That’s the question, why do boys have to be girls to be boys? Why can’t we let boys be boys?
Assuredly nowadays we let girls be girls, it didn’t used to be that way as not so long ago girls, and women for that matter, were told what they could and couldn’t do. From their job, if they were allowed to have one, to their participation in sports, personal life, and even what they wore.
So what if a boy want’s to play with dolls? Is that acceptable? In most cases there would be strong pushback to allow this to happen, let alone continue. What about nail polish? Oh no, only girls (females) wear nail polish, long hair? No, not that either, girls can have long or short hair, boys should only have short hair. What about skirts? We are long past breaching boys, so no skirts for boys either.
Let’s take our nuclear family, Mom, Dad, Daughter, Son and play this out.
Jack and his sister, Jill, live with their mom and dad in a typical house, typical city, and typical state.
Jill is a typical tomboy, she helps dad work on his classic car, gets dirty, but also plays dressup and with her Barbie. In fact she borrows Jacks green army men as Barbie is a general (remember girls can be anything) and needs troops to command.
Jack borrows Barbie too, but when dad see’s this, he takes Barbie away saying only girls play with dolls.
One day Jack sneaks into his sisters room, he always pondered at the brightness in her room, the vibrant colors. In fact, Jack doesn’t need to turn the closet light on when he peeks into her closet showing the wide array of colors and choices his sister has compared to his own dark closet.
Mom and dad’s anniversary came up and he noticed his mom and his sister with new dresses, yet his dad and him were wearing what they wore to church. In fact it seems it was the same clothing dad wore to work, and to other events, yet mom and his sister were always wearing different outfits.
Jack noticed too that during the news program that the women reporters wore different outfits each day, while the men, except for their tie, seemed to wear the same outfit. In fact, after the news they watched Wheel of Fortune, and he can’t recall seeing Vanna ever wear the same outfit twice.
One day he went with his mom and sister to the beauty solon, he stopped and looked at the nail polish rack with it’s vastness of colors and glitter. He asked his mom but was told that boys don’t wear nail polish.
The mantel of their fireplace held a wide variety of trophy’s and medals, most of them were from his mom and sisters from beauty competitions and sports they participated in. His dad had one for a grand slam home run in high school, and another for 10 years of service for the company he worked at. He himself had one from a beauty competition, but there was no contests for boys like him that were past age 6 unlike his sister that could compete into her teens.
Jack liked ballet, but found himself in the minority, his friends around him also called him gay or sissy when talking about it. The girls could also wear brighter colors, while his choices were limited to white, grey, and black. When he talked about his interest in the clothing girls wore, he was told that boys don’t wear girls clothes. He found the remark strange as both his sister and mom, wore some of the same clothing him and his dad wore.
The whole thing was rather strange to him as his sister was wearing and doing the same things he did, and received praise for doing so. Yet when he tried to do the same as his sister, he was told no and that boys didn’t do that.
Jack eventually finds that if he pretends to be Jill, he can do everything he wanted to do as Jack and more and not be ridiculed for doing it. Even better as not only does everyone praise him on his clothing choices and appearance, they also admire his talent for doing manly tasks.
Jack goes to confession and talks about his desire to wear skirts and dresses, the priest on the other side explains to him about Deuteronomy 22:5 and that a man shall not put on a woman’s garment for it is an abomination against god. Jack goes home and looks up the verse and sees that it also says that a women shall not put on what pertains to a man. So now he’s confused, certainly his sister and mom are wearing men’s clothing when they wear pants and shorts, it doesn’t make much sense.
Jacks family goes to the beach, and the disparity in boys and girls, men’s and women’s clothing is even more abundant. Well, mostly for the girls and women, him and his dad, as well as the other men and boys, all wore knee length shorts. The girl’s, his mom, and other women however, wore so many different kinds of outfits as well as varying amounts of fabric. He was surprised to see that even his own mom had a bare butt! Why couldn’t he or his dad go around with a bare butt?
When Jack is older he does more research on this and people tell him that women’s pants were made for women, as such they are not men’s pants. What if he then asked if a skirt was mad for a man, would it not then me a men’s skirt? No he is told, it’s still a women’s skirt as men do not wear skirts. Again he is confused, why is one sex allowed either, while the other is not?
Jack does even more research and find’s that possibly he is a crossdresser, it says that of men who wear women’s clothing, oddly enough, women again who wear men’s clothing are not crossdressing. Upon further research, Jack is dismayed in what he reads about crossdresser’s and finds that he does not fit into that box. Jack is then told that possibly he is trans, but into looking into this, it’s even further away then crossdressing. Possibly queer? That’s just silly, why would wearing a skirt and still be himself make him queer? After all, his sister became an auto mechanic, wears pants, and nobody calls her queer.
Jack thinks that maybe he’s gay? But alas he doesn’t know any gay men that wear skirts and dresses as regular attire and he certainly is not attracted to men in a sexual way, so no, not gay.
Jack emails a clothing manufacture of skirts and dresses and asks if they can make one his size, they told him no, the sizes they have are all they make. He them calls a local seamstress to see about having a dress custom made for him, and he’s told no, they don’t make dresses for men. After about 20 emails and calls of people telling him no, he expands his search and eventually finds someone who’s willing to make him an outfit.
Jack is so pleased when his dress arrives that he calls a local photo studio to have his picture professionally taken, he’s told they don’t take those kind of pictures. He calls around a few other places and gets the same answer, eventually he does get some pictures taken by a friend he made when he was researching crossdressing. jack does not understand why the other photographers told him no, there portfolio showed girls and women wearing varies forms of attire, some certainly more risque then what he was wearing.
Jack ends up with the conclusion that if he want’s to wear skirts and dresses or do ballet like his mom and sister did, he would have to be a girl. As a girl he wouldn’t be bullied or be called a sissy by other boys and even girl’s for doing ballet. But he’s not a girl, he’s a boy that likes to wear skirts and dresses just as his mom and sister wear pants. Why does he have to be a girl to do the things he likes? Why can’t he do and wear the same attire as girls and still be a boy? Why does society tell him that it’s wrong for him to do so just because he is a boy?
Let’s take myself as an example, if I wanted to have the same opportunities and freedom’s as my female counterparts. I would have to be a female, as two years ago I proved yet again that I can’t do the same things as them because people say only they (females) can do what they do.
So yeah, why does a boy need to be a girl to be a boy?