Kids shouldn't have to make sammiches either #nosammich

Most of the time I use this space to focus on how society forces women to perform set constructs of femininity. This week I thought that I would do something different and look at constructs of masculinity.

Those of us who regularly travel the social justice blog circuit saw this story within days of it being posted: "There’s nothing wrong with what you like. Even if it’s different than what people think you should." But then an interesting thing happened... A week or so later it went viral, and everyone was sharing it on facebook. Well not everyone I knew, but I did see it from more people than I expected.

This isn't the first time in recent memory that such a story blew up on the Intertubes. 2010 brought us My Son is Gay, the story of a little boy who loved Scooby Doo and wanted to be Daphne for Halloween.  This is what his mom had to say to the naysayers:

If you think that me allowing my son to be a female character for Halloween is somehow going to ‘make’ him gay then you are an idiot. Firstly, what a ridiculous concept. Secondly, if my son is gay, OK. I will love him no less. Thirdly, I am not worried that your son will grow up to be an actual ninja so back off.

Editor's Note: I have been having a problem getting the original site for this quote to load so here are some additional links that tell this story:

• 5 year old boy dresses up as Daphne for Hallowe'en, other moms have gender panic
• Boy's Halloween Costume Makes National Waves

Now here is the cool thing: these are not one off occurrences of awesome. People (especially parent type people responsible for the health and well-being of little type people) all over are recognizing that children don't necessarily limit themselves to "girl stuff" or "boy stuff". There is even a book that celebrates this freedom of self-expression called My Princess Boy.

You may not agree, but I can only hope that these kids continue to receive the acceptance and support they will need as they fight becoming victims of conformity.

And what is so bad about liking shiny things in the first place?