MOU: Dishes, trucks and penises

Often, people tell me that Otter's liking for trucks is a "boy" thing, that it's evidence of some underlying innate gender difference. That seems silly to me, for two reasons.

First, I believe that so much subtle socialization goes on, even with tiny infants, that we have virtually no way to effectively get at any supposed innate difference underneath current American society. For example, studies have shown that adutls handle babies differently based on gender; girl infants are held with more delicaacy, as if they're more fragile; boy infants are handled more roughly, as if they are somehow less fragile. Differences like this in how we treat infants make it seem implausible that we can blithely attribute observed gender differences to some innate baseline tendency.

Second, what the heck would be the evolutionary point of male mammals liking motor vehicles? Do they make them more fertile? Do they affect their penises in some ways? Has evolution progressed so quickly, given that trucks and cars were invented pretty recently, on the evolutionary scale? What exactly would truck-preference tie to, in a less industrialized civilization?

On that note, does having a penis affect one's ability to play with a truck? Is my son discreetly playing with his truck by pushing it around with his penis?

Vent over.

That said, Otter loves more than trucks. His two other favorite toys this month are the doll stroller that he pushes around at daycare and the dishes his maternal grandmother bought him for Christmas. The dishes are a fabulously complete plastic set, with pans and pots and cups and plates and a rolling pin; measuring spoons, a colander, teapot, ice cream bowls, utensils and a cutting board--almost anything a toddler with a serious plastic kitchen hankering could ask for, plus a pastry cutter and a juicer.

This morning, amidst his ravenous requests for another banana, an apple, vegetarian turkey slices, some bread, some O cereal, some soy milk, a cracker, more veggie turkey, Otter spied his box of dishes upon a shelf he couldn't quite reach, and switched his pleas to "Dishes... dishes...... Dishes!...... DISHES!" while yanking to try to pull the whole box down onto his head.

I'm sure that his love for dishes is just as unlikely to have anything to do with his gender as his love for trucks.

That said, as a feminist, I do like that his toy choices aren't all traditional "boy" choices. The me in my head is dancing around saying "nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah" to cardboard cutouts of various published proponents of the "boys just like trucks" theories. Petty, undignified, and highly satisfying on a cold January day.