Technology Affected by Gender

There are many times in my life when my gender affected something that I wanted to do. When I was little, maybe around 10 or so, I always got really bored during the summer. I lived in a very rural part of NY at the time, so there weren't particularly many things to do over summer vacation. My parents both worked, and they trusted my older brother and I to behave at home without the supervision of a babysitter. My brother seemed to always have a lot of friends within our small neighborhood; I however, did not. Once in a while, I would get sick of watching t.v. hour upon hour or playing computer games, so I would go to my brother for entertainment. I was 10 years old, and of course was not able to drive myself anywhere, so I had to constantly be entertained by things in my home. My brother, the spoiled one, had his own Play Station set-up in his room.
My brother could always be found in the same place - playing video games in front of the t.v. in his room. He would have his friends over a lot of the time, and I always wanted to play games with them. When I asked if I could join in on a video game, they all argued that video games were for boys and I wasn't supposed to play them. I begged and begged my brother and his friends to let me play with them, but they never gave in. So I was forced to sit there and watch them play instead. When my parents would come home at night, I would complain to them about my brother Ryan being mean to me and not letting me play video games with him. As always, they would yet at him and tell him to share his things with his little sister. But as soon as they would leave for work again, my brother would go right back to dismissing me from hanging out with him and his friends.
This didn't only just happen with video games. It happened with ANYTHING him and his friends would do. Even playing with matchbox cars and lego were things that a "stupid girl" should not play. This would anger me so much that I would throw many fits and cry about being ignored. As my brother and I got older, we began being nicer to each other. Eventually we got to the age that its okay for boys and girls to play together. I was friends with his friends, and he was okay being friends with mine. It wasn't so weird for a brother and sister to get along anymore. Maybe it was just because we were little and that's how brothers and sisters treat each other, but it really hurt me when I wasn't included in boy activities. I'm so glad that we outgrew that stage!