IN MY SHOES: My Kids Were Ostracized For Playing Cowboys And Indians
In The Washington Post, self-described social liberal Jonathan Turley, a professor of public interest law at
[F]or some parents in my neighborhood, my kids and I are… to be avoided, even if it means removing their children when we show up at the park. The reason: toy guns.
I first noticed the "shunning" at the most unlikely of events. Each year on Labor Day, my
I must confess to feeling a mix of deep guilt and even deeper rage at that moment. It was not as though my kids were reenacting the massacre of a Cherokee village; they were simply living out innocent fantasies of the Old West. …
My 4-year-old son, Aidan, brought his orange Buzz Lightyear plastic ray gun to "the pit," as our neighborhood playground is known. … a mother froze with an expression of utter revulsion. Glaring alternately from Aidan to me, she waited for a few minutes before grabbing her son and proclaiming loudly that he could not play there "if that boy is going to be allowed to play with guns."
[T]his is a scene that seems to be repeating itself with increasing regularity. To these parents, my wife and I are "gun-tolerant" and therefore corruptors of children who should be avoided. Not only are such toys viewed as encouraging aggressive behavior and violent attitudes, they are also seen as reinforcing gender stereotypes, with boys playing with guns or swords and girls playing with dolls or cooking sets.
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