6.07.2011

Queerty is one of the sites that I rely on for queer news, but their brief article yesterday on the Canadian family that chose not to reveal the gender of their baby totally threw me off. The author was very flippant, and really added nothing to the conversation. Anyway, I commented saying as much (Im trying to engage more with what I see online), and someone who commented after me led me to this site, LGBabyT. Love their gender neutral baby clothes, and especially appreciate the one that says "I'm not flirting, I'm a baby." I always feel weird when, for instance, a male baby will smile at a women and people say things like, "Oh he's such a ladies man!" or something. I've definitely fallen into this trap before, and said similar things but I'm trying to stop because....c'mon, babies don't "flirt."

Image: source.

A good post: cisgender privilege within the queer community

Really curious to check out Another Country: Queer Anti-Urbanism by Scott Herring: "Herring explores queer culture’s overwhelming 'metronormativity' (a term he borrows from J. Halberstam) and makes a strong argument for examining the varied dimensions of queer life’s rural iterations." Also added to the "to read" list: Feminism for Real: Deconstructing the Academic Industrial Complex of Feminism.

“It will do you no harm to find yourself ridiculous. / Resign yourself to be the fool you are.” - T. S. Eliot

2 comments:

Marie A said...

I had to laugh when I read "babies don't flirt." I even checked a dictionary to be sure, but flirting doesn't have to have a sexual connotation. I watch my son (just over a year old) pull this same trick with every adult he sees in the park, but definitely more enthusiastically for women: come up, make sure they are watching, begin some athletic feat, usually jumping. I am certain that this is because he is a pretty and appealing child and constantly gets comments and praise from strangers. I call it flirting, but he doesn't mean anything sexual, and I'm not implying that. The same goes for him preferring to play with older girls. Kids his age are still figuring out social interaction, and boys aren't generally fascinated with babies, but little girls will play with him.

Amelia said...

I thought the person who wrote the article was dismissive and rude. It seemed less about the choices the parents were making, and more about her judging them.