You hear all that talk about "a woman can do anything a man can do", but does anyone (except perhaps Gloria Steinem) believe it? Yesterday at work my side job was changing the bus tubs in the service station (yet again) and it dawned on me that only the male servers were ever given that task. I'm not afraid of asking a question when I want to know something, so I went to Cathy, the restaurant manager, and asked her why. "I don't think that women should have to lift those heavy bus tubs. That should be a man's job." she replied. Why not? Because they're women? Somewhere Susan B. Anthony and Lucretia Mott are spinning in their graves. Decades of Women's Liberation just went flying out the window. I was at Wal-Mart looking for a Christmas present for my nephew (he's actually my partner's nephew, but he calls me "Uncle Jimmy", so I guess that makes him my nephew too) and in the toy department there was this play shopping cart (that conveniently came with toy groceries to put inside of it) and on the box is a picture of a cute little girl with pigtails and wearing a pinafore pushing it. I stood there staring at it, thinking "How sexist is this? Don't guys go grocery shopping too?" Not to mention that the toy shopping cart was pink with flowers and crap all over it. It's insidious, and it all starts in early childhood. Billy gets toy guns, model airplanes, and action figures on Christmas Day. His sister, Susie, gets a Barbie doll, a play tea set, and an Easy Bake Oven. If Billy plays with his sister's Barbie doll, the other kids will call him a sissy. What would they say if Susie plays with her brother's toy guns? Probably nothing. Maybe I'm being too idealistic. I just don't think men and women are that different. The only real variance is the "sexual equipment". The rest is all mental: society's attitudes and preconceptions of gender and gender roles. The concept that pink is a "girl's color" is a good example of this. Face it, a man has to be pretty secure in his masculinity to walk around in a pink suit! You've come a long way, baby, but there is still a long way to go.