Would YOU let your son wear a dress?

[Stu]

Article in today's Daily Mail (UK).

LORRAINE CANDY's four-year-old son adores floral frocks and runs an imaginary boutique called Slinx in her bedroom. She isn't worried. But should she be?

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/artic ... z1Ec6QQZ2D

Stu

[zizkov]

Rather more important is would I let my son read The Daily Mail.

[crfriend]

I just got through reading the article in question and feel the need to second Zizkov's remark above.

On the surface, the article is benign enough, but there is an undercurrent to it that only helps further the gender-lock of "men wear trousers only" which I find sad. The author's crack of an image of a 4-year-old in a dress hindering his chances of becoming Prime Minister were rather humourous as plenty of childhood pictures exist of US Presidents in dresses and gowns during their early years.

Here in the US, the case of the "Princess Boy" is usually used as a comic gag to gain viewers or listeners when it's announced on the agenda, and then the story gets short shrift in the overall scheme of things and usually gets twisted in the process and, ultimately, becomes a matter of humour. The article in the Daily Mail furthers the same stereotype.

I think that taken ideally, early childhood really should be rather asexual; the children don't particularly care, and "open underneath" garments are convenient for parental intervention for the "end of the tube with a complete lack of responsibility". Once puberty starts to become imminent, then things might have to change a bit, but I suspect the absolute rigidity in costume that's visited upon Western men and boys is a bit overwhelming in its demands for absolute conformity.

I give the article a 1 out of five for creativity and a 2 out of five for solid advice. The comments, of course, point up the (self-selected) quality of the Daily Mail readership.

[Charlie]

I just posted this comment:

What is the matter with our so-called 'equal' society when we allow girls to dress in either skirts or trousers, but only allow their brothers the single choice of trousers?
The author's son is behaving normally - it is the adults that have the problem, and will pass it on to the boy, who in turn will have the same problem when he becomes an adult.
When he was four, my son loved to carry a handbag. One or two of his friend's mothers advised my wife to stop him, in case he grew up gay. Wisely, she ignored them, and now he is a normal hetrosexual male.
Let the lad wear dresses, he knows something most males don't - skirts and dresses are far more comfortable on the male anatomy than trousers ever will be. There's more to being a man than wearing trousers!

Charlie

[STEVIE]

Daily Mail readers are not really renowned as the most liberally enlightened segment of U.K. society.
I found it mildly offensive in the article, " Men find it unsettling while women are mildly amused" Unfortunately this sort of cliched nonsense does nothing to help the child in particular and our situation in general.
I started on the skirted road a bit older than the boy in the article and knew damned well not to confide it to anybody. Self preservation is a wonderful thing.
Now as a married adult, I'm sure I'd have dealt with our Son much better than my wife could have if he had been the one with the particular fashion sense.
The other factor is the age of the child. At four, he is simply "testing the waters". By the teenage years we are in very different territory, where the question of "let" is much more moot and guidance is the order of the day.
In the end, as a parent, acceptance of the child as, he or she wants to live their lives, is paramount.
Never mind becoming Prime Minister or President, in a skirt, our kids should be happy for themselves, no exceptions.
Steve.

[ethelthefrog]

I second STEVIE's point. The Daily Mail isn't worthy of being nailed to the toilet door and used to wipe your bottom.

The day the Mail considers any behaviour that doesn't fall within 0.1% of societal "norms" (as defined by the Mail itself, of course) as anything other than reprehensible will be the day I eat my skirt collection.

The only driver of content is sales. Truth, honesty and integrity are simply not on the radar. As an example, this blog post highlights the fact that the Daily Mail was simultaneously campaigning for AND against providing the HPV vacceine in schools in the UK and Republic of Ireland.

Simply put, it's trash. A waste of good trees. Ignore it.

[Since1982]

I "third" all of what was said in the positive. As most of the long time members know and the new members will now learn, I was raised in skirts and dresses by my Mom until we moved to an area that insisted on all children attending public school instead of "home schooling". In my case that was age 12 and the seventh grade. All the common misconceptions of "don't let HIM wear a skirt or dress or he'll surely become QUEER" (this was in the 1940's and 50's and the word GAY wasn't commonly used.) were dumped all over my Mom as a "bad person" who was ruining her son. As most of you already know, I'm not at all interested in trying the Gay lifestyle, for me at any rate. Of course I'm also a proponent of "Whatever flops your mop" being OK.

I don't believe a mother putting her son in dresses if he likes it, can "make" a boy either GAY or Heterosexual. In my case, it was her idea to begin with, but once I tried trousers, I couldn't wait to get the trousers off and my skirt back on after school. I think all boys should have the choice of pants OR skirts as soon as they can walk. Let ALL children choose what they wish to wear of the available choices.