Posted on 05/28/2013 12:21:56 PM PDT by Olog-hai
From the time they are born, we put our boys in blue beanies and our girls in pink ones. It’s a societal norm, an expectation even, that you just are what you are born—a boy or a girl. From early on, we divide toys and activities by very distinct gender lines, with superheroes and trucks and muck on one side and princesses and dolls and all things frilly on the other.
Many children land, enthusiastically, on the expected side. Others dabble in both “girl” and “boy” things. But what if your kid, even from an early age, mostly showed interest in doing opposite-gender things? More importantly, what if they wanted to BE the opposite gender—or a less-defined mix of both? And what if they wanted to test those limits in public places, like school?
Would you let them? …
Some experts predict that views on gender will evolve in much the same way they have for sexual orientation, since homosexuality was removed as a mental illness nearly four decades ago. Today, the gender spectrum includes those who are transgender, who see themselves as the opposite gender, and those who are gender variant, or gender nonconforming, whose gender is more “fluid.” For kids, it means they identify part of themselves as boy and part as girl. …
(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...
Hmm, that rings a bell. My memory is short circuting.
(Link to book????)
No link. It’s sitting in a dusty drawer, just like SAD’s research on Indonesian crafts, and when I’m gone, my daughter will find it and they’ll give me a phd.
LOL! I just the idea that individuals could be viewed as unique souls and not jammed and crammed into culturally fashionable little boxes...but that’s another tale for another day.
There is a wide latitude for acting like a real man, and a wide latitude for acting like a real woman.
Perhaps a digression, but it really stuns me how women nowadays practically never, ever wear anything but pants, and usually jeans. At least around here (I never go anywhere else). And apparently Sears, for instance (according to a friend with 2 daughters) stopped even selling dresses or skirts for girls.
I mean - how about a choice??? Aren’t leftists keen on “choices”?
(And when I grew up, I did not become an elephant, a cowboy, a frontiersman, or a trans/bi/anything sandwich. Just a normal female who nowadays wears dresses and skirts...)
I MUST start previewing more often.
I just LIKE the idea that individuals...
:-(
Self publish it on Amazon!!!!!!
(pretty please?????)
I bet a lot of Aussies would buy it at the very least!
Been down that road, lots of nice comments from reviewers, editor loves it, no one is interested in autobiographies unless written by someone famous. Needless to say, I’m not.
You self published it on Amazon? Been down that road...? They’ll publish anything, give author a (probably small) cut, and advertise it on Amazon.
THAT'S when it struck me, I would have been better off if I were a boy! So any misgivings I had about being female stemmed from my mother's actions, not from anything I felt...as a result, I am inclined to blame the parent when a child has a gender issue. Maybe she wanted a boy? I was certainly more comfortable with being a girl, than she was.
My suggestion would be, if you have a child with a gender problem, investigate the parents.
No, not that particular road, not self-publish. I always saw that as the last ghasp.
I have a deep, visceral hatred of jeans. My washloads are full of them, and it takes twice through the dryer to get the danged things dry ... and then they’re still slovenly. Why not just go out in public in your Angry Birds pajama pants? It’s not as if you do manual labor for a living.
I didn’t grow up to be gender- or sexual-confused, either. Just an ordinary mother who wears dresses, skirts, capris, cotton slacks ...
I have to threaten my teenage daughters to get them to wear a dress for church, even though they get compliments from everyone they see if they do. The styles for girls are “just slovenly” - jeans and a t-shirt - or “slovenly and slutty” - shorts and tank tops that are more revealing than myh bathing suit. The concept of, “Put on tidy clothes” doesn’t seem to register.
These are little kids and other young people.
Leave them alone. It’s not a teacher’s job to help them choose gender.
Whatever happened to politeness, civility, respect for self and others, etc?
It’s really saddening how coarse, profane and lowgrade our culture has become.
I agree. It’s an art, rather than a science, to use social conventions rather than being controlled by them. However, our aim should always be to elevate ourselves and others, to edify people and occasions. “You put some decent clothes on to show respect for the event and the other people there.” For me, that’s a no-brainer. (Thank you, Mom - I can’t go to Walmart unless my earrings match my blouse.)
However, our aim should always be to elevate ourselves and others, to edify people and occasions.
In all ares of human endeavor....
I read this on a church sign this morning: “A hero is a person who sacrifices his or her life for something greater than oneself.” Holy Gender Confusion, Batman!
That is exactly correct. I’ve seen many articles about tiny children deciding (supposedly) that they are the opposite sex. When reading the entire articles, usually one finds that Grandma always dressed Timmy or Johnny in evening gowns and makeup, or Mom and Dad always gave Susie boy’s type toys and sports stuff and pushed her away from anything “feminine” or girly; or the “parents” are two men or two women.
Hero - man hero.
Heroine - woman hero.
It’s really quite simple.
What to speak of being a boy having advantages, I used to think if I had been born black, I wouldn’t get the horrible sunburns I always got, and I could wear my hair very short and it would just curl up naturally.
Such is life - we get what we get and that’s it (for this lifetime anyway). Always a mixed bag.
At least it would get out there...I’ve read that some authors started that way and then got readership and went the regular route.
Back in town and just now catching up . . . Love your wonderful photos and memories.
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