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‘Young Sheldon’ tries busting gender stereotypes with Missy's baseball game and fans are here for it

When Missy Cooper gets bullied for playing baseball by the other girls, the show addresses the gender stereotyping in a beautiful manner.

We have all grown up hearing “girls play with dolls” and any girl who displayed even a remote interest in outdoor activities or sports was instantly labeled as a “tomboy”. These kinds of gender stereotypes can be extremely harmful, especially to impressionable children. The latest episode of ‘Young Sheldon’ titled ‘Pongo Pygmaeus and a Culture That Encourages Spitting’ saw Missy Cooper (Raegan Revord) being bullied by her class girls for showing up to school in her baseball team uniform. Missy’s classmates tease her for dressing up “like a boy” and made snide comments about her being a boy and we see her getting affected by it.
 
She comes home all upset and vents out to her mother about how the other girls in her class were being mean towards her. Missy reveals that somebody from her class scratched out her name on the notebook and replaced it with “Mister Cooper”. The poor girl was so hurt that she began contemplating quitting playing baseball. Just then Mary Cooper (Zoe Perry) receives a call from her neighbor asking her to stop Missy from playing baseball and that it wasn’t “ladylike” for Missy to be playing such sports. By the end of the call, we see Mary all riled up and ordering Missy that she won’t be quitting the team and will continue playing the sport.
 
During the match, the boys try to bully Missy, but she stands up for herself and ends up beating up her opponent on the field. Although the gender stereotyping was very subtle it did drive home the point. Children should be allowed to pursue whatever they enjoy irrespective of whether they’re a boy or a girl. If Missy finds joy in playing baseball, then she should continue playing baseball and not feel awkward or embarrassed about it just because everybody else thinks it’s a boys' sport. The fact that Missy is good at it makes it all the more good enough for her to continue playing irrespective of what anybody thinks. A fan wrote, “Unfortunately, sexism is everywhere. #YoungSheldon”. Another fan commented, “Stereotypes are a bitch!!! #YoungSheldon”.

You can catch up on all-new episodes of ‘Young Sheldon’ every Thursday at 8/7c only on CBS and CBS All Access.