register and use a scanner gun, never mind understand your “forward” way of thinking.

Am I wrong? Am I somehow misreading this story?