My Princess Boy: Let Your Son Wear A Dress If He Wants Too! Why Not???

 Every woman has thought about her future, whether she wants kids, and how she would want to raise her kids. The thing is, usually we don't take into account that we cannot control who are kids will be, their personality, or whether they will be nerdy or the so called "cool" kid.

This morning I was listening to Russ Par Morning Show on 93.9 and they were interviewing the mother and author of "My Princess Boy," Cheryl Kilodavis. I hope that was it if not then its another woman.


While they were interviewing her on the reasons she allowed to let her son dress up and play with traditionally girl clothing and toys, you could hear the attitudes, judgements, and ignorance in their voice.

As a 1 year psych major, (sorry I couldn't hack it) I learned that behavior is learned. We believe what we believe through socialization and societal norms reinforce those beliefs. With that said, it troubled me when their explanation for why she should not let her child play dress up with traditionally girl clothing was he was not supposed to, he is a boy.


Knowledge is power. The lack of it is the reason people get stuck in the myopic state, participate in group think, and say ignorant comments like that which fails to provide a real reason.



I hope that the knowledge I'm about to share is the same knowledge along with the attitude I have that will stay with me if my son one day once to rock mommy's 4 inch fierce stilettos. At least I know he'll be fly.


Back to the point: As children, they do not know that girls play with these toys and boys play with other toys. They don't know the difference between gender until they observe that girls don't have the same equipment as boys. Now, their curiosity is peaked. Questions begin flying. Children are a blank slate. However, when we push our societal norms and values on to them we shape them.



I remember last Thanksgiving, I was at my best friend's family house and her cousin's son was playing with his cousin's barbie doll. Mind you he has two older girl cousins (both 6 at the time) who were playing with the dolls and he's 2. He wanted to play with them. His mother came over and grabbed the doll out his hand and was upset telling us her son won't be playing with no dolls, keep that out of his hands.




I was shocked and saddened by the lack of knowledge of the fact that kids don't think too much about the gender of a doll. Kids think simple. This is a toy. Period. Also, sexual orientation is determined at a early age. So just because your son likes to play with dolls and wear make up and you think you can change that, chances are if you forbid him from engaging in his natural inclination to those objects you will cause him to repress his desires and they will manifest in another way. Probably more dangerous and harmful this time.



The whole notion of a man or child wearing a dress baffled almost every caller and the radio hosts. How fast do we forget that in the past men wore clothing that resembled dresses. In Ireland, men wear kilts some time.

Clothing does not determine our sexual orientation nor do our hobbies and what we like define who we are. When I wonder what is wrong with today's youth and the world, I realize people lack knowledge and parents/adults tend to pass along their resentment, bitterness, and negative views of the world onto their kids.




Kids are innocent. Let them stay that way. Or our future will look dimmer and dimmer. I think about this now as I think about how I want to raise my kids and how I would do it differently or the same as my mom, grandmother, and so forth. Let's do better. As a single woman, I weigh the mindsets of potential partners in my decision to date them heavily. Myopic men get the "kick rocks" from me. No shame in it all at either!



"My people perish from a lack of knowledge." - Hosea 4:6