Gender Shmender... :P

~Warning long post ahead~

My dear love T is a great GREAT!! person and I don’t just say that because I am married to her, I say that because it is the truth! Not many people would take the time in this world to get to know this special person. As sad as it is they always wonder Girl? Or Boy? What is T? We get stares A LOT and it upsets my love & me, as she just wants to be her self. She doesn’t want to get a sex change to become a “guy” she just wants to be accepted as a person who likes more “masculine” type things. You see my love doesn’t identify as any particular “sex” she does enjoy more of societies idea of “boy things” and I think it is great, it makes T who she is! I have ALWAYS even at a young age questioned why some toys only had girls advertised in them and why some only had boys in them? Why do cars have to be a boy thing? Why do dolls have to be a girl thing? Why does pink = girl and blue = boy?  These questions raddle my brain more and more these days. 

We went shopping for baby items and it was scary to see that to the left of us was pink! Pink! Pink! To the right was… you guessed it blue! Blue! Blue! Everything from car seats to diapers was gender labeled with Girl or Boy.  Only a very small amount would be considered “gender neutral” because it had greens and yellows on it.

The car ride home brought up many little conversation about things we want to teach our son or daughter the main thing was teaching them acceptance for all people and to stand up for who they are.  We talked about the sad stories we have heard over the past few weeks about kids bulling and how hard it is for kids (even adults) to just be themselves without harsh judgment. I was bullied in school, beat up and teased regularly all because I liked my hair blue and wore a backpack in the shape of a happy face (I LOVED that backpack!!). I was a strong person inside and although some days it was VERY hard I tried to never let it get me, but I know not everyone is strong. Some of these kids have taken their own life because of these "bulling acts" and it sadness me.  I can’t help but think that maybe if we didn’t put pressure on our wee ones to conform to a role or to fit in to the “mold” of what is considered “normal”, if we let our daughters ware a transformer shirt and let our little guys play with a pink easy bake oven ......maybe things would change?

I am guilty of the pink = girl, when I look back at when I was younger (16 years old) and raising Sj alone there were times that I said “no that’s a boy’s toy silly” I cringe at the thought that those words ever passed through my lips. There is no “boys” or “girls” toys ...there is just toys. Media had me tricked to some degree to believe that there are girls and boys things for children, but over the years I have come to see that there isn’t. We decided that no mater what we are having we will only buy items that we love and that are neutral.  As our little monkey grows and starts to chose things that they love and want to wear or have, I am going to do the same thing we do with our daughter now, I will be there for them and let them know its ok to wear bright orange pants if they want and there is nothing wrong with wanting a bag in the shape of a happy face!

Hope you all have a great Weekend! 

~Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. It's a tough enough world out there...... Try just giving someone a smile this weekend you just never know who's day you might make a difference in!!~

Sigh...I miss you backpack!