Gender Stereotypes

Brent Kroeger pores over nasty online comments about stay-at-home dads, wondering if his friends think those things about him. The Rowland Heights father remembers high school classmates laughing when he said he wanted to be a "house husband. " He avoids mentioning it on Facebook. "I don't want other men to look at me like less of a man," Kroeger said. His fears are tied to a bigger phenomenon: The gender revolution has been lopsided. Even as American society has seen sweeping transformations - expanding roles for women, surging tolerance for homosexuality - popular ideas about masculinity seem to have stagnated.

Brent Kroeger pores over nasty online comments about stay-at-home dads, wondering if his friends think those things about him. The Rowland Heights father remembers high school classmates laughing when he said he wanted to be a "house husband. " He avoids mentioning it on Facebook. "I don't want other men to look at me like less of a man," Kroeger said. His fears are tied to a bigger phenomenon: The gender revolution has been lopsided. Even as American society has seen sweeping transformations - expanding roles for women, surging tolerance for homosexuality - popular ideas about masculinity seem to have stagnated.

Despite cameos by such real-life Olympic medalists as Elvis Stojko, Nancy Kerrigan and Rosalynn Summers, and an amiable co-starring role for gold medalist Tara Lipinski, "Ice Angel," Sunday's uninspired Fox Family Channel movie, skates on thin ice. Filled with gender stereotypes and glib bromides, it begins when hockey star Matt, who motivates his Olympic-bound team by castigating them for playing like "a bunch of pansies," dies and comes back as Sarah, a teenage ice-skating champ.

The Beastie Boys today clarified their stance in their dispute with Bay Area toy-maker GoldieBlox, a company that's used the act's 1986 party-goof "Girls" in an advertisement for its engineering-minded toys. The surviving members of the Beastie Boys are all for female empowerment, a statement from the group says, but have no interest in selling a product, regardless of how creative it might be. GoldieBlox last week scored a viral hit with its parody commercial that featured a new take on the Beastie Boys' "Girls," replacing the gender stereotyping lyrics of the original with new lyrics that call for girls to build apps and spaceships.

Lego's so-called Ladyfigs, plastic dolls with slim bodies and budding breasts, are raising the ire of feminists - and profits of the popular Danish toy maker. Though better known for its plastic building bricks, Lego in December unveiled a female-centric product line that also features play sets such as Andrea's Bunny House and Butterfly Beauty Shop. The items, part of the Lego Friends collection, have set off protests, with one feminist group accusing Lego of "selling out girls.

  Children whose behavior doesn't conform to gender expectations -- girls who swing swords and play with trucks, boys who tend to dolls and are drawn to high heels and frilly dresses -- are only rarely tipping their hand about their future sexual orientation. But such behavior does predict that a kid is more likely to experience psychological, physical or sexual abuse during childhood, and will go on to suffer post-traumatic stress. Behavior that defies gender stereotypes is remarkably common, reports an editorial published alongside two studies on gender-defying kids in the journal Pediatrics this week.

What if you were a 10-year-old boy who woke up one morning to find that everyone, Mom and Dad included, thought that you were a girl, and always had been? And what if your mom sent you to school in the pinkest, frilliest, laciest dress you've ever seen--and everyone at school thought you were a girl, too? Gender stereotypes are given a delicious trouncing in "Bill's New Frock," presented by the Mark Taper Forum's professional theater for young audiences, P.L.A.Y.

The woman who took care of science fiction and fantasy author Andre Norton in the final years of her life in Tennessee has been awarded the copyrights and royalties to most of her works. In an opinion published this week, the Tennessee Court of Appeals reversed a lower court's ruling that the author of the popular "Witch World" series intended that a longtime fan get those rights and royalties. Norton, who died in 2005 in Murfreesboro, Tenn., wrote more than 130 books over a 70-year writing career and defied gender stereotypes by becoming the first woman to win major science fiction awards.

Wal-Mart may or may not have a policy of discriminating against women in pay and promotion, but establishing the truth will require a trial. The Supreme Court this week wrestled with whether it should clear the way for a class-action lawsuit brought by a handful of women on behalf of as many as 1.5 million others. The case for doing so is strong. The plaintiffs insist that Wal-Mart is "rife with gender stereotypes demeaning to female employees" and link that assertion to lower pay and the fact that "while women comprise over 80% of hourly supervisors, they hold only one-third of store management jobs.

