In a society that upholds separate standards for males and females starting from toddlerhood, acceptance of gender neutrality is difficult to achieve culture-wide. While support for the boy with the pink flats and Riley’s rant on gender-based toy packaging is growing, there are still haters who will go out of their way to call a two-year-old terrible words for playing with a kitchen set.
For their son Owen’s second birthday, Andrew and Jessica Hook built a toy kitchen set from materials they found at Goodwill. With all the thought and work they put into crafting such a gift, Owen happily played with the kitchen set. And why wouldn’t he? The gift is three times his size!
It’s cleverly crafted. Andrew and Jessica thought of everything; the kitchen set is complete with a sink, stove, oven, and refrigerator.
When Hook posted pictures of Owen playing with the gift on Imgur, internet trolls spoiled the posts with homophobic comments. Commenters said that he and Jessica were turning Owen gay. They crawled out of their abyss of close-mindedness to make more sleazy comments, including “How to turn your son gay 101” and “You are what’s wrong with your country…I hope your kid gets beat up at school.”
Fortunately, Hook had the perfect response:
“…Going off of comments I have received both online, and in person regarding my wife and I’s decision to make our SON a kitchen playset and several ‘daughter’ comments and ‘but he is a boy,’ let me be perfectly blunt. F*** you. Any time we go to our local science center, or to the children’s museum, he always wants to play in the kitchen playset area. He always wants to watch us cook and likes being involved, so we thought this would be a good idea. Furthermore, if my kid wanted a barbie doll I would get it for him. If that is what he wants, then that is what he wants. It’s his decision what he wants to play with. Not mine.”
Andrew and Jessica did not build the gift with the intention of rebelling against “gender-based” toys. They did it solely for the love they knew their son would have for the gift.
“Gender-based” toys have risen as a source of controversy for parents of young children. The common notion that “Barbies are for girls” and “Hot Wheels are for boys” have forced children to identify with a mold that society has predetermined. Children need the freedom to experiment; they need to be allowed to choose what they like, rather than be conditioned to like something. And this is precisely what Andrew and Jessica are allowing their son to achieve.
So apply ice to that burn, haters. And get it from your own fridge.