Article in Student Magazine

[Barleymower]

Hi Steve

I was that "boy", dragged out on shopping trips for stuff for my sisters, the price was irrelevant the goods on display, priceless in my young eyes.
That envy and sense of frustration did a lot of damage which took a damnably long time to rectify.

Thanks. That's interesting, so I have a thought experiment.

One specific item I do recall us buying from Persephone for our daughter was a mid-blue velvet pinafore dress with an embroidered horse on the front and which came with a coordinating hair bow of the kind I mentioned. Now just imagine your mum took you and your sisters into that shop and they tried on and decided to buy this outfit and then your mum had suggested that maybe you should try it as well so you could all be identical siblings. My guess is that while there would have been some temptation to have gone along with it, in reality you would have reacted strongly against it and told your mum that she had taken leave of her senses. The fact is you were a boy and, while you had a suppressed interest in, or even a fascination for, feminine items, you were also developing your male persona which would have been threatened by donning such an outfit, let along wearing it publicly. You would have been insulted by the suggestion. Or am I saying that because that's how I would have reacted while you would have been absolutely delighted?

As for London on 24th - unfortunately, my wife has recently undergone a full hip replacement, so I can't leave her for any length of time just yet. I am sure there will be other events and it would be great to meet up with everyone here.

Stu

Hi stu, Give my regards to you wife and I hope her hips heal quickly.

With regard to your comments above. Please consider the following statements.

1. Masculine and feminine exist. Tribes in remote jungles without outside influence behave in a similar manner to our society.
2. The is no such thing as feminine items. It is a construct.
3. Our constructed versions of masculinity and femininity are embedded in our children by us from birth.
4. Boys displaying feminine traits are ridiculed. Girls displaying masculine traits are celebrated.

It all comes down to humiliation. Boys and girls know what they are. It's mortifying for either gender to be ridiculed for wanting what the other side has. Nobody wants to be laughed at or even worse bullied or laughed at, bullied and ostracised.

It takes all sorts but there are millions of kids out there who don't fit the stereotype. Enough to throw the binary out of the window.

Take these kids:
https://www.tiktok.com/@loulousoupu/vid ... 9704516891
And
https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGJoY2d8s/

What's masculinity and femininity to them?

[rivegauche]

When I was a little boy - perhaps 6-7 - I went through a brief phase of believing girls were a lower form of life. It didn't last long. In my teens and as a student I had very long wavy hair and was occasionally assumed to be female. It didn't upset me - not even slightly. That was before I embraced any form of appearance associated with the female. Now that I wear skirts and dresses as a male and also dress and present completely as a woman I am occasionally taken to be one. I am delighted by this but see it mainly as a tribute to my acting - because it is just ACTING and it is FUN. For me a lot of women's clothes and accessories are inherently beautiful in a way that most male counterparts are not - how sad that half the population is conditioned to shy away from this beauty and seldom get to enjoy it at first hand. There is also a frisson you can get from having your skirt blowing in the wind against your legs - bare or in tights - that most men will never feel. For most of us it is not sexual, but it is very pleasant. Time to stop discouraging little boys from exploring this via natural curiosity. At the same time they might also avoid developing this unfortunate tendency to regard females as inferior.