July 25, 2013
“Learn from kids to embrace paradox—Get out of your binary zone” (video)
In this 17-minute TEDx talk, Deborah Siegel, Ph.D., a scholar of gender and American culture, says that U.S. nurseries are becoming more color-coded in pink and blue than ever before—that today’s parents are obsessed with their children’s gender from even before they are born. She talks about the recent phenomenon of “gender reveal parties,” about the “hypergendering”of the earliest years of childhood, and about how even the most egalitarian parents can find themselves thinking in gender-traditional terms. She suggests that perhaps adults could learn from very young children to embrace paradox rather than trying so hard to control gender behavior in either traditional or nontraditional ways. Dr. Siegel shares what she has learned from her three-year-old twins, a boy and a girl. It’s really all about letting children be who they are, following their own interests. Related: See her Pinterest page, “Tots in Genderland.”
