Something that really stood out to me in Our Barbies, Ourselves is how gender is not only separated so significantly, but how there is a double standard in the role that women play in life versus men.
Once upon a time, before a babies gender is determined, parents await the news with gleeful anticipation; often fathers wanting sons and mothers wanting daughters. We go to baby showers and see little trinkets set out specifically for the babies gender: blue giraffes for a boy, pink elephants for a girl.
Gender is so categorized into boxes, and is so separated since before birth. These boxes are set with rigid standards, something everyone is expected to adhere to.
Girls are supposed to be nurturers, and beautiful, to be trained since childhood for the use of men.
Men are supposed to be buff, rigid, handsome with strong rhetoric, and using women as a commodity.
These ideals are passed from generation to generation, starting from beliefs that were written in the Bible and the Quran. Jesus, in the Bible, says for a woman to let her husband speak, that she is lesser than him. It isn't simply about ideals, it is about inconsistency. Today, we can take a stance against strict adherence of the rules and embrace the differences in every person that cannot be summarized by the standards set by others.
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