Toy Vacuum
I’ve never in my life owned a toy vacuum. This isn’t to say that I’ve never seen them; I remember having a few friends in kindergarten and elementary school who had toy vacuums, even some who used them often. Of course, all of the toy vacuum owners were girls. I didn’t give a whole lot of thought to it at the time, but after a couple of gender studies courses I took another look at my friend Jane and her toy vacuum. It never occurred to me that maybe I should have a toy vacuum, much like I doubt it ever occurred to her that maybe she would want to have an Erector’s Set. Even at the age of four or five it was obvious to me that a toy vacuum was a girl’s toy, while Erectors’ Sets were boys’ toys. These sorts of toys were different than something like toy blocks or the playground which both boys and girls could use without any problem. Nothing seemed wrong with this just like nothing seemed wrong with the girls and boys going to different places to go to the bathroom.
It’s clear now how these toys were just the tip of the iceberg. Gender roles were already well set in me by that point in my life. Boys played war and sports while girls talked and played house. Toy vacuums were part of playing house, as were the play kitchens with their bulky silverware and thin plates. I played the same sorts of games my dad played at my age, and my female classmates played the same games as my mother once did. But is this enough? I would like to think that we’ve gotten smarter than that, that we’ve evolved past the fifties with their entrenched gender roles and whitewashed glorification of suburbia.
Contrary to popular opinion, gender roles are not biological; they are purely constructs of our society. If our culture was set up differently I would have no problem playing with the toy vacuum as a child just as Jane would have no problem playing with my toy hammer and screwdriver. As it turns out, I like cooking a lot more than I like pounding nails, though I didn’t realize as much until halfway through college when I finally found myself able to reconsider the gender roles I had learned so long ago. Maybe someday I’ll even pick up vacuuming.
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