Sourdough sissy. It’s a bumpy pot-hole filled road we travel in life, never ending quite where we thought we would nor, equally, living up to others expectations of what we could or should be. The latter in particular, is something I think back on.
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More so after reading the lovely @jacobtobia’s book “Sissy – A Coming Of Gender Story” (@putnambooks 2019) a hard honest look at our soft and delicate inner self and how expectations of family, friends and utter strangers try to conform that shape “in our best interest” …or so they hope.
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Tobia’s thoughtful book about his life prods you to remember and question so much. I can recall being obsessed with baking and cakes from about 10 years old, I guess, and I can still hear the voice of someone visiting mum and remarking “he loves baking so much it’s a shame he wasn’t born a girl”. That line stuck in my memory, a throwaway comment in front of a child, not so uncommon back then.
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In “Women, Food, and Families” (@manchester_university_press 1988) Professors Nickie Charles and Marion Kerr show studies that demonstrate fears parents had when their early teen children weren’t conforming to gender stereotypes, even though the same behaviour – like baking or playing with toy trucks – was encouraged in the years leading up to their “coming-of-age”.
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I want it to be better for every #LGBTQ #Pride teen, so that whatever they decide to turn their eye and hand to is considered something to be encouraged and supported.
