A Boy's Life
http://www.feministe.us/blog/archives/2008/11/26/a-boys-life/ (http://www.feministe.us/blog/archives/2008/11/26/a-boys-life/)
Posted by: Jill in Gender
11/26/2008
This article in the Atlantic about transgender children:
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200811/transgender-children (http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200811/transgender-children) is really interesting, but for all the (often legitimate) worry about how to handle kids with "gender identity disorder," I can't help but think that we'd all be better off if our understanding of maleness and femaleness weren't so straightjacketed. A lot of little kids like to cross-dress; some don't feel at home in the gender roles they're being pushed into. Some of those kids will grow up to identify as trans, or as a gender other than the one they were born as; some won't. Seems to me it would be a lot better if we had a culture that allowed for greater gender fluidity, so that kids (and, hell, the rest of us) could just be themselves without being labeled "disordered" or freakish or wrong.
QuoteThis article in the Atlantic about transgender children is really interesting, but for all the (often legitimate) worry about how to handle kids with "gender identity disorder," I can't help but think that we'd all be better off if our understanding of maleness and femaleness weren't so straightjacketed.
http://www.feministe.us/blog/archives/2008/11/26/a-boys-life/ (http://www.feministe.us/blog/archives/2008/11/26/a-boys-life/)
oops! I always check this forum, wonder how I missed it already posted. Sorry!