This scenerio was recently addressed in an episode of ABC Primetime's What Would You Do? Two male actors, one playing the part of the father and another of a 5-6 year old boy, went into a toy store. The child immediately went to the shelf of barbies. In one scenario, the "dad" allowed the child to get the toy and in the next scenerio, he tried to convince his son to choose a different toy. The varous reactions evoked by people were suprising. Women were more likely to tell the dad to allow the child to get the toy and not to worry about it since it is probably just a phase. Most guys in the store seemed to not want the child to get the doll and helped the dad encourage the boy towards more "boyish" toys such as trucks and action figures.
The shows next scenerio took it further, with the child actor now wanting a barbie...while he was wearing a dress. Again, most women laughed this off while men could not accept it. They threw out words like "sissy" and other more offensive terms, toward this young child. I couldn't believe how strong some of the reactions were. It seems ridiculous to get so angry over such a silly thing. If the situation were real, the child would probably grow out of it, and if not, who cares. Diversity makes the world interesting right?
Also, recently on the news is a real boy who likes to wear dresses. His mom wrote a book called, "My Princess Boy," to raise awareness about how her son is just like any other 5 year old boy except that he likes to wear dresses. Is his gender identity confused or is he just having fun? I tend to believe he is just having fun. People need to back off and let children experiment because that is how they learn. Maybe the people with such negative reactions should read the book to gain a little more acceptance of people's differences.
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