What Gloria Steinem Understood About Boys

Gloria Steinem died this week, at ninety-two. Most of what's being written about her right now is about the campaign she's famous for, getting women access to rooms they'd been kept out of. That part matters, but it's not what I keep thinking about.

A Doll, a Song, and a Network That Panicked

In the early 1970s, a children's record called Free to Be… You and Me included a song about a boy who wanted a baby doll. Not a toy gun, a doll to feed and rock. His dad kept steering him toward "boy" toys. His grandmother was the one who finally bought him the doll.

When the special aired on network television, executives genuinely worried a song about a boy wanting a doll would somehow damage him. Over a doll. Steinem was one of the people who made sure that story got told anyway.

The Campaign We Never Finished

Steinem spent her life arguing girls could be strong and ambitious without losing their girlhood. Hopefully that message has landed. Girls today grow up hearing they can be anything.

We never ran the matching campaign for boys. Nobody built the equivalent push telling boys they could be gentle and openly in need of other people without losing their boyhood. Girls got permission to reach up. Boys never really got the permission to reach the other way.

I've written before about what the research says on this specifically, how boys are taught early to suppress exactly the traits that would actually serve them best. If you want the deeper dive, that's here: Let Him Be Sweet Too.

Why This Is the Other Half of Fierce & Sweet

Most of my energy has gone into making sure girls get to wear the shark shirt. But boys should get to wear the bunny, without anyone treating it as something to correct. Same idea, pointed the other direction.

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Every design comes without a "boys' " or "girls' " section — because every kid deserves both halves of the story. → fierceandsweet.com

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