I haven't updated my Xbox avatar in years. I've had the same old Rebel flight suit and helmet forever! As much as I love Star Wars, I decided it was time for a change. I started with the clothes. I saw that they were selling hats with sports teams on them. The Pittsburgh Penguins, my favorite team, just won the Stanley Cup, and so I was feeling especially more fanatical about them than usual. I then got the brilliant (if I do say so, myself) idea to completely deck out my avatar with Pens gear! I searched for them in the avatar store on the Microsoft website so that I could easily locate things, and I found the motherload of Pittsburgh stuff. I was beyond excited. I was most happy about the game pants and jersey. If I bought a helmet, I could literally look like Sidney Crosby. I was aaaalll about this! And then I went to the side to preview it on my avatar. "Ooops! This item is for the opposite gender." Huh? What? You're telling me, the Pens-obsessed fan, that I can't get a simple jersey because it's for a different gender? Who made you in charge of what's for men and what's for women? So, I angrily searched for just simple Pens t-shirts. "Ooops! This item is for the opposite gender." A t-shirt? My female avatar can't even get a plain old t-shirt? Would you like me to tell you how many mens' Star Wars t-shirts I have in my closet right now? In fact, after the Pens won the Cup, I ordered a mens' t-shirt (similar to the one on Xbox) straight from the NHL website. They certainly didn't have a problem selling those to females. My question is - why, in a country where we have people like Manny Mua showing us that guys can wear makeup and in a country where we have people like Ruby Rose showing us that girls can wear suits, are you placing gender restrictions on something as simple as an Xbox avatar? These restrictions are completely unnecessary, as they not only limit people's power of creativity, but also harm them in the sense that they might feel as if they're lesser than the other gender. Females: Did you ever go through the experience in elementary school of getting picked last for a team at recess simply because you were a girl? Did it make you feel like you weren't as good as the boys? Males: Did you ever go through the experience in school of not being liked by a teacher, even though you had great grades and were well-behaved, simply because they favored the girls more than the guys? Did it make you feel like you weren't as good as the girls? Microsoft's gender restrictions on Xbox's avatar clothing cause anyone who runs into a situation like I did to feel as if Xbox is "picking" the other gender over them or "liking" the other gender better. It's human nature to feel some sort of hurt or unfairness when you have limitations on something and another person or group doesn't. Microsoft needs to follow in Nintendo's example (in reference to Mii customization on the Wii) and set all avatar items as available to all genders. Microsoft would also benefit from this, as there would be more profit coming in from items being bought by a larger amount of people. The United States is a free country, and so an American company should honor it in their products by allowing their users to use that very freedom in expressing themselves. // (Get the word out! Use #AvatarsForAll)