In the sea of pink that inevitably comes with having a newborn baby girl our eldest daughter seems to have emerged as a slight oddity: she wants to be a boy. For the sake of anonymity I’ll refer to her throughout this article as Taylor. It is has become a unisex name in recent years, but mainly it is her name of choice for when she is a boy.
This is a guest post I wrote for sexpositiveparenting. It's a new blog exploring sex and gender issues in parenting.
Great piece… speaking as the father of a boy who was disappointed not to be wearing a bridesmaids dress like his sisters at a recent wedding, fascinating reading!
That’s harder as it is more acceptable for a girl to dress as a boy than a boy as a girl. DH heard on the school run recently a mum say to her 5yo boy holding hands with another boy “Don’t do that, it’s weird”. V sad.
Also really bugs me when men get funny about their sons playing with dolls & buggies. They are playing at being parents – men have children too!
I totally agree – I think lots of boys go through a ‘pink’ phase too and have it jumped on because it’s not boyish. The urge to ‘stamp’ on it seems to be stronger when it’s a boy showing an interest in traditionally ‘girl’ things. I hate it. Sounds like you are doing the right thing with your daughter although I agree that it’s hard when you want them to value the good things about being a girl. It would be soo lovely if everyone could just be who they were without it having such an impact on the opportunities that might be available.
A great post Dilly, she might be a bit young, but Jump! was launched as an online magazine alternative to the pink and sparkly that’s out there for girls. It’s mostly written by kids, and started by a Mumsnetter too
you should have a look
jumpmag.co.uk
Julie
Thanks for the tip. I know of the magazine, I keep mean to write an article for it actually. I hadn’t thought of showing it to her yet but I might give it a go.