Articles about books about gender non-conforming children..

[Raakone]

Hi. Read these articles today, about two children's books. "Jacob's New Dress" and "Morris Micklewhite and the Tangerine Dress." Go to https://www.kirkusreviews.com/features/ ... ure-books/ for the review, and http://blaine.org/sevenimpossiblethings/?p=3340 has some of the pages and illustrations. It's very nice. With the recent articles you've been posting about this thing, thought it would make sense to post this here.

[Caultron]

It's interesting (and rather amazing) how support for non-gender-typical children has grown in recent years.

This whole area is a somewhat disturbing because we normally don't think of pre-teens as being sexual, let alone non-mainstream sexual. It makes me wonder sometimes how much of it is deep-seated and real, and how much is slight tendencies magnified by some psychologist or over-supportive parent. But it's been coming up often enough and widely enough that I suppose it is real, at lease some cases.

School clothing in general seems to be over-regulated. I suppose there'll always a need for some dress codes so kids don't show up in pajamas or swimsuits, but dress codes still shouldn't stifle creativiity and self-expression.

About four months ago I spotted a roughly 12-year-old boy wearing a pleated midi-skirt in the men's room at a hockey game. He was with his dad and seemed a little uncomfortable, but wearing a skirt must've been his own idea rather than his dad's or anyone else's. His dad was dressed conventionally. I wish I knew more but it was only a fleeting glance.

I never saw the boy again but a few months later I started wearing utility kilts to hockey games myself, and that kid's courage was part of the inspiration.

[Sinned]

David Walliams has also written a book called "The boy in a dress" and the boy is incidentally called "Dennis". Not about me unfortunately but he has pre-empted my idea for a book so I'll at least have to call it something else - "Dennis' skirt" perhaps? An imaginary story about a boy who grows up to be a man in a skirt. I might have a little hassle over my calling the boy/man "Dennis" but I suppose that I could use my "Sinned" pseudonym.

[Caultron]

Occasionally I come across this photo on the Internet and always wonder how it came about.

image.jpg

[skirtyscot]

Maybe they are Scottish Boy Scouts making a human pyramid. Some troops have the kilt as part of their uniform.

[Big and Bashful]

Nah! not Scottish kids, the sky is blue and they aren't either blue with cold or burnt red. Also they look like pleated skirts to me, rather than kilts with the apron type thing at the front.

[Caultron]

There are several clues (such as the olive-and-yellow bridge in the background, and the block walls around the back yards) that suggest this photo was taken in Phoenix, Arizona, or possibly some other southwestern city.

And the plaid pleated skirts are commonly used as school uniforms, especially in religious or other private schools.

I assume this wasn't everyday wear for these boys, and that just raises the curiosity of how it was arranged, The boys don't seem coerced of humiliated, though.

[Grok]

I have noticed school girls wearing similar skirts. I presume that some were borrowed for the photo. Actually, in terms of appearance, these skirts look plausible on the boys.

[crfriend]

[...] Actually, in terms of appearance, these skirts look plausible on the boys.

Strike the term "actually". Those skirts absolutely work on those guys, and, in point of fact, more skirts "work" on guys than don't. It's all about creating a context that will ease the observer's cognitive dissonance.

I have a photograph of me stuck up on the wall in back of where I sit at work that shows me sitting at the front-panel of LCM's (Seattle's Living Computer Museum) KI-10 system. The photo has been there for a good two or three weeks and nobody's commented on the fact that I'm wearing a skirt in the shot. Not a one. The photo is a bit dark (thanks to a misadjusted LASER-printer at my last job), but if one looks carefully the fact that my hands are folded in my lap and there is but a single tube to my lower garment is quite obvious. (The same shot is posted here someplace.)

Really, the trick is to wear the entire ensemble well -- do that and the skirt merely becomes an accessory.

[Sinned]

There was an article in Saturday's Daily Mirror about a 6 year old called Paddy that apparently has shown a propensity for girl's clothes since he was 2 year old. He wears boy's clothes to school only so he can "pretend" to be a boy but in every other respect appears to be a girl in a boy's body. Strikes me that he will be a candidate for a sex change when he's older. What gets me from the article is that there are 308 youngsters referred to a clinic for gender identity issues. And that is just from one area! The implication is that there must be thousands of young people referred for conditions ranging from just wanting to wear some girl's clothes to full-on gender changing.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/real-life- ... ix-3297202

In the copy of the paper there's a short article by Alex Drummond a Transgender Psychotherapist:
"Paddy's parents are to be praised for having the courage to let him explore his identity. Children who are not able to express themselves in this way and are forced to conform often end up suffering emotional distress and anxiety in the long term.

