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While I have often heard phrases in the past such as “gender is just a construct of society”, I have never really stopped to think about the amount of truth that lies behind this idea. As we established in class, biology does not at all support the idea of bimodal categorization for humans. In fact, biology actually suggests that there is enormous diversity amongst people.

Changing topics a bit and replying to Dakota’s post: I think this issue is a really interesting one. I too have often heard people talking about how they have identified a certain way from birth…and Dakota, I think your question about the appropriateness of the 3^rd graders parents announcing their child’s identity so early on is a good one. On the one hand, I agree that it is admirable that they don’t try to dampen/deny whatever it is their child is feeling, and that they are allowing her to live the life she feels is right for her. We read the article about Katie, whose parents hid her identity from her until a much later age. This, as she said in the article, resulted in her feeling anger as well as fear. So maybe these elementary school parents are saving their child from struggle later on? However, like Dakota, I am wondering what the potential effects of further maturation might have on this child…if there is the possibility that puberty might again give her a new outlook/perspective on her self-identity, perhaps that parents have been a little too quick to act. I think that supporting their child is of course the appropriate thing to do, however, I think if the child did end up identifying as something different from a girl after this, it would be very hard on the child and on the parents as well due to all the stigmatization directed towards people who identify themselves in a way that the bi-modal construction of society does not “approve of”. I am not saying that the disapproval of society is appropriate, but I think it does exist.