When my daughter was two, we attended a birthday party of another two year old girl whose parents we knew superficially. There was a boy the same age who was a guest at the party. The girl was given a push-toy vacuum cleaner, identical to the push-toy lawn mower which the boy had with him, except that the vacuum cleaner was pink (no kidding) and the lawn mower, red and blue. The boy started to push the vacuum cleaner around and make lawnmower noises. His parents and the grandparents of the birthday girl began loudly ridiculing him, lisping, doing the limp-wrist gesture which some people believe represents the behavior of homosexual men, and saying 'OOOOH!'. When the boy started to cry, they escalated to taunting him for that, saying he was a big boy now and should fight back, and certainly not cry like a sissy or a girl. These people would have said they were Christians of the Protestant variety, if anyone asked. I don't for a moment think this behavior was founded on religious ideology. The point is that socialization of boys (and girls) can be appalling in any society, in any religion, and in any family. Sad but true. BTW, while this was going on, my own child was in the playroom breastfeeding a couple of teddy bears and dolls. Looking back, it's a good thing these insensitive people didn't catch her red-handed at THAT. Rachel Myr Norway *********************************************** The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html