I’ve had some really wonderful conversations with podcast hosts recently, not just about gender identity, but about where our ideas of normalcy for boys and girls come from and how they shape our psyches and behaviors—and how we can understand the current gender culture war in a historical and social context. You know, light stuff. Okay, it’s heavy stuff but the conversations are still fun.
The most recent chat was with the fabulous Anne Doyle on Power Up Women! Anne, a former tomboy, was one of the first female sports writers who ventured into men’s locker rooms to report, and her chutzpah continues.
I also had a great talk with Jennifer LW Fink, founder of Building Boys.net and Janet Allison, founder of Boys Alive.com, on their podcast OnBoys. We talked about how, while there was once a time when masculinity was encouraged in girls (though it depended on disparaging femininity), there has never been a time when we’ve encouraged, or even accepted, femininity in boys. What’s fascinating is that there are some cultures in which the opposite is true.
Late last year I had the great pleasure of talking to Aaron Kimberly and Aaron Terrell on their incredible podcast Transparency. The Aarons are two trans men with wonderfully complex views on identity and medical transition, and our conversation delved deep into what it was like for them, growing up as tomboys and gender nonconforming girls, in a society which had no place for the girls they had been—and which, in many ways, still doesn’t.
I also got to talk to Sasha Ayad and Stella O’Malley on their endlessly fascinating podcast Gender: A Wider Lens. I continue to try to raise awareness—hopefully for people within the media—about how much more complicated the story of trans kids, and/or kids with gender dysphoria, is than we’re making it out to be. I believe many members of the media are misinformed and are spreading misinformation, not intentionally but because activist arguments have displaced dispassionate scientific understanding—or, the reality that have have very little understanding.
And around Christmastime, as I was writing about gender-neutral Christmas gifts (like, you know, footballs and pink tutus), I chatting with Irish radio host Pat Kenny.
More conversations, and more pieces about what’s really happening, coming soon.
Recent articles:
Washington Post: Why a pink tutu can be a gender-neutral Christmas gift
LA Times: Tomboys, Trans Boys, and West Side Story
CNN: Why gender-neutral holiday presents matter for your children