Straightlaced

I was lucky enough to see this amazing film last week and to hear from the filmmaker, Debra Chasnoff. The subtitle for the film, “How gender’s got us all tied up,” speaks volumes. As do the voices of the youth in the film.
It’s heartbreaking to hear from boys who acknowledge that how they often act [...]

Read Full Post »

It’s so easy to get away with

It’s so easy to get away with making closed-minded statements about folks who don’t conform to gender norms. Or to sexuality norms. It remains so very easy. I don’t think that it’s the LAST acceptable stereotype or prejudice, but it remains an acceptable one.
This weekend I was part of a discussion on a different blog [...]

Read Full Post »

Troubling our comfortable norms

With a bit of publicity of late, this blog has had a sharp rise in visitors. I like that! It’s also brought with it some folks who rightfully question why I write this blog. In particular, there are questions about whether I’m somehow pigeon-holing Q and/or whether my appreciating things like his love for purple [...]

Read Full Post »

Losing and moving forward

Today brought with it the news of the defeat of marriage equality in Maine. I’m saddened, angered, frustrated by this loss. But I won’t explore the details of those sentiments here.
What’s most pertinent about this moment in history, as well as the anniversary of last year’s similar moment with Prop 8, is the message that [...]

Read Full Post »

The power of markers

Gender markers, that is. I’m continually fascinated by how folks read gender markers on Q. For example, this weekend, he was wearing jeans and a turquoise shirt (not too “loud” turquoise). He declared it “a blue day” — nothing about gender, just really about style. We were walking around our liberal town and he was [...]

Read Full Post »

Summarizing the mission

Recently, I was introduced to the AcceptingDad blog, which chronicles the life of a dad with a kiddo much like mine. A child born a boy, but who eschews many of the labels that so often come along with being a boy.
He’s got an amazing post that, to me, summarizes the “mission” of my blog. [...]

Read Full Post »

Mechanically-inclined

This morning, Q was looking through a catalog, pointing out things to me that he was interested in. The list included a take-apart model of the human body, a model of a solar house, a robotic arm, and many marble runs.

He’s really interested in how things work — looking carefully, taking things apart, etc. Out [...]

Read Full Post »