I'm not saying you are wrong, but in the culture of my household, my school, and the people I had contact with as a child, this was seen as strange and something to be discouraged, because these things were seen as gendered.

I think these things were much more gendered at the time, as well. It is crazy for me to look back and remember how there was a time when I hadn't made up my mind about whether gay marriage was okay or not. Things have changed a lot over the past 20 years or so.

I think you might be missing the forest for the trees. Barbies and lipstick are not exclusive to one gender, but they are associated with one gender. I don’t think it’s controversial to say that people in general will respond differently to a little boy who likes playing with lipstick and barbie dolls compared to a little girl.

I dunno. My social set would never discourage a child from this at all. However, of those of us who had children, only one (out of, like 50+ children in our extended set) was gender non-conforming boy at 3 and liked to wear girl's clothes and play with dolls.