Gender we intend to be.
Someone wrote…
Yesterday, a little kid pointed to me and said “Boy!” I love how toddlers can be more aware of the gender we intend to be. Most grown-ups pay more attention to the gender we’re supposed to be.
What’s your experience?
Posted by julian on July 27th, 2009 at 03:28 pm
Category: your voice 4 comments »
July 28th, 2009 at 12:02 am |
However sweet this may be, I think it has less to do with kids being hyper-aware and more about how kidlets' brains work.
Up until the age of about 8, kids are mostly unable to comprehend "gender" the way that most adults think they should — they believe that a) gender is easily changeable (which is pretty awesome) and b) gender is based on mostly-aesthetic (socially-defined) secondary sex characteristics, such as hair length/style or clothing ("Dad has short hair, therefore all people with short hair are like Dad [men]").
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Sheik replied:
July 28th, 2009 at 1:55 pm
I think that's why I miss being a kid. Gender was easy and if you messed up and someone got hurt, you said sorry like a big kid and it was all better. None of the bullshit drama that goes on now that I'm taller.
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July 28th, 2009 at 7:34 am |
A six year old girl told me once last week the only girls in my house were her and her mother. XD
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August 17th, 2009 at 4:44 am |
Indeed! One of he happiest moments of my life was when a little kid called me "Mr. Bicycle Man" (^__^)
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