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The Gender Binary, Through The Eyes Of A Child
What do girls wear?
This morning, as I was helping my four-year-old daughter get dressed, I pulled out this Nike set from her dresser. I thought it was an adorable, comfortable outfit appropriate for an active day of summer camp, but my daughter immediately pouted and dramatically crumpled to the floor. “I don’t want to wear that,” she mumbled into her hands.
“Why not?” I queried, with the abundant patience of a mom just beginning her day.
Her response: “It makes me look like a boy.”
I frantically scanned my brain for something to say, something that would convince her that a sporty look wasn’t gender-exclusive. “But it’s purple!” was on the tip of my tongue, but I held it back. Am I really about to tell her that boys don’t wear purple? I think the Minnesota Vikings would beg to differ. “But it’s pretty!” was another option, but four years into my parenting journey, I know better than to argue abstract concepts with a preschooler. Finally, I simply folded the outfit back into her drawer and replaced it with a pastel tie-dyed tank top and black shorts. This outfit was deemed acceptable, and we moved on.
All morning, I replayed the incident in my head — not because I had any misgivings about how I’d handled it, but because I found it fascinating. My…