you are viewing a single comment's thread.

view the rest of the comments →

[–]HelloMomo 16 insightful - 1 fun16 insightful - 0 fun17 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

I'm not sure how to turn this into something actionable, but here's an anecdote:

In my final year of middle school, the most dysphoric year of my life, I was part of building sets for the school play. It was a small school and volunteering parents did everything. Set building was overseen by a classmate's butchy-but-straight mom. (She's great; she's friends with my mom to this day, and just last year I borrowed her welding helmet for my welding class at the local community college.) Anyways, in middle school she let me use the power tools even more because I was a girl. It seemed like middle school boys who really want to use power tools aren't exactly a demographic who's heavily trusted to use power tools. But a quiet girl who really wants to use power tools? Sure, she seems trustworthy. She's the one you can allow to cut stuff without constantly watching closely.

[–]reluctant_commenter[S] 12 insightful - 8 fun12 insightful - 7 fun13 insightful - 8 fun -  (2 children)

welding helmet

Misread that as "wedding helmet" at first and was like damn, that's some GNC representation.

It seemed like middle school boys who really want to use power tools aren't exactly a demographic who's heavily trusted to use power tools.

Uh, YEAH. Same with boys who are overexcited about knives. That's super awesome that you had that opportunity and encouragement! Maybe having adults take a moment to encourage girls who seem interested in traditionally masculine activities and vice versa for boys who seem interested in traditionally feminine activities?

[–]HelloMomo 7 insightful - 3 fun7 insightful - 2 fun8 insightful - 3 fun -  (1 child)

Same with boys who are overexcited about knives.

I have been really knife-happy as long as I can remember too. Adults always seemed more skeeved out by that one, though.

[–]reluctant_commenter[S] 5 insightful - 3 fun5 insightful - 2 fun6 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

Haha, well, sometimes it's just fun to cut things.