Bored Panda works better on our iPhone app
Continue in app Continue in browser

Add post form topAdd Post
Tooltip close

The Bored Panda iOS app is live! Fight boredom with iPhones and iPads here.

Clown Shames A Mother Who Wouldn’t Let Her Son Get A Butterfly Painted On His Face But Instead Asked For Skull And Crossbones
User submission
8.4K
226.5K

Clown Shames A Mother Who Wouldn’t Let Her Son Get A Butterfly Painted On His Face But Instead Asked For Skull And Crossbones

ADVERTISEMENT

From a young age, children are taught to conform to gender norms, however, sometimes it can get really out of hand. Twitter user Sandra, who works as a clown and paints children’s faces, decided to share a sad experience she witnessed that highlights gender stereotypes. During a picnic, a boy asked her to paint a blue butterfly on his face, but his mother intervened. She forbid the boy from getting a butterfly and demanded that Sandra paint something more ‘masculine’. This encouraged Sandra to voice her opinion on what happens to boys who are shamed for liking ‘feminine’ things and are forced to be hyper-masculine instead. Scroll below to read how the whole story unfolded!
(Facebook cover image: Philip Brookes)

RELATED:

    From a young age, children are taught to conform to gender norms, however, sometimes it can get really out of hand

    Image credits: AlbanyColley

    Twitter user Sandra decided to share a sad experience she witnessed that highlights gender stereotypes

    ADVERTISEMENT
    ADVERTISEMENT
    ADVERTISEMENT

    226Kviews

    Share on Facebook
    Andželika

    Andželika

    Author, Community member

    Read more »

    This lazy panda forgot to write something about itself.

    Read less »
    Andželika

    Andželika

    Author, Community member

    This lazy panda forgot to write something about itself.

    What do you think ?
    Add photo comments
    POST
    stellermatt
    Community Member
    6 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    so a girl likes football and beer and she's labelled a Tomboy, instead of a girl who likes football and beer. a guy likes nature, butterflys, puppies and is labelled what? a sissy? instead of a boy who likes nature. why does everything have to have a label, a category, people like stuff, get over it! clown shoulda painted the butterfly anyway...

    Amélie Bougie
    Community Member
    6 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    That's exactly because of that that kind of labels that we get clichés like the « badass woman, one of the boys, not like the other women », meaning that other women only like to do the "girl things ", wich are considered superficial, you know : makeup, shopping, etc. This statement : " You know, I 'm not like the other girls. " is probably one of the less femenist of all time.

    Load More Replies...
    Lazy Panda
    Community Member
    6 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Toxic masculinity truly is disgusting. Very sad that a little boy couldn’t get a damn butterfly painted on his face, absolutely ridiculous

    Suzi Gauthier
    Community Member
    6 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I wonder if she would have let him have a bee. Are bees masculine? How about a cat? Is a cat feminine or masculine? A dog? What arbitrary rules.

    Load More Replies...
    A Dyke From The Dreamworld
    Community Member
    6 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    So, you're telling me this mother was terrified of a pretty blue butterfly and would rather have pieces of a corpse painted on her son? Jesus Christ, dude. Can we just like not dictate what our children are interested in like wtf dude

    Gvantsa
    Community Member
    6 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    children need CORRECT guidance of parents while they have some authority. we must "dictate" what they should NOT be interested in. we must teach them not to be interested in something terrible they can see somewhere accidentally (for example, my cousin (he was 4) saw how car killed cat. after few days he tried to kill neighbors cat. parents took good care of that problem and now he loves animals). it's sad how some parents are giving "absolute freedom" to their children while they have very weak understanding of good and evil, and no "social skills". we are living in cruel environment and it's teaching very bad things (but when parent is doing everything so wrong, like starting panic because of butterfly, letting kid do anything he wants is better, sadly), also they must learn to be part of society (e.g. not to throw food towards other people in restaurant while parents are letting him "be him/herself"). being good parent is hard job and there are too many people doing it wrongly.

    Load More Replies...
    Load More Comments
    stellermatt
    Community Member
    6 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    so a girl likes football and beer and she's labelled a Tomboy, instead of a girl who likes football and beer. a guy likes nature, butterflys, puppies and is labelled what? a sissy? instead of a boy who likes nature. why does everything have to have a label, a category, people like stuff, get over it! clown shoulda painted the butterfly anyway...

    Amélie Bougie
    Community Member
    6 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    That's exactly because of that that kind of labels that we get clichés like the « badass woman, one of the boys, not like the other women », meaning that other women only like to do the "girl things ", wich are considered superficial, you know : makeup, shopping, etc. This statement : " You know, I 'm not like the other girls. " is probably one of the less femenist of all time.

    Load More Replies...
    Lazy Panda
    Community Member
    6 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Toxic masculinity truly is disgusting. Very sad that a little boy couldn’t get a damn butterfly painted on his face, absolutely ridiculous

    Suzi Gauthier
    Community Member
    6 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I wonder if she would have let him have a bee. Are bees masculine? How about a cat? Is a cat feminine or masculine? A dog? What arbitrary rules.

    Load More Replies...
    A Dyke From The Dreamworld
    Community Member
    6 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    So, you're telling me this mother was terrified of a pretty blue butterfly and would rather have pieces of a corpse painted on her son? Jesus Christ, dude. Can we just like not dictate what our children are interested in like wtf dude

    Gvantsa
    Community Member
    6 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    children need CORRECT guidance of parents while they have some authority. we must "dictate" what they should NOT be interested in. we must teach them not to be interested in something terrible they can see somewhere accidentally (for example, my cousin (he was 4) saw how car killed cat. after few days he tried to kill neighbors cat. parents took good care of that problem and now he loves animals). it's sad how some parents are giving "absolute freedom" to their children while they have very weak understanding of good and evil, and no "social skills". we are living in cruel environment and it's teaching very bad things (but when parent is doing everything so wrong, like starting panic because of butterfly, letting kid do anything he wants is better, sadly), also they must learn to be part of society (e.g. not to throw food towards other people in restaurant while parents are letting him "be him/herself"). being good parent is hard job and there are too many people doing it wrongly.

    Load More Replies...
    Load More Comments
    Related on Bored Panda
    Related on Bored Panda
    Trending on Bored Panda
    Also on Bored Panda