MTV’s New Videos Expose The Ridiculousness Of Gender Norms

If you are so over gender norms, MTV is with you. In 2014, the entertainment giant launched "Look Different," its initiative to combat racial, gender, and LGBT inequality with digital and on-air messaging. And yesterday, it released three videos under the banner of its "Gender Bent" campaign, a subset of "Look Different" that exposes the ridiculousness of sexist stereotypes — for example, that girls are worse at math than boys. "Is there something special about the Y chromosome that spawns proficiency with numbers?" MTV News Correspondent Ana Marie Cox asks in the video dedicated to debunking this particular myth. "Not exactly. The truth is, this gender gap is the result of expectations, not aptitude. Treat women equally, and they perform equally." Novel concept, right? Another "Gender Bent" video challenges the belief that "real" men don't cry, while the third explains that the assignation of pink to girls and blue to boys is utterly arbitrary. All three are charming, succinct, and spot-on, and we're heartened to see MTV spreading the word about gender norm nonsense. Check out the videos on Tumblr.