Worries

This morning the three of us were laying in bed, falling in and out of sleep before getting up for the day. I was looking at that little face with those big eyes, and I started to worry. I wondered if I would be treating her differently if she'd been a boy. If she had been born a boy would I be as affectionate, or tell him he was pretty as often as I do? Would I snuggle him as much as I do this little girl? It worries that we are already shaping her understanding of what and who she is expected to be as a girl/woman. I guess it doesn't worry me exactly, but it concerns me in terms of the way I relate to her. Societal gender norms are oppressive enough as it is without my adding to them.

There's no real answer to this problem. Ultimately, I have to keep an eye on how the way I behave, the way that I relate to her, and her mother and all the other women in our lives. I want her to grow up in a world where there's simply no question of a whether a woman can be president, but when it will be.

Comments

[Angela]

I think as long as you teach her her how to throw a baseball in addition to teaching her how to bake a vegan cake...you'll be okay

[kmhc]

well, maybe you'd be just as worried if she had been born a boy. and you should be with the new national idenity card being made manditory this may 2008, which will not only include your driving record, but your criminal history, credit rating and history, medical records, your fingerprint and a PLD(personal locator device) all in one handy little card that you must carry with you at all times, or be arrested. this is real folks, look it up. okay, so they haven't quite decied yet to include the fingerprint, they might go with the retnal scan instead. you should be worried, but don't let that stop you from doing your best to raise her(and yourself)to what you belive to be right.