One of the most common arguments against same-sex parents is that “all children need a mother and a father.” But some LGBT parents are making the argument that being a mother or a father is not necessarily correlated to being female or male—regardless of one’s gender identity.
Once again, it’s time to highlighting a post from an independent parenting blogger that has especially caught my eye. This week, it’s “Parenting without gender expectations means accepting all outcomes,” from Aly Windsor, who is parenting two kids with her partner and just started blogging at Embrace Release.
The winter holidays always seem to highlight that the world tends to divide toys into “girls” and “boys” varieties. Most of us here, I think, would agree that no one should be forced into particular types of play based on real or perceived gender. Over at Skepchick, Natalie Reed has a great article on “Guyliner, Murses,
The New York Times ran a must-read article yesterday on gender variance in children, “Boys Will Be Boys? Not in These Families.” Parents, says author Jan Hoffman, are increasingly accepting of gender nonconforming behavior in their children. “Rather than looking away,” she writes, “they are trying to understand their toddler’s unconventional gender behavior, in order
As promised, here is another in my series of quotes from Who’s Your Daddy? And Other Writings on Queer Parenting. I’ll be running them for a couple of weeks courtesy of the book’s editor, Rachel Epstein. I’m choosing the quotes I feel are most intriguing and thought provoking; I don’t always agree with the sentiments,
Conservative writer Debbie Schlussel, best known for her anti-Islamic vitriol, has a new target: Disney’s Tinkerbell. Schussel criticizes the new look Tink is sporting for her latest movie, Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure, calling it “butch and silly” and “not that different from Peter Pan.” (Clearly she’s forgotten that women played Peter Pan in
A friend whom I’ve known since college has launched a new blog with her husband, in which they offer their perspectives on gender and popular culture. They’ve only been at the blog, The Two Body Solution, for a short time, but they’re both English professors and have been writing about this sort of thing in
(Originally published in Bay Windows, June 17, 2009.) Disney Pixar’s new animated feature, Up, is a good movie, better than most children’s fare. My kindergartener and I both enjoyed it—but it left me with a few lingering qualms about its depiction of parenting and gender roles. The story revolves around 78-year-old Carl Fredricksen, who is
Helen and I tell you why bringing in cupcakes for a school birthday celebration also meant answering questions from our son’s classmates about our family. We also discuss a recent example of how kids learn gender roles, and ponder our love-hate relationship with Disney. We then take a more philosophical turn and wonder whether families
(I delayed posting this for a day because of all the Prop 8 stuff yesterday. Back to the usual Thursday next week.) Helen and I reveal Mombian readers’ favorite L Word parenting storyline. (Surprise: It’s not Bette and Tina.) We also discuss what happens when our son’s kindergarten classmates start playing “boys capture the girls”
