i was stocking shoes today and the kids isles are such bullshit. the boys is full of avengers and lightning mcqueen and spiderman and ninja turtles and nothing else for characters there is nothing else and everything is red black green blue or brown and god help you if you’re taking your 6 year old or younger son to something formal because there are No Options, not a single shoe in that isle could vaguely resemble formal, it is All Just Sneakers
wheras I really hate having to stock the girls isle because it is such a florescent pink it literally hurts my eyes to be down there. not in a ‘ew pink’ kind of way but a ‘this is legitimately overstimulatingly bright and monochrome and im not okay’ kind of way. not a lot of shoes have characters on them. the only ones are some elsa and anna shoes because of fucking course there are. thats it. every sneaker is pink or white or something. there are no other options. on the bright side if you’re taking your very young DAUGHTER to a formal event you have all the options in the world because literally half of the isle is devoted to tiny dress shoes. little half inch high heels, cute little flats. the girls have no end of pretty options, and not a lot of practical.
and the shit just carries on in the adult isles. womens is less painfully bright and more painfully inconvenient. theres maybe a quarter of the amount of work boots the men have. theres an entire side of the isle for just heels and flats and dress shoes. athletics is a very small corner and not much of it is sneakers. mostly just these little slip on things with basically no grip on the sole. mens area has a massive stock and variety of work boots and sneakers. little corner for dress shoes. plenty of athletic shoes.
and this is really annoying when you need/want a pair of shoes that fall outside of your assigned gender roles. this is fucking horrifying when you’ve got the overview. i put these on the shelf. i know what they’re doing. i want to go up to the mothers with their little daughters and tell the girl hey kiddo theres more options in the next isle too, do you like superheroes, theyve got the avengers and spiderman, they’re pretty cool. theres a pair of rainboots that look like sharks. they’re awesome. i want to tell the little boys that hey you know theres nothing wrong with pink, right, its just a lighter shade of red. theres plenty of shoes to look at in the next isle. i want to open up a box of half a dozen athletic shoes that are perfect for me in terms of style and functionality and put them in the womens athletics isle, but the tag says mens so i have to put them there.
i know what they’re doing. i know they’re building gender roles. i know that they’re brainwashing these children into thinking that look there is a vast canyon between you and them and if you ever stray from your side you will fall into the abyss and lose everything. i want to put the flourescent pink shoes into the boys isle and give them some brighter colours. i want to put the black and red shoes into the girls isle and give them some fucking variety. i want to put the mens sneakers into the womens isle. i want to put the high heels into the mens isle. i want to tear down the signs marking which gender is allowed to interact with which isle and mix them all together.
but i cant. i dont have that choice, and i know what happens to people who try to break that aspect of the formula. i stay quiet. i direct the mother and little girl to the hot pink shoes. i put the work boots in the mens section and the high heels in the womens.
i perpetuate my own oppression for $12.35 an hour. i am a cog in the machine that enforces conformity and punishes any variation. i make sure the girls only have pink and the boys only have blue.
i hope that someday they can forgive me
i hope that someday they can learn they were wronged.
HOW DO PEOPLE FALL ASLEEP SO FAST I DON’T UNDERSTAND I HAVE TO CREATE AND ACT OUT A WHOLE FUCKING MOVIE LENGTH STORY IN MY HEAD AND THEN CONTEMPLATE THE MEANING OF LIFE BEFORE I EVEN FEEL TIRED AND THIS BITCH STARTS SNORING IN TWO MINUTES
