In answer to the first post - I tend to not really care much either way. I'm not in a hurry to place gender stereotypes on my boys but I don't care much when other people do.
I guess for me it comes down to the fact that I think we should celebrate our children's masculinity. For me the issue is with the way that masculinity is constructed.
Steve Biddulph draws an interesting contrast in one of his books between the differant masculinities at work when some young hoons crash their car. On one hand you have the kind of masculinity that is encapsulated in young men binge drinking and endangering themselves and others (foolish, boorish, violent) on the other hand you have the kind of masculinity that is represented by the rescue services (strentgh, courage, compassion, selflessness, intelligence).
It's the second type of masculinity I want to celebrate in my sons. If we can make our sons see how much we value and respect these masculine traits and introduce them to men who have these traits we can help them to steer a path that avoids the kind of hyper-masculinity that leads men into harm and trouble (for themselves and others).
I guess that my sons are lucky in that they have access to diverse models of masculinity - my husband comes from a culture where men are comfortable with hugging and kissing each other, that it's not 'sissy' to pick a flower for yourself and it's ok to cry.
Boys are differant - they get massive doses of testosterone at differant stages of their lives that alters their brain chemistry. Their left and right brains are connected differantly to girls so they process information diferantly. IMO not accepting these differances is doing our sons (and daughters) a disservice.
To me the gender stereotypes are neither here nor there - the really important matter is helping our sons construct some kind of masculine identity that makes them into fine men not boorish thugs.