Sugar, Spice & Everything Nice?...Frogs, Snails, Puppy Dog Tails?....

When I mentioned to someone that I was off to the Flames game last night, (a rare occurence, just FYI...I go once in awhile with my sis, and we always have fun. Can't imagine going with somebody else...) and followed it up with the announcement that my hockey-crazy friends would be proud of me, I sort of did a double-take of surprise when this person assumed these hockey fan friends to whom I was referring were male. They are not, in fact, male. They are female, and goddesses among women.

This got me to thinking about gender stereotypes, and whether or not they are alive and well around us today. There was a helluva lot to consider, and I will run through a bit of it here. In the interests of protecting the privacy of my chums, I will use initials only. You will recognise yourselves, friends, I am sure, but I am just making sure that no one is uncomfortable about any of my revelations.

The sports thing comes first. Now, as a traditional "male" thing, this took a couple of direct hits. Yes, my dad and my brother-in-law are die hard sports fans and watchers. Good on them...it makes them happy. However, I can call up a whole host of sports loving, sports watching gals who take it just as seriously. My sweet gals S., A., and J. basically die for hockey. Two of these girls went into mental decline when the Olympics ended. S. gets up at ungodly hours to watch the finals at Wimbledon played live. She has more Flames stuff than almost anybody I know. In contrast, I present my beloved husband, no girly guy, (he owns no grooming products, nor ever has, wears only his wedding ring for jewellery, has a wardrobe from Marks Work Warehouse and goes to the barber, and not a stylist...you get the picture) who limits his sports watching to our nephew's hockey games. Period. Our friend P., who is much in the same vein as Lee, is exactly as sports-unaware.

Thinking away, I turned my beady eye upon myself. I admit to having certain "girly" traits: I love shoes, collect handbags, adore jewellery, play about with makeup, dig getting pedicures, etc. On the flip side, I am unquestionably the most un-squeamish person alive, and I adore insects, snakes, rats, bats, spiders and worms as much as I do pretties. My favourite clothes are pajamas, I can go days without brushing my hair and I like poking around inside toilets. SO where does this put me in the sugar & spice/frogs & snails race?

As I examine my friends further, I find all sorts of "opposing" characteristics going on: as well as the sports folks mentioned above, I see my sister, who looks like Tinkerbell, but can add up a column of figures in her head so fast it boggles, B. who is an out n' proud gay guy, yet knows and cares nothing about fashion, style or biographies of Marlene Dietrich, my 6'3 brother-in-law, who scrapbooks for a hobby, my parents, where my mum fixes the fences and shovels the driveway, wearing her fistfuls of diamonds as she does so, M., who is as petite and feminine as a little doll, but has a degree in computer engineering, and is a serious left-brain titan, or D., who happily sells Avon, as she indulges in Ultimate Fighting watching....

So, my dears, I guess my conclusion in all this is that these little frameworks are still out there, and still up to be busted down. We are all who we are, and we are our own women and men, whether we watch hockey, paint our toenails, or maybe do both at the same time.......