Do you all live in a bubble? Cause, umm... socially constructed means SOCIALLY constructed regardless of what you personally do. Do they go to school? Talk to friends? Visit stores? Watch TV? Talk to other adults? Then they're learning gender roles. The point is not that there are no boys who would like trucks or girls who would like dolls if there wasn't social pressure anyway, it's that the differences between boys and the differences between girls are far greater than the differences between boys and girls. As most studies have shown, time and again.

Who freaking cares if your kids likes dolls or trucks?  So what?  

I'm with Cassie. Let em like what they like. I would never take something away from my son that he liked to play with just because society says he shouldnt play with it.

I agree with Cassie.  My son loves all things transportation, and it used to bother me when everyone told me I or society was steering him unfairly towards trucks.  So I offered him dinosaurs, action figures, animals, dolls, blocks, dress up, toy brooms, etc.   All he has ever wanted to play with is TRANSPORTATION.  So we buy him transportation.  Who freakin cares?  I cannot wait to see what my baby girl is going to like!!  Tomboy or princess or whatever, I know we are going to have a blast finding out her unique combo of interests!

I definitely lean to the side of underestimating nature and placing emphasis on the effects of social experience.  Gender stereotypes fill children's lives, if they breathe in that smog...they will breathe out that smog. That said, there is a study that shows that baby monkeys differentially select toys based on sex, with male monkeys choosing transportation items and female monkeys choosing animate objects (dolls).  These data made me think again about the issue.  But I still don't think it's a nature OR nurture question...obviously both matter (and in some cases are intertwined).

Studies have shown that girls tend toward dolls because they develop fine motor skills earlier, and boys tend toward trucks (and other big, moving toys) because they tend to develop large motor skills earlier. Ultimately, there are soooo many factors that go into this issue. I think you just need to give them the options and let them know they're always free to go against the grain.

(My four-year-old daughter loves cars *and* all the sparkly pink princess crap, so Santa Claus brought her some Polly Pockets cars--they look like Matchbox cars except they're pastel and glittery. She thinks they are the more perfect toy ever created.)

Companies and adults shouldn't be forcing stereotypes on our children regardless. Why should they feel the pressure to conform to anyone's ideas?

I was the bane of my mother's existence - she dressed me in overalls and unisex clothes, bought me trucks and tools to play with - and had to fight me every step of the way, until I could grow up and have my own closet filled with pink things and high heels.  I didn't have many friends as a kid - only six or seven parties with kids from grades 1-8, and I didn't do extracurriculars, so part of me thinks at least some of that was internal - I just liked pink sparkly things.  But, I do think that one result of my growing up with unisex-mom is that I never thought anyone else was "weird" - a girl who loved trucks or a boy who loved tiaras - as a little kid, because I had such a strong message that anyone COULD like anything. And now I have my high heels and power drills and am supportive of anyone having anything. So, I say right on with what you're telling your kids - allow them to like what they like, but point out that it's OK for that not to be shared by others.  That's a lesson we all could use, I think - it's OK for us to have different preferences.

I love how extremists in any discussion love to use such hysterical language for such a benign issue. If a company that sells princess ponies shows a little girl playing with their product in a dress and tiara how are they forcing any particular gender stereotype? If they show a boy playing with the same pony in the same outfit are they forcing a homosexual stereotype/agenda? Should I cover my daughter's eyes as the boys at the playground go by playing with their Nerf guns or the girls go by in their princess outfits?

For me the only thing that peeves me off is that girl's socks are the only ones made in purple and their thin as can be. At least there are places that make sturdy clothes for girls.