> My parents didn't like me playing with Barbie dolls; they explicitly told me that it wasn't something boys did.
Same with me, but let me ask you a question. Were you the sort of kid that actually listens to their parents? Because i didn't, and most of my peers didn't, either.
No, I was stubborn like mule. I wore my parents down until they caved. That doesn't mean it didn't have an impact though, I certainly picked up what they were putting down.
Now, the reaction of my friends when they came over and looked at me funny when I tried to show them my awesome Princess Gwenevere and the Jewel Riders doll (it had wings and could fly if you pulled a ripcord! That's objectively cool. Also, dangerous, especially to taller adults in the area.), that was painful.
If it's your parents and your peers and virtually all popular media, it's massively naive to think that isn't going to have a normalizing effect on people.
To be clear, I'm making a descriptive and not a prescriptive statement. I'm not saying that people should conform to societal norms, just that right now they do (and that doesn't seem like a trivial thing to change).
Same with me, but let me ask you a question. Were you the sort of kid that actually listens to their parents? Because i didn't, and most of my peers didn't, either.