Seriously, we are going to talk about Christine. It is crucial. Christine is a typical girl. She does makeup, dyes her hair, and enjoys shopping. Travel and photography are a thing for her here. She's always doing that “posting pictures of her food” thing. She's obsessed with the arts and love stories, especially novels, and she likes to write. Maybe she enjoys pets, too, always calling everything with two eyes cute. Hangs out with guys a lot. Let's give her long, blonde hair if you want. She buys pocketbooks and goes the gym so she has a "good figure". She does all the stereotypical "girl" behaviors. When she was a kid, she used to play with figurines.

I know what you’re thinking: How could you do this to Christine?

Now, let me flesh out Christine a little bit more.

Christine does makeup and hair dye because she likes to cosplay comics and horror movies (her favorite kind of movies, mind), and her natural hair color isn’t blonde. When she goes shopping, it’s for games, comic books, and sports supplies, because she rallied for her high school to get a girl’s lacrosse team and ended up being the captain. Her writing and arts interests lie in fantasy, like Lord of The Rings type fantasy, with a slightly romantic and dramatic twist throughout. Her favorite pet isn’t a cat: it’s a lizard, and she tends to think Skinks – yes, in all of their bug-eating glory – make the best beginner lizards, but her interests lie with the larger monitors. She hangs out with guys but hasn’t wanted to date. And never has. She’s not much of a cook either and is a black belt instead, so she didn’t cook that food she posted a photo of. Christine also buys mini backpacks for hiking and also goes to the gym because she bench presses and lifts weights. The figurines she used to play with were dinosaurs.

Right.. so that’s Christine. What’s that? Were you expecting Gucci bags? (Not that there is a problem with Gucci bags).

You probably stereotyped Christine, just as you stereotype, maybe, a Christopher. Men and women get stereotyped, but more often than not Christine is crazy.

You don't know Christine or Christopher. You have no idea what they like, who they are, what they believe, etc. Gender stereotype harms both genders. It leads us to all to put pressure on ourselves to act a certain way, do a certain thing, say specific things, etc. It leads to no fun for everyone. Both Christine and Christopher don't like to be stereotyped, and neither should you.

If Christine teaches you anything, let her teach you it's okay to be different. And don't stereotype her, because you had no idea what she was like.