Gender stereotypes: Won't someone think of the children?
Holidays are here, and that means visiting extended family. One of my relatives, an aunt, has four children, two of them are grown up, and two are new from her new partner. As I drove back home with my sister, she said something to me
She reported to me that our aunt was strongly enforcing gender stereotypes on her infant son and daughter.
Gender stereotypes definitely affect children, especially when parents interact with them.
What do to do?
There are a few ways
Status quo? Often makes life hell for trans people, especially trans youth if there is no culture of awareness or acceptance, and even if they are cisgender, gender non-conformity is often discouraged or worst case punished, at best tolerated, but expected to be "just a phase" and inauthentic for their assigned gender.
Integrate the possibility that the child might be transgender when you assign gender at their birth. This would leave transitioning for trans people as we know it, but hopefully, it'd be uncontroversial. My sister plans on doing and promises to be inclusive of any transgender or gender variant child.
Stop the assignment of gender altogether. Raise them neutrally and let them decide what gender they might be. If this happened, the differences and similarities between cisgender and transgender would blend together and break apart. This would be the most ambitious plan, but it is possible.
My aunt is not only enforcing the status quo but enforcing gender conformity at such a young age. This reminds me of how much enforcement gender gets. I also get reminded of the wrong gender that was imposed on me. I had been dealing with feelings of a missing past because I was not raised as the right gender, I do not know what a non-binary childhood or adolescence would be like, but maybe I could have been raised as a girl, I would rather be a girl than a boy. I know that transitioning offers a better future and perhaps the future is the hope, not just for me, but for everyone who will live and grow up over there, in a more accepting society of trans and gender non-conforming people. We can fix this.
Thank you for reading, share, and comment!
-Mx Brittany
Want to see this post earlier? Support me here!
She reported to me that our aunt was strongly enforcing gender stereotypes on her infant son and daughter.
Gender stereotypes definitely affect children, especially when parents interact with them.
What do to do?
There are a few ways
Status quo? Often makes life hell for trans people, especially trans youth if there is no culture of awareness or acceptance, and even if they are cisgender, gender non-conformity is often discouraged or worst case punished, at best tolerated, but expected to be "just a phase" and inauthentic for their assigned gender.
Integrate the possibility that the child might be transgender when you assign gender at their birth. This would leave transitioning for trans people as we know it, but hopefully, it'd be uncontroversial. My sister plans on doing and promises to be inclusive of any transgender or gender variant child.
Stop the assignment of gender altogether. Raise them neutrally and let them decide what gender they might be. If this happened, the differences and similarities between cisgender and transgender would blend together and break apart. This would be the most ambitious plan, but it is possible.
My aunt is not only enforcing the status quo but enforcing gender conformity at such a young age. This reminds me of how much enforcement gender gets. I also get reminded of the wrong gender that was imposed on me. I had been dealing with feelings of a missing past because I was not raised as the right gender, I do not know what a non-binary childhood or adolescence would be like, but maybe I could have been raised as a girl, I would rather be a girl than a boy. I know that transitioning offers a better future and perhaps the future is the hope, not just for me, but for everyone who will live and grow up over there, in a more accepting society of trans and gender non-conforming people. We can fix this.
Thank you for reading, share, and comment!
-Mx Brittany
Want to see this post earlier? Support me here!
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