I was first exposed to sexism before I could even read.

Some of my fondest childhood memories are of sitting on the white carpet of my living room watching Disney movie after Disney movie; I adored Beauty and the Beast, the Lion King, and above all, Aladdin. Considered classics for a reason, Disney films do an excellent job of teaching lessons that are crucial for young children to learn. These movies taught me to treat others the way that I want to be treated, to listen to my parents, to always be honest, and to never accept suspiciously red apples from a creepy looking woman whom I have never met. However, these movies also have something detrimental in common: a not-so-subtle implication that women are inferior to men. By continually featuring naive, romantic, and capricious female characters that are later rescued by the strong, valiant, and clever man of their dreams, Disney movies effectively taught impressionable young girls such as myself that gender inequality is the norm. The gender bias in Disney films (as well as in many other children's movies) thankfully did not go unnoticed and we now have gems such as Mulan and Frozen that are jam-packed with girl power. Unfortunately, almost all other aspects of sexism that I experienced as a child remain today.

Let's fast-forward about 6 years to my elementary school playground. My friends and I would spend every morning counting down the minutes until recess, the precious 60 minutes during which we escaped the confines of our classroom and were free to yell and run around as much as we pleased. Sadly, I now can see that even my memories of recess, something so associated with joy and play, are marred by gender bias. On countless occasions our games would get so rowdy or violent that teachers had to intervene, and on countless occasions groups of girls would be put in time out or otherwise punished for being too "physical" while groups of boys were given multiple warnings before such action was taken. Unfortunately, this classic "boys will be boys" excuse is used just as often today; as someone who works with children of all ages throughout the summer, I can attest that my co-workers and the children's parents alike utilize this justification frequently. By dismissing certain actions performed by boys but punishing girls for these same actions we promote double standards, which leads me to my next reminiscence.

Today I am a teenager on the brink of adulthood and I notice more than ever the disparities between the treatment of young women like myself and our male counterparts. By my sophomore year of high school I realized that, right or wrong, girls are under constant scrutiny; what we wear, what we say, and how we act are all factors that we must pay most careful attention to at risk of sending out the "wrong message," something I notice that boys never seem too worried about. Gender bias can also be found in the way many of my friends are treated by their parents. Although this often stems from love and concern rather than prejudice, I get extremely frustrated on the numerous occasions that many of my female friends are told that they are not allowed to do the same things that their older brothers were once allowed to do simply because "it's different for girls." Also, it would be wrong to not address the way sexism rears its ugly head in many male lives. Boys are held to impossibly high physical standards just as girls are, and in the same way that girls are stereotyped as being far too emotional, boys are expected to retain an almost stoic emotional detachment from everything. Fortunately for men, most of you seem to outgrow the majority of these assumptions around the same time you outgrow your mid-calf sock obsession (I have yet to hear of a 20 something year old man be chastised for not having biceps the size of his thighs), but this doesn't mean that the effect these unfair expectations can have is any less damaging.

So, what's the point? I haven't said anything that you haven't already heard; it's no news flash that todays society still retains many elements of the gender prejudice that people have been working for centuries to eliminate. However, I share these stories (of which I have many more), stories that exemplify how sexism has directly effected me, in the hopes that you will think about your own children, the children you might someday have, or even the children you know from your apartment building and ask yourself if you want these children looking back on their lives someday and recounting the same exact stories. Ask yourself if you want these children growing up in a society that dismisses rape as an unfortunate result of an ill-chosen outfit and ridicules those who do not epitomize the stereotypes of their gender. Change isn't something that can be forced upon people whose minds are already made up, but something that comes from the education of younger generations. So, next time you hear that your son was made fun of for "throwing like a girl" or that your daughter would rathe play ice hockey than learn ballet, remember that the way children are treated has a direct effect on how they treat others, and that the responsibility of shaping a new, equal society lies on your shoulders as much as it does on theirs.