40 Years After "Free to Be You And Me," Girls, Go Figure, Still Want to Play With Dolls...and the Vast Majority of Boys Don't

Forty years ago, a boy named William wanted to play with a doll. Despite decades of indoctrination in feminist cant and the gender fluidity that's become all the rage, today's moppets, pace William, remain steadfast in their stereotypical (i.e. traditional) play preferences, as a TIME scribbler discovers:

A few months ago, I found myself in a place William would adore: the American Girl doll palace in New York City. But nearly all the children there were girls. “They know what girls love,” said a transfixed seven-year-old girl attached to my hand. We were standing in front of a doll salon, where you could make appointments for your doll to have her hair and nails done. The hundreds of little girls in that store showed a purposefulness and sense of well-being I had not witnessed since the summer before, when I visited the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. Only in Cooperstown it was little boys who were enthralled. Hundreds of them filled the shops where they carefully examined and evaluated an unfathomable number of little cards with photos and data about baseball heroes. Yes, I realize there are boys who would enjoy the American Girl doll store and girls whose dearest hope is to visit Baseball Town — but those are the exceptions. I am talking about the rule. And as a rule, the young Williams of this world do not want a doll.

Nice try, Marlo, but it looks like in play department you've plum struck out.