Denial

Men can be weird creatures can't they.  You can encourage your boys to play with dolls but they will still be the same as they mature - we are different and mostly it works well.  My daughter was born disabled, I knew pretty quickly and by 3yrs old she was officially disabled.  My husband refused to acknowledge this, for years unfortunately, he finally acknowledged it when she was about 21 yrs old!!!!  (After that he was way overprotective, bit late hey).  No use pushing him, you do what you need to do to make yourself happy or at least content, he will come around one day, probably suddenly and it will all be his idea.