childhood gender nonconformity
I watched Sunday's edition of Sixty Minutes with great interest. And, at the part with little Adam's painted fingernails, great anxiety.
(My fellow cloggers, I tried for a couple of hours on Monday to get a nice screen-capture of said painted fingernails, but my computer just refused to cooperate. Go to malcontent; the b1tch b34t me to it.)
Why the anxiety? Oh, I suppose it's the many successfully-suppressed memories from my childhood. Like pretending to be a girl with my female cousin. (Heck, I think there were plenty of times I was playing at that while all alone.) Somewhere, deep in a family photo album, I seem to remember a picture.
Good Lord, why are there pictures?
Thankfully, there are no pictures of me and a female family friend (Andrea) playing with Barbies and getting caught by her older brother. "You don't think he'll tell his friends*, do you, Andrea?" I asked.
Other physical evidence exists. Like my handmade sock puppets. All female. With long yarn hair. There was a brunette, a blonde, and a redhead. (I hardly ever played with the redhead.) They're buried in a box somewhere.
Yep. I pretty much screamed gay from a very early age.
* many of whom would go on to be my future tormentors in high school
(My fellow cloggers, I tried for a couple of hours on Monday to get a nice screen-capture of said painted fingernails, but my computer just refused to cooperate. Go to malcontent; the b1tch b34t me to it.)
Why the anxiety? Oh, I suppose it's the many successfully-suppressed memories from my childhood. Like pretending to be a girl with my female cousin. (Heck, I think there were plenty of times I was playing at that while all alone.) Somewhere, deep in a family photo album, I seem to remember a picture.
Good Lord, why are there pictures?
Thankfully, there are no pictures of me and a female family friend (Andrea) playing with Barbies and getting caught by her older brother. "You don't think he'll tell his friends*, do you, Andrea?" I asked.
Other physical evidence exists. Like my handmade sock puppets. All female. With long yarn hair. There was a brunette, a blonde, and a redhead. (I hardly ever played with the redhead.) They're buried in a box somewhere.
Yep. I pretty much screamed gay from a very early age.
* many of whom would go on to be my future tormentors in high school
Comments
Gay at an early age? I never got the Easy Bake Oven that I begged for annually from Santa.
The part that amazed me were the identical twins where one was gay and the other wasn't. That's going to feed the whole, "it's a choice, ya know" debate.
Arrrgghh.
As for the painting of fingernails...seems more like the parents are using their child to make some sort of a statement, non? How old was the kid?
You on the otherhand can go to Spain 'cause it sounds fun, eat at cool resturants, fly off for a booze filled vacation, or order some Ricky for the weekend....
I'd rather be you anyday.
It's all good either way.
I had a mild anxiety attack after writing the first draft of this post, and nearly had to take an Ativan. But then an obnoxious radio ad for a shitty new beer reminded me of how much I loathe gender stereotypes, and I decided to go ahead and publish.
Paul: careful, some of my best friends live in suburbs. Other than that... I agree 100%
BUT I did have a kickass Sock Monkey Doll which went everywhere with me!
:)
ps. love paul's post. 100% true. rock on with your bad self mloyd. :) jooles.
wtf.
Paul - Do you really think Mme Rouge wouldn't like a house in the suburbs and a wood paneled basement? I think she's love it!
P.S. YJA: I'm pretty sure the Madame is more partial to crawl-spaces... hee hee.
XOX
P.S. BRING THE SOCK PUPPETS TO STAYNER!