November 28, 2005

Raising a Child Gender-Free

There is an old entry over at This Woman's Work that I read recently. It is a entry that responds to the question: how would you handle your children if they grew up transgendered?. This piece and the comments that follow are a good "conversation" about transgenderism and also about bringing up a child "gender-less". After reading the entry and thinking about my 16 month-old son, I thought about the idea of countering the social-imposition of gender by forcing a child to be "gender-less". Watching my son develop - especially as he begins to adopt charactistics that could be considered a gendered behavior (plays with trucks - male, loves to read - female)- I realize that my preference is to let him traverse the world of gender as he sees fit. Thankfully, my wife also feels this way. The job for my wife and myself is to not judge his choices and support him in his journey. Of course, talk to me in 18 years and see how well I was able to complete this job.

via This Woman's Work - An Addition Worth Thinking About

Posted by Russell at November 28, 2005 07:24 AM

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