Evan Urquhart

A normal kid being active, doing kid stuff, exploring the world. Sometimes we pet the unicorns softly, sometimes we talk about how younger sister unicorn is jealous of older sister unicorn & jealous is a hard emotion to feel, sometimes we punch the babies as hard as we can.

In the framework I was taught this is "boy" behavior that girls NEVER do. You have a boy, he's always punching unicorns. You have a girl, she's giving unicorns a bottle and tucking them into bed.

But it's all a crock. Adults see what they expect to see, and meanwhile kids' behavior is profoundly altered by how shocked or not shocked the adults in their lives are.

I still wish I'd had more trucks and cars to play with. I also LOVED my fricken dolls. I was also AFRAID to express anything but tenderness towards dollies for fear of mom not loving me if I showed aggression. A fear I would never have had if she'd known me to be a boy.

I'm using anecdotes, but there's good research that backs this up, btw. For instance, very young children have the same physical abilities regardless of sex, but moms rush in to help daughters in situations where they can correctly assess that sons are fine on their own.