My little Pony

So I was reading an article about a young 7 year old boy who received a My Little Pony Sweat shirt for Christmas. When he was asked if he would wear it to school the young boy's response was "I think it will make the other kids uncomfortable." What astounded me is that a 7 year old boy knew and realized that if he wore it to school he would have issues. In a related article a 9 year old boy went to school with a My Little Pony backpack and was then bullied for carrying it. The school rather than interfere and keep this child safe from bullies they instead forbade the boy from returning to school with the backpack dubbing it a "trigger" for bullying. This is absolutely ridiculous that a school rather than protect this student and his desire to express himself or discipline these boys they basically blamed the child for being inviting this harassment. In a country where gender roles are switched daily, bills and household chores distributed equally regardless of gender and rather than use these instances to educate their students on tolerance and acceptance. A boy in the sixth grade attempted suicide behind being bullied for liking My Little Pony. This is a big red flag to parents and child . developers everywhere. In a day and age when girls being tomboys is accepted as normal. They call these young girls "athletes" "rough and tumble" even "independent" or "stubborn" but if a young boy expresses any thing outside of macho man ideals they're bullied. This concept makes my hand spin one is okay the other is not yet you can turn on the TV and see RuPaul's Drag Race, Queer eye for the straight Guy, numerous movies starring Queen Latifah even outwardly homosexual politicians. Not to say if a male watches My Little Pony he's headed down a path to homosexuality no, not at all. Why can't we let these young boys blaze their own path it's not like it  comes on a channel ONLY FOR GIRLS.When I was little my favorite shows were Power Rangers, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Captain Planet, Batman, Streetsharks, and the like. All these shows were majorly watched by boys but i wasn't bullied for it. If I was harassed for my Power Rangers backpack or PJs I don't recall it because every altercation I had in school was dealt with by the administration and I wasn't bothered again and this in 1994. So why is it 20 years later we're still struggling as a people  to just let boys be boys and protect our children from bullies because in the end it isn't their fault it's the bullies and the bullies need to be corrected. These stigmas around young male masculinity need to be corrected because at this point I feel we are sending the wrong message to our youth.