Gender Policing

[Taka]

gender policing isn't just telling people to use one bathroom or the other, it's also something much more subtle, where peer pressure or a higher status in whichever setting is used to tell people how to behave according to assigned or perceived gender. i suppose that would depend on whether the self assigned policeman knows the other person's gender assigned at birth.

so what are your examples of gender policing, and maybe just as important, who is actually doing it to you?

my mother is the one who forced me to wear skirts. i'm sure she'd actually burn everything less girly if i had refused too adamantly.
and then there are all these women who tell me to show off my rather big chest. or this one who saw an old picture of me with braids, and just couldn't stop herself from telling me how cute i looked and that i should get braids again.

shouldn't it be obvious that at my age, i dress the way i do because i want to?

[Emily]

A funny example - maybe not entirely related but...
My 3 y.o. last weekend came up with the following...: "Ummm, Emy, I guess dolls and toy prams are for girls, And lipsticks. Yeah, lipsticks are for girls, like me, mommy and Mimi (my mom's nickname)." I asked her what about boys and she said that boys are gonna have cars. I told her that boys can actually play with dolls and prams too, if they wish - just as like she can play with cars (which she does). That idea definitely did sink, but she was quite adamant about lipstick though.

[Deleted]

It does start with parents at the earliest time that I can recall in my own life. I recalled a rather traumatic event when we lived in a run down neighborhood, I was really young in first grade. I came in the apartment crying having been beat up by bullies and my dad who was a merchant seaman was at home for a few weeks between voyages and decided that I was going to turn into a sissy if he didn't intervene. He showed me how to make a fist and put me back outside locking the door. "No son of mine is going to be a panty waist!" I was horrified and would have missed dinner if I didn't engage the bullies. I did and was soundly thrashed in the process, in the ensuing years I would never do that to one of my kids. There was a little girl in the apartment complex named Jeanie who I used to play with, she had a big doll house and we played make believe stuff. I was forbidden to go to her place after that episode. I grew up to become a bad ass tough guy looking for my dad's approval.

[Deleted]

Now now Taka. The "Potty Police" have a job to do whether or not they get paid for it or it just plain ain't none of their business. They are saving the world from all of us deviant perverted transgender people. :rolleyes:Note: Big time sarcasm.

The entertainment industry. Look how they portray us ion their storylines. With the exception of a few shows. But society is the big one. But that is even changing.

The problem is that everyone seems to think they live a perfect life. This is delusions of grandeur and they try to force their life habits and thoughts on everyone. I don't want 2 1/2 kids. Jeez, half a kid? Really. My twisted dark mind kind just imagine. I never liked white picket fences or a "real career". I don't like safety and security in life. I want the adventure and unsurity. But everyone tries to force their ideals of living down everyone else's throats it seems. I don't want to live like "them".

Gender Policing, how about life policing period. People should live how they want to live and as long as it doesn't infringe on someone else's choices in life, big deal. Personally I hate "Brussel sprouts" so no one else should like them either.  That is unfortunately the way a lot of people seem to think. Then you have your hypocrites that say one thing and mean another. And then you have your truly open minded, open hearted people. If people do laugh and trash me, I laugh and trash back. I'm really surprised I'm still alive but when you act a little crazy and unstable, they kind of have second thoughts. I am stable but I act as a defense mechanism because I can't fight worth a crap.