Tomboys will be tomboys

Apparently the news that Swedish retailers are applying gender neutral catalogues has spread around the world. The Swedish newspaper SVD is reporting about it with an ill conceived patronizing angle. It is with an underlying attitude of amusement that the Swedish paper relates the uproar internationally about what is going on in Sweden and citing people’s comments.  Such as John in Dublin, he writes on the Daily Mail’s web-edition: 

"More surreal news from Occupied Sweden. The most insanely socialist, watchful, interfering, nannying and just plain paranoid society on earth appears to have arrived at its nadir. How did this clique manage to quietly take control of a previously independent-minded people?" 

The author of the article in SVD sums it up at the end of the article by asking what men are so afraid of? 

I don’t think that one automatically is afraid just because one does not agree on all the ideas and theories that are popular at the moment. When I grew up as a boy, no one tried to make me wear dresses or decided for me that I should play with dolls. When I think back I cannot recall that I have had any major trauma due to this. I played with typical boy toys, all days long. I have daughters, they play with toys. They have cars, guns, bows, firetrucks, spiderman suits and pirate stuff, when my daughter recently turned 8, I got her a compound bow but also some typical girl toys. They love girly toys, dolls, ponies, princess dresses and what not. But here’s the thing, first of all, no one is telling me what is right or wrong to buy, secondly, they prefer to play with the girl stuff, it is their choice. 

I have daughters that now are adults, they were raised the same way. They turned out just fine. They were more into the boy toys growing up, they were real tomboys. Sometimes they’d crack me up running around with helmets and waiving toy swords wearing princess dresses, taking off their helmets and underneath they had their hair full of pink bows! Now they're two typical young women with nail polish and make up and all that. But again its been their choices no one else’s.