The first person, on hearing that she was not, asked somewhat indignantly, "So why's she in blue?"
Clearly, the answer to THAT ridiculous question is "Because that's what she wanted to wear today." (Alternatively, "It's the one she hasn't spit up on yet.")
What are your thoughts about infants and gender?
Cheekily, I think that infants don't care about gender.
Less cheekily, I'm with Skwid. I don't think there's anything wrong with acknowledging that you're sporting a pair of X chromosomes. Sure, toss the cultural crap to the side of the road and buy the girl bulldozers and GI Joe figures if that's what makes her happy, but I don't find anything particularly wrong calling a girl a girl.
I'm learning that kids do a fine job of figuring out their own identities - gender, sexual orientation, social identity - pretty well without any active "teaching" on our parts. It's when we try to reinforce gender identities that things go all pear shaped.
We've tried really hard not to overthink it - we haven't actively taught gender identity, but we haven't actively tried to keep everything neutral, either, letting them make up their own minds about who they are.
So far, I think that has worked. They don't think and act in terms of "what boys do" and "what girls do", but rather in terms of "what people do".
no subject
Clearly, the answer to THAT ridiculous question is "Because that's what she wanted to wear today." (Alternatively, "It's the one she hasn't spit up on yet.")
What are your thoughts about infants and gender?
Cheekily, I think that infants don't care about gender.
Less cheekily, I'm with Skwid. I don't think there's anything wrong with acknowledging that you're sporting a pair of X chromosomes. Sure, toss the cultural crap to the side of the road and buy the girl bulldozers and GI Joe figures if that's what makes her happy, but I don't find anything particularly wrong calling a girl a girl.
I'm learning that kids do a fine job of figuring out their own identities - gender, sexual orientation, social identity - pretty well without any active "teaching" on our parts. It's when we try to reinforce gender identities that things go all pear shaped.
We've tried really hard not to overthink it - we haven't actively taught gender identity, but we haven't actively tried to keep everything neutral, either, letting them make up their own minds about who they are.
So far, I think that has worked. They don't think and act in terms of "what boys do" and "what girls do", but rather in terms of "what people do".