Juan is a tremendously happy boy who loves to paint his nails with colors. At school, some classmates begin to laugh at him and Juan feels very bad, so he will leave his colored nails only for the weekends. His father, however, is clear about it and decides to support him: "I am also a boy and I am going to paint my nails." So, on the way to school, Juan's father will show off his nails. This is the story of Long live colored nails! by the editor and writer Luis Amavisca edited by Nubeocho. Luis tells us: “The expression of diversity is very important because it makes us understand the plural society in which we live. On the other hand, it is always good to work on gender stereotypes and remember that there are not things for girls and things for boys”. Oliver Button is a girl, edited by Kalandraka is another fantastic story, Oliver is called a girl because he plays with dolls, dresses up in all kinds of clothes and sings and dances like a star.

Amelia García Pérez is a secondary school teacher specializing in socio-community intervention. She is also an equality agent and equality coordinator at the Misericordia Integrated Vocational Training Center in Valencia: “Differences should not generate discrimination. However, the fact of being born a girl or a boy conditions our socialization, since it is based on reproducing gender roles loaded with stereotypes, and on the need to categorize people within one gender or another”. The equality agent García Pérez points out that the problem is not the difference between one category and the other, but the value we give to each of them, as well as the roles associated with each one.

“Everything that has to do with girls has less value than that which represents masculinity. In this way, painting one's nails or wearing a skirt is not recognized as a value to be shown by men, since, as they are components associated with femininity, in our culture they have less value”, he affirms. What is clear is that everything that deviates from what a man represents in the patriarchal culture is suspect in our society. Amelia García says that an easy example in our current environment could be skirts or heels, which are recognized as appropriate for women, but not for men. “However, it seems that the heels were invented so that the feet could be easily placed in the stirrups of the horses (typically masculine activity), in addition to being used by the monarchs to mark their hierarchy, by placing themselves with higher heels or platforms than his subjects." Another example of how relative gender attributions are is the kilt.

Iria Marañón is the author of the books Educating in feminism and Educating a child in feminism, both published by Plataforma Editorial, where she talks about educating under gender roles: "Sexual roles, or gender, assign girls and boys a place in the world before they are aware, they shape their personality, their tastes, their hobbies and, above all, they generate a system of inequality between girls and boys”. She affirms that they are going to be educated to be submissive and accommodating, so that their main skills are care and domestic chores, and to exploit their sexuality. “From a very young age, girls receive this message, when they pierce our ears to wear earrings or when they dress us in pink to differentiate us from baby boys.”

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Marañón ensures that children are educated so that they are the ones who occupy public and power spaces. So that they are insensitive, strong, dominant and even aggressive. “They impose dark colors to differentiate them, short hair, pants (very comfortable clothing and with which they will be able to move freely). They will be given the message that they should not be weak and that their sexual status is above that of women. This is not going to allow them to be free to decide how they really want to be, because their stereotype will always weigh much more."

For Amelia García Pérez, there are plenty of reasons to affirm that, if the boys want to wear skirts or paint their nails, teachers and families should accompany these processes and stress that gender roles, also in clothing, are outdated trendy and shouldn't matter. “The same thing has been shown to us by the students themselves a few weeks ago as a result of the anti-discrimination movement that was generated on TikTok and that got hundreds of young Spanish people to come dressed in skirts to the institute.” Amelia believes that we should educate them avoiding gender roles and stereotypes within a coeducational model. In this way, a more free citizenry would be generated to choose what interests them the most regardless of their assigned sex.

“If from childhood we send the message that there are no clothes for boys or girls, or games, or toys, or colors and that all these belong to everyone, we can strengthen all those creatures who want to escape from that dictatorship aforementioned gender. The more these are heard

words that resonate in classrooms and families, the better”, comments the equality agent García Pérez, who on the other hand sees it as essential that boys (teachers, students, parents) question their masculinity. “There is a toxic, hegemonic masculinity that feeds reproach for this type of behavior that we are referring to here (that a child wears a skirt or paints their nails)”.

For Iria Marañón, coeducation is crucial: “Teaching girls and boys that they do not have different abilities because they are of one sex or the other, encouraging them to play freely, without biased toys. All of society must be aware of and participate in the abolition of gender. Knowing that there are no pink or blue brains. That everything is a social construction. That a boy who has emotional skills, is empathetic, sensitive and assertive and takes responsibility for care and domestic work is a revolution. And that doesn't make him a girl."

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