# Parents raising their sons as daughters **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [June 16, 2015, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-raising-their-sons-as-daughters/722652 "2015-06-16T05:31:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![andros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2015, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-raising-their-sons-as-daughters/722652/41 "2015-06-17T14:58:46Z")
> [@Corner\_Case](#): > > PS: andros, nice username/post combo. But you didn’t link to Gene Kelly or Donald O’Connor! D’oh! :smack: ---
**Author:** ![andros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2015, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-raising-their-sons-as-daughters/722652/42 "2015-06-17T15:00:04Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > Sure. But this kid was miserable. His parents dressed him up in a different cute little outfit each week; spangly bow ties, matador outfits, etc. The girls wore jeans or shorts according to weather. > > Maybe you had to be there. Yeah, I’ll buy that. I hate “pwecious widdle pwince” parents. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2015, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-raising-their-sons-as-daughters/722652/43 "2015-06-19T00:26:25Z")
> [@andros](#): > > Because tap dancing is [hardly](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregory_Hines) [an](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Astaire) [unmasculine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savion_Glover) [activity](http://www.danielleveilledanse.org/)? Because a grounding in the arts, including dance, is important for everyone? Because sometimes we make kids do things they don’t want to do because we know it will be good for them? > . Because dance class is where all the pretty girls are? Maybe not enough for you in particular ;), but it was a motivator for Patrick Swayze to take ballet classes. And, because I couldn’t gracefully fit it into the other threads without seeming micro-aggressive, but it fits right in here, [The Who, _I’m a Boy._](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNMlIUB8Rd8) ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2015, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-raising-their-sons-as-daughters/722652/44 "2015-06-19T00:50:48Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > I don’t have much of a problem with parents signing their kid up for some extracurricular activity the kid doesn’t care for (after all that is going to be a lot of the extras the kid gets) - but on one hand the idea apparently is “we want to raise our child outside fixed gender roles”… and on the other “dancing is only for little girls in pink tutus”? My parents would have had to beat me within inches of my life to get me to paticipate in a dance class at any age. They can take me to the door, but as God is my witness, I would not have cooperated and they would have been very sorry they tried. But that’s just me, I don’t care for dancing. ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2015, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-raising-their-sons-as-daughters/722652/45 "2015-06-19T01:26:46Z")
Several times in P.E. over the years we’d have dance sections. That was not a good environment to learn to appreciate dance. It was generally either something like square dancing or line dancing or once the waltz. The worst were all the dances that died with disco, meaning that they had been unfashionable for at least a decade before we were doing them. I’m looking at you, Hustle and Electric Slide and other terrible 1970s crap. Maybe it would have been better with flashing lights and disco balls and cocaine, but somehow I doubt it. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2015, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-raising-their-sons-as-daughters/722652/46 "2015-06-19T04:13:05Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > . . . because they wanted him to know how to dance? Or they wanted him to be the next Lynn Swann. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2015, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-raising-their-sons-as-daughters/722652/47 "2015-06-19T05:05:19Z")
I prefer a nice vegan Babyfu. ---
**Author:** ![usedtobe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ec9cab/32.png) [@usedtobe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usedtobe)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2015, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-raising-their-sons-as-daughters/722652/48 "2015-06-19T05:30:30Z")
Give me a call when you get outraged by parents “Who really wanted a boy” and gave their daughter a unisex name and wardrobe, made sure she could throw a baseball overhand and tie knots. ---
**Author:** ![Your\_Great\_Darsh\_Face](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/ac8455/32.png) [@Your\_Great\_Darsh\_Face](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Your_Great_Darsh_Face)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2015, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-raising-their-sons-as-daughters/722652/49 "2015-06-19T12:25:52Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > My parents would have had to beat me within inches of my life to get me to paticipate in a dance class at any age. They can take me to the door, but as God is my witness, I would not have cooperated and they would have been very sorry they tried. But that’s just me, I don’t care for dancing. Eh, if they’d tied you to your bed you’d have cried uncle soon enough. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2015, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-raising-their-sons-as-daughters/722652/50 "2015-06-19T17:25:56Z")
> [@FuriousGeorge](#): > > Microwaves, bah, you kids and your new fangled toys… > > In my day we had to abuse our children in cook pots over an open flame… and we liked it that way. Pots? You had pots? When I were a lad, we thought people who cooked their children in pots were toffs. _We_ ‘ad to roast our children in a bonfire. But you try telling kids today that, an’ they’ll never believe you… ---
**Author:** ![storyteller0910](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecae2f/32.png) [@storyteller0910](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/storyteller0910)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2015, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-raising-their-sons-as-daughters/722652/51 "2015-06-19T22:44:41Z")
> [@andros](#): > > Because tap dancing is [hardly](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregory_Hines) [an](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Astaire) [unmasculine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savion_Glover) [activity](http://www.danielleveilledanse.org/)? Because a grounding in the arts, including dance, is important for everyone? Because sometimes we make kids do things they don’t want to do because we know it will be good for them? > . This is a hijack, but: I spend most of my non-work time in and around the performing arts. I believe that forcing an unwilling child to participate in the arts is the best and surest way to kill interest in them. It has nothing to do with whether or not it’s a masculine activity, but tap dance is not like math, where you’re going to need it either way and you can do it well even if you don’t enjoy it. Passion for it is important and you absolutely can’t force that to exist. ---
**Author:** ![andros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2015, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-raising-their-sons-as-daughters/722652/52 "2015-06-19T22:49:16Z")
You were lucky to have a bonfire. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2015, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-raising-their-sons-as-daughters/722652/53 "2015-06-20T00:22:20Z")
> [@usedtobe](#): > > Give me a call when you get outraged by parents “Who really wanted a boy” and gave their daughter a unisex name and wardrobe, made sure she could throw a baseball overhand and tie knots. Knew a woman named Greg, after her father’s football coach. More silly than outrageous. My SILs all played softball, but some were pitchers so they threw underhanded. Nothing feminine about underhand, since softball of all sorts is what folks play 'round these parts, and there’s nothing soft about a 12" softball going 80mph. Wife leaned toward basketball and distance running. None of them can tie knots for shit, 'cuz they weren’t in the Boy Scouts. What you are missing is that, well, read the article in the OP. The parents are raising the boy for two years as a girl, girl name, pink tutu, and all, to enlighten him on gender issues. Dear Prudence suggests a call to CPS, and might not be wrong. We have all seen glurgy shows where a daughter, raised in a cliched masculine manner, “cleans up real good” in the final scene, but it’s usually an authority figure, like Sheriff Andy, who forces the issue. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2015, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-raising-their-sons-as-daughters/722652/54 "2015-06-20T05:37:02Z")
If it’s a troll, it’s probably some idiot who’s trying to make some statement about Caitlyn Jenner or something like that. Or just some trans-trender by proxy. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2015, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-raising-their-sons-as-daughters/722652/55 "2015-06-20T15:57:23Z")
> [@storyteller0910](#): > > This is a hijack, but: I spend most of my non-work time in and around the performing arts. I believe that forcing an unwilling child to participate in the arts is the best and surest way to kill interest in them. For other types of arts, I stopped drawing at all for five years after a new type of drawing (a human image trying to be realistic) got me a trip to the director’s office, my mother called, and two of the Voices of God snarling at each other way above my head. For my nephew, and again drawing, it was his mother’s insistence that he had to draw Exactly Following The Line and use The Right Color. Apparently painting a green bill on Donald Duck is an offense to Picasso :rolleyes: It’s pretty amazing how easy it is for The Gods to stomp on their children’s creativity ☹ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-raising-their-sons-as-daughters/722652.md?page=2)