Commentary: Gender & a Chocolate Store
I work a part-time retail job selling fancy chocolate to rich people. Although I have my job sometimes, I tolerate to like it most times. Mostly, my co-workers are awesome. Besides being good at their jobs we also have great not-so-corporate conversations. (Like the “How do lesbians have sex?” conversation. But I’d rather have them hear it from me than someone else. But I digress.)
I’ve learned that gender is EVERYWHERE!
Example: We sell milkshake type drinks. One day a woman comes in with two little girls. She orders two dark chocolate drinks—one for each girl. When I am done she asks me to put raspberry syrup on the top of the whipped cream. I asked her if she wanted raspberry and I accidentally made the plain chocolate. She replied: “No, it’s so it will be pink. So they will like it. They won’t like it if it isn’t pink!” Of course, I put raspberry syrup on their drinks.
I did think to myself after this interaction, “Why would these girls refuse a milkshake if it wasn’t pink!? Really, are there children that would not eat something without n pink garnish?”
I want to ask you this: Thinking back to when you were a child, was there anything you would not have done/ate because of stereotyping?
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nope. i grew up attending equal rights amendment rallies & my mama was a member of the american association for university women. while she wasn’t a bra-burner, she preferred to keep things around me gender neutral. i was the only kid i knew in the 70′s to have a color neutral room — yellow (i do hate that colour, but i digress) — and encouraged me to just be myself. “free to be you and me” was a big hit in our house. i’m thankful for the way i was raised. yay, ma!
I was one if those kids who liked a red or pink garnish wherever I could get it. For a time I was perhaps the only boy in the 909 who’d order strawberry milkshakes (though I’d get neapolitan ones later).
Free to be you and me was a fixture in my house too! What an awesome record.
Free to be you and me was my favorite! I had an old school hand-me-down kiddie record player and actually broke the record from playing it so much. I’ve also used several clips in LGBTQ presentations I’ve done.
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