I played with Legos.

Learning about gender roles has always made me laugh. When I was 4 years old I told my mom that my husband was going to stay at home and watch the kids while I went to work. When I played imagination with my friends, I always ended up being the boy character. I was Simba, or Alladin, or Bagheera. It wasn't because they were male, they just happened to be the coolest characters of their movies. Because of my past, I couldn't stop laughing while reading the Nature vs. Nurture comic, by Art Spielgelman. In my family, it was the opposite problem. My aunts and grandmas would buy me baby dolls and cutesy dresses in hopes of making me girly. I would play "shark attack" with the dolls, and screamed every time I had to touch a dress.

But the comic made me wonder, how'd this happen? Was I born wanting to play with legos and dinosaurs, or did I learn by imitating my older brothers?

As I continued to read this section, and read more on the different views on gender roles, I was surprised how angry some of the articles were. Katha Pollitt's article Why Boys Don't Play with Dolls actually offended me a little. I felt like Pollitt was reaching for straws, it was as if she was searching for someone to blame for creating gender roles. I do understand what she says about parents encouraging their sons to take up sports and their daughters to wear cute clothes, I've had friends with parents like this. It makes sense that they would worry about their children fitting into society, and their reasons behind their worries are understandable. But this just makes me wonder ever more how I ended up playing with Legos, when, (according to Katha Pollitt), I should have played dress up.

I don't think that feminism is the ideology of children's future, and I don't think that feminism is what made me the way I was. I think that my parents let me be who I was. Sure, my aunts tried to force their will on me, but my mother was always there to play the games I wanted to play, she was alright that her only girl liked mud and blue jeans more than princesses and gowns. Instead of imposing her will on me to be a pretty petite angel, she was okay with me being the "linebacker".

In the end, I feel like the Nature vs. Nurture accurately depicts children, they will try to be themselves. Whether it is a little girl who plays with dolls, or a little girl that plays with legos, it's more about personality than gender. At least, that's what I think.