"Nothing is cast in stone. We don't know how this young person will self express themselves later.

"What we do know is that people who have ultimately transitioned frequently say they knew they were that way from a young age but nobody believed them. Lots of people also suppress it in order to survive and get by in the playground."

How true that is for us as well.

[crfriend]

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/real-life- ... ix-3297202

This bit gives me distinct pause:

She was shocked to see Paddy in a dress but she explained that she had lots of brothers and when she was a little girl she liked to dress as a boy. Paddy said ‘why would you want to dress as a boy? Boys are rubbish.’

There's something more to this than meets the eye.

I can see being jealous of the girls when one is a little boy. Girls get all the nice stuff and the boys get kicked outside. Girls typically receive more parental attention than boys. And girls get things like interesting fabrics that feel nice that the boys are typically denied. So I can certainly understand jealousy. But, "Boys are rubbish"? Where did that come from.

Something's off the rails somewhere. That mentality is not healthy at all.

[pleated]

There's something more to this than meets the eye.

I can see being jealous of the girls when one is a little boy. Girls get all the nice stuff and the boys get kicked outside. Girls typically receive more parental attention than boys. And girls get things like interesting fabrics that feel nice that the boys are typically denied. So I can certainly understand jealousy. But, "Boys are rubbish"? Where did that come from.

Something's off the rails somewhere. That mentality is not healthy at all.

At that age he would not have the capacity to formulate something like "The roles that boys are expected to conform to are stupid and restrictive (and therefore rubbish)"

[pleated]

There was an article in Saturday's Daily Mirror about a 6 year old called Paddy that apparently has shown a propensity for girl's clothes since he was 2 year old. He wears boy's clothes to school only so he can "pretend" to be a boy but in every other respect appears to be a girl in a boy's body. Strikes me that he will be a candidate for a sex change when he's older. What gets me from the article is that there are 308 youngsters referred to a clinic for gender identity issues. And that is just from one area! The implication is that there must be thousands of young people referred for conditions ranging from just wanting to wear some girl's clothes to full-on gender changing.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/real-life- ... ix-3297202

In the copy of the paper there's a short article by Alex Drummond a Transgender Psychotherapist:
"Paddy's parents are to be praised for having the courage to let him explore his identity. Children who are not able to express themselves in this way and are forced to conform often end up suffering emotional distress and anxiety in the long term.

"Nothing is cast in stone. We don't know how this young person will self express themselves later.

"What we do know is that people who have ultimately transitioned frequently say they knew they were that way from a young age but nobody believed them. Lots of people also suppress it in order to survive and get by in the playground."

How true that is for us as well.

The problem here is the restrictions imposed on children by the rigid expectations of increasingly restrictive gender roles. I see that in this case the gender police and the "transgender therapy" industry are already moving in. The sex-change mafia can not be too far behind determined to (literally) take their "pound of flesh".

[dillon]

The problem here is the restrictions imposed on children by the rigid expectations of increasingly restrictive gender roles. I see that in this case the gender police and the "transgender therapy" industry are already moving in. The sex-change mafia can not be too far behind determined to (literally) take their "pound of flesh".

Agreed, to some extent. I hope the parents will be relaxed enough to allow the boy to develop freely without trying to pigeon-hole him into a gender role, or physical sexual identity, at a tender age. He will sort it out for himself in time, if given the unconditional love and support of his family. Parents today are far too concerned and meddlesome in every aspect of their child's life, and hold expectations beyond those which any child should have to carry. At least it is better than times were when I was young. Had I presented myself in such a form, I would have been hastily corrected as to exactly what my gender role was to be...by the belt, if necessary. Still, if SRS is in the boy's future, it is far better that he understand the consequences so he can decide and act on it at a younger age rather than older. I do feel, however, that constant counseling and psychological examination would only add unnecessary stress to his situation, and perhaps lead to self-loathing and excessive/obsessive fretting about his difference.

[allen476]

There are several clues (such as the olive-and-yellow bridge in the background, and the block walls around the back yards) that suggest this photo was taken in Phoenix, Arizona, or possibly some other southwestern city.

And the plaid pleated skirts are commonly used as school uniforms, especially in religious or other private schools.

I assume this wasn't everyday wear for these boys, and that just raises the curiosity of how it was arranged, The boys don't seem coerced of humiliated, though.

I first looked at the photo and saw that there were a few clues as to the location of the photo.

First there is a lemon tree in the background. Couple that with the style of the telephone pole, it suggested the southwest US. I first thought California.

The logo on the shirts is the same. The one that is highly visible becomes to blurry when enlarged. So I google image searched and found the author's photobucket account. A picture from that account led me to the origins of the logo.

It is Saints Simon and Jude school in Phoenix, AZ.