Fantastic story in The Times discussing gender-nonconforming children, or those who struggle with accepting the title "boy" or "girl." Really digs into some of the meat of the topic, including cultural expectations for "boys" and "girls" and the power struggle between genders. I've been reading a lot of feminist literature lately, but not much about male identity issues, so it's awesome to see something that addresses both sides. Definitely check it out.
An excerpt:
"These days, flouting gender conventions extends even to baby naming: first names that were once unambiguously masculine are now given to girls. The shift, however, almost never goes the other way. That’s because girls gain status by moving into “boy” space, while boys are tainted by the slightest whiff of femininity. 'There’s a lot more privilege to being a man in our society,' says Diane Ehrensaft, a psychologist at the University of California, San Francisco, who supports allowing children to be what she calls gender creative. 'When a boy wants to act like a girl, it subconsciously shakes our foundation, because why would someone want to be the lesser gender?'"
If girls can be named Dillon and Jamie and Toni, why can't boys be named Amy or Sarah or Susan?
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