One of our derby people posted a fantastic link yesterday. It's all about one woman's realization that in her zeal to prove herself one of the guys, she was also devaluing anything feminine, as well as women themselves, along the way.
I am going to make one blanket statement about women doing supposedly masculine things; props to them for challenging gender roles. But if we have to devalue "feminine" behaviors in the process then we're still being sexist. And it's this form of sexism that is incredibly common at present (and that motivated my post on working with men vs. working with women.)
There are a lot of things we denigrate because we consider them "girly." Emotion, for one. Fashion. Movies about relationships. The color pink. Fruity cocktails. Tiny dogs. And so forth and so on. None of these things are actually exclusive to women. And for some, even the association is false: Men are plenty emotional. But because we consider these things feminine, we also consider them lesser. And as a result, most men and some women are embarrassed to be seen slurping down a daiquiri. Even though they are made of deliciousness. And then everybody loses out.
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