Should Gender Stereotypes be challenged?

[Ben Davis]

Suppose if I were a stereotypical male...

I'll come back to this because it illustrates exactly what I mean...

and you encouraged me to not have those characteristics because they are stereotypical - then I wouldn't have an opportunity to explore my personality?

No, I'm not encouraging you to stop having personal attributes. Don't be silly. I'm encouraging you to stop propagating the idea that 'a man is only a man when he has the following attributes...'. I couldn't give a monkeys about what your attributes are, I only care that you don't impose a crass, generalised view of manliness on others. Basically, you're conflating the persona (stereotype) with the person, much in the same way that religious people sometimes conflate the belief with the believer. That leads me to think that you think there's more than a little truth to stereotypes or you've been indoctrinated to the extent that you think there's nothing which needs to be done about them.

Now back to my first point: what is a stereotypical male? I have difficulty pinning down what you mean by this because there are many different stereotypes in circulation, right now in the UK; different sometimes to the point of mutual exclusion. Those stereotypes differ to those in use around Europe which differ to others elsewhere in the world. I don't know, maybe one of those stereotypes are right; I doubt it but it's possible. What I do know is that they can't all be right and by corollary they can all be wrong. I also know which option I put my money on.