I think that IN GENERAL, there are differences between little boys and little girls, and that playing rough games is important for many little boys in a way that I, as a woman, can't really understand.



I don't believe that little boys and little girls should be raised differently, but I don't think that there should be enforced sameness either.



Of course if little girls want to play football and little boys want to make Barbie clothes, they should be encouraged in that.



Obviously there are cultural assumptions that we throw at kids that are nonsense, but it shouldn't be up to women to define what masculinity is any more than it should be up to men to define what being a woman should be about. Letting women make the definitions and set the rules runs the risk of pathologizing normal "boy" behavior.



Finally, I am concerned that kids in general have been playing outside for millennia, and that by going against it and keeping kids indoors for fear that they will get hurt is really unhealthy and we will see problems in the future from this.

