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Home Front: Culture Wars |
My Daughter Is Not Transgender. She's a Tomboy. |
2017-04-20 |
[NYT] "I just wanted to check," the teacher said. "Your child wants to be called a boy, right? Or is she a boy that wants to be called a girl? Which is it again?" I cocked my head. I am used to correcting strangers, who mistake my 7-year-old daughter for a boy 100 percent of the time. In fact, I love correcting them, making them reconsider their perceptions of what a girl looks like. But my daughter had been attending the after-school program where this woman taught for six months. "She’s a girl," I said. The woman looked unconvinced. "Really. She’s a girl, and you can refer to her as a girl." Later, when I relayed this conversation to my daughter, she said, "More girls should look like this so it’s more popular so grown-ups won’t be so confused." My daughter wears track pants and T-shirts. She has shaggy short hair (the look she requested from the hairdresser was "Luke Skywalker in Episode IV"). Most, but not all, of her friends are boys. She is sporty and strong, incredibly sweet, and a girl. And yet she is asked by the pediatrician, by her teachers, by people who have known her for many years, if she feels like, or wants to be called, or wants to be, a boy. In many ways, this is wonderful: It shows a much-needed sensitivity to gender nonconformity and transgender issues. It is considerate of adults to ask her -- in the beginning. |
Posted by:Besoeker |
#9 Great girl there Kansas. Nice job, makes me wish I was 10 again. |
Posted by: Skidmark 2017-04-20 20:53 |
#8 You've very clearly been reading Heinlein, swksvolFF. A daughter to be proud of. |
Posted by: trailing wife 2017-04-20 18:13 |
#7 Daughter likes and studies bugs, hunting frogs, baits and pulls her own hooks, gets in the mud, likes archery, groups her BBs in a quarter at 10 yards, find The Hobbit (the book) more interesting than pretty princess crap. Call her anything other than the sweetest girl ever and she may put you in a double-chicken wing - I'll take pictures and wipe my eyes with pride. And her requirements before getting her own phone - be able to: mow the yard. clean the gutters. change a tire. Each one all on her own, me spotting, but she gathers and returns the equipment. Then it will be a corded rotary phone until she proves she can maintain grades and chores and keep a numbers list or even better memorize numbers. And pardon me if I refuse the advice from a caste of society which prides itself on graduating architects who cannot disassemble an office max desk with an allen wrench. I do not think I need to get into what happens if I catch someone straight bald face lying to my children. |
Posted by: swksvolFF 2017-04-20 12:38 |
#6 It's the media. They want you to believe that everyone is perverted just like they are. |
Posted by: Abu Uluque 2017-04-20 12:27 |
#5 The proper answer is "Are you insane?". |
Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2017-04-20 12:03 |
#4 So the invasive 'polite society' is forcing a 7 year girl to make an uninformed life choice. |
Posted by: Skidmark 2017-04-20 11:18 |
#3 ...otherwise Springer wouldn't have a |
Posted by: Procopius2k 2017-04-20 11:12 |
#2 My sister was also a tomboy who was frequently thought to be a boy, which frustrated her greatly until she hit adolescence and people stopped making that mistake. People can be idiots. |
Posted by: trailing wife 2017-04-20 10:09 |
#1 Most, but not all, of her friends are boys. The other girls have assigned her to infiltrate the enemy camp & report back to them. |
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2017-04-20 10:01 |