When my oldest was in preschool, he used to run around singing “I Love Being A Princess,” a song from the Backyardigans TV show. At school, he put on dresses and pranced about in heels. In his case, however, it was simply a matter of a catchy tune and a lack of more traditionally male dress up items in the school’s dress up corner. While he’s since moved on to other songs and other clothes, he sees nothing wrong with his younger brother repeating lines from a show about wishing to be a princess. Thankfully, that sort of acceptance is no longer limited to San Francisco.
Boys wearing dresses is nothing new; what is changing is society’s views and parents’ reactions. Consider the response of five-year-old Dyson Kilodavis’ mother when she found him at preschool wearing a sparkly red dress for the first time. She was uncomfortable and assumed there was a lack of more masculine dress-up options. She went out and bought some traditionally male clothing such a as a kung-fu outfit for the dress-up corner and the next day her son greeted her wearing a yellow dress. Some parents might freak-out but Kilodavis did something different.
She wrote a book. In fact, her book, My Princess Boy, (available from Amazon
We need a lot more folks like the Kilodavis family and, with the help of this book, we might just get them.
Tags: acceptance, books, bullying, dress-up, lgbt, princess, transgender
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[…] There aren’t too many Halloween costumes I would forbid my kids from choosing. The more horrific costumes and characters are out, as are overtly sexual ones. Other than that, however, pretty much anything goes. I also have no problem with the kids crossing gender lines, if they so desire. My youngest loves putting on his older sister’s outgrown princess costumes and ballet skirts. I don’t have any problem with that, nor do a lot of other parents — including one who went so far as to write a book on the subject. […]