What's so Bad About a Boy Wearing a Dress?
What’s So Bad About a Boy Who Wants to Wear a Dress?
Introduction
The phone rings and it is your friend letting you know she has had her baby and the baby’s name is Alex; immediately you congratulate her on the birth of her son. It never crosses your mind that the baby could be a girl. While grocery shopping you run into a co-worker and her children. One child is noticeably a little boy because of his short haircut, spider man shirt, athletic shorts, sports team hat and his shoes are covered mud from his morning dirt adventure, he is introduced as Matthew; the other child has long hair and is wearing a pink and yellow dress, purple necklace, green bracelets, black athletic shoes and is carrying a doll, this child is introduced to you as Jamie. In response you tell Matthew you love his spider man shirt and Jamie you think her doll is pretty; quickly your co-worker corrects you and says “Jamie is my son also.” How do you respond? The article I choose is about similar situations; parents and children struggling to find the middle ground between male and female identities and children not knowing which gender they identify best with. Our society is socially constructed to identify boy names versus girl names and gender and identities based on the genitalia of the child; although for some it is not a simple choice to follow the social norms of gender.
Recently, the New York Times published an article titled “What’s So Bad About a Boy Who Wants to Wear a Dress?” written by Ruth Padawer. In this article Padawer discusses the stresses provided to parents and children when it comes to identifying with a specific gender. The article details interviews with parents and children who have chosen to identify themselves in a way that bends the gender norms. Padawer connects to the sensitivity of the situation for parents and the complexity of the situation for children. Most parents according to Padawer are lost and do not know who to turn to when confronted with a
Introduction
The phone rings and it is your friend letting you know she has had her baby and the baby’s name is Alex; immediately you congratulate her on the birth of her son. It never crosses your mind that the baby could be a girl. While grocery shopping you run into a co-worker and her children. One child is noticeably a little boy because of his short haircut, spider man shirt, athletic shorts, sports team hat and his shoes are covered mud from his morning dirt adventure, he is introduced as Matthew; the other child has long hair and is wearing a pink and yellow dress, purple necklace, green bracelets, black athletic shoes and is carrying a doll, this child is introduced to you as Jamie. In response you tell Matthew you love his spider man shirt and Jamie you think her doll is pretty; quickly your co-worker corrects you and says “Jamie is my son also.” How do you respond? The article I choose is about similar situations; parents and children struggling to find the middle ground between male and female identities and children not knowing which gender they identify best with. Our society is socially constructed to identify boy names versus girl names and gender and identities based on the genitalia of the child; although for some it is not a simple choice to follow the social norms of gender.
Recently, the New York Times published an article titled “What’s So Bad About a Boy Who Wants to Wear a Dress?” written by Ruth Padawer. In this article Padawer discusses the stresses provided to parents and children when it comes to identifying with a specific gender. The article details interviews with parents and children who have chosen to identify themselves in a way that bends the gender norms. Padawer connects to the sensitivity of the situation for parents and the complexity of the situation for children. Most parents according to Padawer are lost and do not know who to turn to when confronted with a
References: Padawer, P. (2012, August 08). What’s so bad about a boy who wants to wear a dress? The New York Times. Retrieved from http://nytimes.com/2012/08/12/magazine/whats-so-bad-about-a-boy-who-wants-to-wear-a-dress.html Foss, S.K., Domenico, M.E., & Foss, K.A. (2013). Gender stories: Negotiating identity in a binary world. Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press.