Featured research in blog post for Gender & Society Blog:
"Following the women’s movement and its calls for “gender-neutral” parenting, many contemporary parents are happy to challenge masculine and feminine stereotypes for their young sons and daughters. Boys can play with dolls and kitchen sets, girls can be ultra tomboys. But they are ever and always “boys” and “girls,” respectively. The gender boxes are flexed, so to speak, but rarely totally abandoned. The parents in my study, however, radically start to question prevailing assumptions about sex and gender: assigned sex may have little to do with one’s gender expression and identity, nor should it. This is because their children consistently contradict the expectations of their assigned birth sex—from the clothes, toys, and play groups they prefer to their repeated self-identifications (e.g., “I’m your son, not your daughter!”). Drawing on in-depth interview data, my article examines 3 practical strategies that surfaced during parents’ early experiences with childhood gender variance: “gender hedging,” “gender literacy,” and “playing along.” Through these practices, these parents develop a critical consciousness about the ways in which gender norms limit one’s most authentic self-expression, and strive to accommodate their gender-nonconforming children in a society that is still ignorant of childhood transgender possibilities."