Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
“YOU should stay here. You’re a girl. It’s too dangerous. I’ll fight off the bad guys.”
I was playing make-believe with a four-year-old boy and couldn’t believe what I just heard. Granted, I was the over-enthusiastic adult with a hairbrush for a sword, who probably wouldn’t threaten a butterfly. However, the fact that a four-year old had already conformed to gender stereotypes was frightening.
It’s horrible that the gender divide exists, but when we’re brainwashed from birth: it’s a whole new level of dysfunction.
The rest of that evening was spent with me and the little guy having a long talk about how ‘girls can do everything that boys can’.
The New Year restored my faith in humanity. I went on the Land Rover Experience at the BIC- which I highly recommend - and was amazed by our wonderful instructor, Nuzha. She glided up 85 degree vertical slopes; balanced the car on a see-saw and manoeuvred through off-road obstacles.
As a mother-of-four, a French tutor and a part-time instructor for the Land Rover Experience, she is the embodiment of female empowerment. I’m sure she could fight all of the ‘bad guys’ out there, even with a hairbrush.
