Six-year-old son loves wearing dresses

[pleated]

There is a discussion over at psychologytoday.com between the mother and another person who has published work about these issues.
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/rai ... n/comments
I have added two comments which I hope will be useful. I also included a link to skirtcafe.

[ethelthefrog]

I'm not too sure about this one, maybe the mother just wanted a daughter
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/artic ... -walk.html

I've been following her blog for a couple of years. There is no evidence whatsoever to support the suggestion that she wanted a daughter. It was the child's insistence that he be allowed to wear dresses. As Duron says (in her book), why were they filtering one child's toy and clothing choices but not his older brother's? It was obvious to the parents (and to CJ) that he was being treated differently from his brother and they decided that enough was enough. If CJ wanted to play with Barbies and wear a dress, then why should they stop him? They realised that they could choose to make their own son feel comfortable as a member of his own family, or they could make strangers feel comfortable by oppressing their child. They decided that the former was the better way of parenting.

[Stevie D]

Here's another:

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archi ... it/279333/

These parents are just letting their kids be themselves.

The author of the Atlantic blog is Matt Duron, i.e. Lori's husband, CJ's dad. So it's the same family as the original poster referred to.
I've also been following Lori's blog for many months; CJ is blessed with wonderful, loving and understanding parents.

[familyman34]

Here's another:

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archi ... it/279333/

These parents are just letting their kids be themselves.

Now, childrearing obviously does involve teaching the offspring not to follow their instincts and preferences in a variety of ways. Don't drink the turpentine. Don't put your finger in the socket. Don't lie or steal. No hitting. Go to school. And so on. But parents can't be all-controlling. The child needs to assert him- or herself some way or other, and so the parent needs to choose which battles to fight. Too many and too few are both wrong. So why battle fashion when there are so many more important issues to deal with?

I was at a hockey game last season and noticed a 12-year-old boy wearing a midiskirt in the men's room. I only got a glimpse, then he was gone, but I wish I'd had a moment to wish him, "Be yourself."

Of course, dressing a boy in skirts when he doesn't want that is just as wrong, in most cases, as forbidding him if he wants it.

And school dress codes and peer hazing can both be problems.

Here's another article on a similar theme from the archive at The Atlantic magazine:
https://www.theatlantic.com/family/arch ... od/562232/.
also available without the paywall at https://archive.ph/VbVE9

[Barleymower]

I might be wrong but for a while there pre 2020 the news articles are more progressive and exploring the possibility that men might enjoy what women already have. Men don't need to constantly front up a totally stereotypical masculine persona. Relax a bit and yes wear skirt.
Post 2020 and it all seems to gone south. Pronouns, trans, gender questioning, wokism etc. The reaction to it has not been entirely supportive but it's probably people just having their reaction while they get used to it.

I'm still glad I did what I did and I'm much less anxious for it.

[timemeddler]

He's a six year old, at that age dressing up pretty normal, despite virtue signaling parents that freak out when a three year old puts on his sisters skirt, or his moms heels, who then go and post the story on social media going on about how they're raising him to be a conservative manly man or something. Yeah Right.

[JohnH]

Speaking about dolls: When I was a little boy my mother gave me a doll whose eyes closed whenever you lay it on its back. I was curious why the eyes closed, so as a typical little boy, I took the doll apart to see how the eyes closed. Mother was upset, but she figured out that is what a little boy would do.
And then I was given a toy iron with a string "cord". Somewhere I came across a replacement electrical plug. I moistened several centimeters of the string and jammed the string into the plug. The I shoved the plug into an outlet and there was a great big spark.
When I was a little older I wanted a skirt. So I took a pair of shorts and cut through the crotch to create a crude skirt.
I had no sisters but had two younger brothers. We dressed up as Mommy and Daddy, wearing Mommy's dresses and clopping around with Dad's shoes and Mom's heels.

John

[Fred in Skirts]

John, Sounds like typical kid activity to me. My brother and I did similar things when we were very small.

[JeffB1959]

To add my two cents worth, at so young an age, kids are always experimenting, looking to establish what they like and don't like, it's as natural as breathing. As for this lad, maybe he'll grow out of his desire to wear dresses as he grows older, maybe he won't, that's up to him. Whether or not that leads to gender dysphoria issues once puberty hits is unknown.

[JohnH]

Maybe we ought to tell Lori Duron, the mother, there are big boys who wear dresses as MEN such as some of us.

John

[FranTastic444]

Apart from the resurrection of an 11-year old post ( ), the thing I find odd here is that the Raising My Rainbow blog had its last post in 2021 announcing the 14th birthday of CJ. Despite a bit of searching, I've been unable to find out what happened to the family since then. Did CJ suddenly click into conformity or did he decide that his life had become too public? It would be interesting to hear what a now 17-year old CJ is up to (as well as his family for that matter).

At various times I've followed families like this on social media (mainly Instagram). I always have this uneasy feeling about how genuine the situation is and whether the parents are capitalzing on matters (even if the kids interest in what clothes they wear is genuine). I wouldn't want to cast any aspersions here, but I know that there were questions raised about the intent of the mother when a Frozen-obsessed, dress-wearing male kid cropped up in our own family (mom was an ex part-time model who briefly skirted with the social meedjya scene and who was thought of by some as a bit of an attention seeker).

[STEVIE]

It would be interesting to hear what a now 17-year old CJ is up to (as well as his family for that matter).

For some people, 10 minutes of fame is more than enough and in many cases 10 more than they earned in the first case.
Let's face it, there are many boys of various ages doing the skirt and dress routine these days so publicity/hype value is limited.
Steve.