The Beastie Boys today clarified their stance in their dispute with Bay Area toy-maker GoldieBlox, a company that's used the act's 1986 party-goof "Girls" in an advertisement for its engineering-minded toys. The surviving members of the Beastie Boys are all for female empowerment, a statement from the group says, but have no interest in selling a product, regardless of how creative it might be. GoldieBlox last week scored a viral hit with its parody commercial that featured a new take on the Beastie Boys' "Girls," replacing the gender stereotyping lyrics of the original with new lyrics that call for girls to build apps and spaceships.

Lego's so-called Ladyfigs, plastic dolls with slim bodies and budding breasts, are raising the ire of feminists - and profits of the popular Danish toy maker. Though better known for its plastic building bricks, Lego in December unveiled a female-centric product line that also features play sets such as Andrea's Bunny House and Butterfly Beauty Shop. The items, part of the Lego Friends collection, have set off protests, with one feminist group accusing Lego of "selling out girls.

  Children whose behavior doesn't conform to gender expectations -- girls who swing swords and play with trucks, boys who tend to dolls and are drawn to high heels and frilly dresses -- are only rarely tipping their hand about their future sexual orientation. But such behavior does predict that a kid is more likely to experience psychological, physical or sexual abuse during childhood, and will go on to suffer post-traumatic stress. Behavior that defies gender stereotypes is remarkably common, reports an editorial published alongside two studies on gender-defying kids in the journal Pediatrics this week.

Wal-Mart may or may not have a policy of discriminating against women in pay and promotion, but establishing the truth will require a trial. The Supreme Court this week wrestled with whether it should clear the way for a class-action lawsuit brought by a handful of women on behalf of as many as 1.5 million others. The case for doing so is strong. The plaintiffs insist that Wal-Mart is "rife with gender stereotypes demeaning to female employees" and link that assertion to lower pay and the fact that "while women comprise over 80% of hourly supervisors, they hold only one-third of store management jobs.

Laws that discriminate between men and women have been regularly declared unconstitutional since the 1970s, but the Supreme Court on Wednesday seemed ready to permit an exception to that rule. At issue was when children born of mixed marriages abroad can claim U.S. citizenship. Congress has made it easier for unwed American mothers than it is for unwed fathers to pass on their citizenship. The foreign-born baby of an unmarried American mother is a U.S. citizen if the mother lived in the United States for at least one year.

The woman who took care of science fiction and fantasy author Andre Norton in the final years of her life in Tennessee has been awarded the copyrights and royalties to most of her works. In an opinion published this week, the Tennessee Court of Appeals reversed a lower court's ruling that the author of the popular "Witch World" series intended that a longtime fan get those rights and royalties. Norton, who died in 2005 in Murfreesboro, Tenn., wrote more than 130 books over a 70-year writing career and defied gender stereotypes by becoming the first woman to win major science fiction awards.

In ITS first season, "Mad Men," AMC's glossy series about a group of guys on Madison Avenue, received critical raves for its finely drawn portraits of the employees of Sterling Cooper Advertising Agency. Set in 1960, it focused on Don Draper, a glamorous up-and-comer with a double life and a secret past, and the smart, politically incorrect men around him. But watching from a different perspective, there's a whole other story going on. And it's all about the women: Peggy, Betty and Joan.

The Moving and Storage Performance Company arrived at the House Friday with a load of promising raw material for dances--but no real finished work. Intriguing movement ideas, arresting dance phrases, and collections of fascinating colloquial gestures piled up in heaps during the evening, ready for some hard choices by a purposeful choreographer.

Laws that discriminate between men and women have been regularly declared unconstitutional since the 1970s, but the Supreme Court on Wednesday seemed ready to permit an exception to that rule. At issue was when children born of mixed marriages abroad can claim U.S. citizenship. Congress has made it easier for unwed American mothers than it is for unwed fathers to pass on their citizenship. The foreign-born baby of an unmarried American mother is a U.S. citizen if the mother lived in the United States for at least one year.

Serbia is a troubled country of rich history that lives by its myths and symbols. And so a new movie, billed as the most expensive locally made film ever, is a daring, bizarre and wholly provocative attempt to turn those images on their heads. The movie (a word about the title in a minute) is the first full-length feature by director Uros Stojanovic, an ambitious 30-something who seems fond of entering a room with a flourish. It is set in a ravaged Serbia just after the First World War and tells the story of a village where there are no men left -- they've all died in battle.

When LizAnn Shimamoto was 12, her mother forced her to take an etiquette class, where Shimamoto learned all the things a "good girl" should be, how to be "ladylike" and "mild-mannered" and above all, quiet. Now, at 39, Shimamoto yells. She yells while playing the odaiko, a drum roughly the size of a refrigerator. She yells as if she's sending a message across the Grand Canyon.