I know that growing up my mom did teach me the terms boy and girl, so I feel like that was when I started to divide gender into two groups when I first started school at age 4. It wasn’t something hard for me to grasp I knew that I was a girl, and my brothers were boys. I do remember growing up with my uncles, who were older than me and in their teenage years, so I wasn’t the type of girl to dress up in a dress up in dresses until 5th grade. People in my family would tell me that I’m acting like a boy because I would try to walk around the house without a shirt on. I only did this because my uncles did. I would sit like them and talk like them, even want to play video games with them. I feel this connects to my loneliness growing up as a kid. I would turn to try to fit in with my uncles even though they would never want me around because I was a girl. I eventually grew out of that as I started to notice that I wasn’t a boy.
I would want to sing and dance and put on dresses and braid my hair because that’s what girls do. I don’t really put gender on mannerisms, clothing, or hobbies anymore, so I think it is okay for a boy to like girl things and for a girl to like boy things. I can say that I do have times that I would think something is only for boy, which happens unconsciously because of what my family wanted me to believe. I do believe people know who they are and should have the freedom to express themselves in any way they want too. I expected my family wanted me to do girls things and that’s why I did it. I feel like these expectations put a lot of pressure on me especially growing up with so many boys in family.
I do believe there are only two genders. I believe this because gender is determined at birth. That girls have vaginas and boys have a penis. Although others may think otherwise, I do support anyone who have specific pronouns they want to be called. I would never want my kids to confused about gender although it was built into society. This is also how the government and police keep track of us. I think everyone can have masculine and feminine qualities but that doesn’t necessarily make you gay, being gay meant something bad. Which is something that I was taught growing up, if you’re a boy who likes girl things, you’re gay, vice versa. This is something I had to unlearn and be okay with anyone who wants to present themselves the way they want too. I learned that it’s not about me and that whatever they do makes them happy so I’m happy for them too.
