Predjudism comes naturally

As a mother of 4 boys, I have discovered something most of you with a mix of the sexes may never come to realize................................mothers tend to discriminate against their own sons. This really gets on my nerves.
I've overheard mothers on the playground saying things such as "I think that I'll hold Luke back a year in school as his birthday isn't until late in the year, and you know how much slower boys are to mature................................" or " Katie and Julie are really doing well in their reading, but it's taking Tom a little longer to catch on.....................he IS a boy you know".
I do realize that there is a major difference in the way boys and girls learn, and in some areas boys are a little slower to mature, but lets not let the boys think that they are second rate, because as their moms, if this is the message they're getting at home, how are they ever going to grow into mature, self-confident men?
There is an overwhelming amount of media these days that plays on the "stupidity" of men. As women have been represented more and more in the workplace, it seems that instead of relishing in our ever-increasing power, we have stooped to demeaning men.
I want my boys to have backbones...............to know how to respect and treat a woman, to have the courage to stand up for her if she's threatened, to have enough confidence in themselves to speak up when confronted by injustice. By demeaning my sons into thinking that they are somehow less intelligent than the female gender (at any point in their young lives), I am producing a pretty lame husband for my future daughters-in-law.
I realize that siding with your own sex probably comes pretty naturally, and is something that you must continually make a conscious effort to go against, but future generations will be stronger with men who feel valued, especially by the women that they love the most - their moms.