Poll: Father in rural Germany finds his young son likes to wear dresses; does the same to show solidarity.

[BringBackBuck]

Good on him. The lad is 5 so will probably get tired of this phase in a few months and move on to pokemon or skrillex or whatever the kids are doing these days. Jesus Christ I am old.

Anyway, by making it taboo and try to repress the kid will do more harm than letting this run it's course. On the off chance this is a real fetish that doesn't change and the boy actually does turn out to be a cross dresser, than knowing he has a supportive dad is going to be awesome for him too. Either way this Dad is awesome, and if my son did this I'd like to think I had the balls to follow suit.

 

[Shadowstar38]

Umm. Beat the child? I dont know. It's likely a phase that the kid will grow out of. If not, he's in for a rough time later in life.

 

[Ragsnstitches]

I support this guy and hope his kid doesn't get ostracised because of it.

Not sure if I could do the same mind you. Personally if I saw this it would be a little jarring, but I imagine I could handle it and not lose my shit.

Gender roles can go for all I care. I wish more folk (and myself) could show this level of commitment to breaking down such draconian expectations.

The kid's 5. It's probably a phase, and a harmless one at that. I don't see how anyone could take issue with it. 'Worst-case' (not literally, I can't think of a better phrase) scenario, it turns out he's transgender.

So? Aren't we all a bit fucking past this by now? Seems more likely the kid just likes a healthy breeze on his tackle - and you can't argue with that.

More the reason to eliminate gender specific clothing. Who doesn't like a cool gust of wind on their balls during the hot seasons? In fact, if my incredibly piecemeal knowledge of testicle science is anything to go by, trapping your knackers inside pants during high heat is very bad for sperm production.

 

[Woodsey]

The kid's 5. It's probably a phase, and a harmless one at that. I don't see how anyone could take issue with it. 'Worst-case' (not literally, I can't think of a better phrase) scenario, it turns out he's transgender.

So? Aren't we all a bit fucking past this by now? Seems more likely the kid just likes a healthy breeze on his tackle - and you can't argue with that.

 

[miketehmage]

"Is forcing a conformity to baseless gender roles a lesser evil than letting your son get used to a choice he doesn't yet understand the consequences of?"

In my opinion, yes it is. Quite frankly boys shouldn't wear dresses. At that age he probably doesn't fully understand what he is doing but if he continues those habits he's going to get alot of shit for it.

Now, if he was older and made the decision that he wanted to wear a dress, then fair enough. But I don't think that at this young age he should be wearing one, and I don't think the father should be encouraging it. Because lets face it, trousers aren't that bad and the dress probably isn't worth the shit he'll get if he continues this way.

 

[MetalMonkey74]

Awesome dad. And fantastic picture too!

 

[octafish]

My son loves wearing his sister's dress ups, particularly the Snow White dress. He idolizes his sister, and he's two who cares? I don't, with no prompting from me or my wife, he loves cars and planes. I foresee many happy RC times between the two of us...before puberty ruins everything.

Is the father in that pic wearing a dress with a t-shirt over it, or just a skirt? Either way those colours aren't working for me.

 

[DugMachine]

Let's be honest here. The child most likely doesn't understand his actions and the father not taking the time to explain somewhat isn't helping. Courageous? Sure. The child still needs to understand difference in clothing for the genders.

 

[Rascarin]

I think this is awesome. Gender roles are outdated, and this man is very brave for taking this stance. And an amazing father for loving and supporting his son no matter what other people might think.

Frankly, I don't even get why this has to be an issue any more. If a little girl wanted to wear trousers, and her mum wore trousers too, it wouldn't be a story. Nobody would care. Why is it automatically bad or abnormal for a boy/man to rock the proverbial gender boat? Wearing a dress is not harmful to the boy. Peoples narrow-minded and judgemental attitudes are.

 

[The_Waspman]

My biggest problem here is the colour of the dress the kid is wearing. Red? Please, that is so last season!

 

[Ghonesis]

I don't think I'd let me son wear dresses because the chances of getting bullied for it at school are 100%.
Besides, the kid is 5. What does he know? If he'd be 15 or 16 I perhaps would allow it: his clothes are his own choice at that age.
But a 5-year-old? I don't really think so, tbh. :/ I know it's his own choice and all and maybe that's really how he is...
But the boy still has to change a lot in his life, maybe he'll regret the awkward moments later.

 

[Vivi22]

Quite frankly boys shouldn't wear dresses.

Why?

At that age he probably doesn't fully understand what he is doing but if he continues those habits he's going to get alot of shit for it.

But the point is that he shouldn't get shit for it. There's no rational reason why boys or men shouldn't be allowed to wear dresses. Arbitrary societal norms with no basis in rationality should be fought. But moreover, how much harm will it really do? The boy will likely start to realize very quickly that he's the only, or one of the only, little boys who wears a dress and either stop of his own volition or be teased one day and learn the valuable lesson that people are assholes.

And I don't find the idea that kids will tease him to be a valid reason to force him to stop now when it hasn't been an issue. The reality is that kids can and will tease for any reason. Doesn't matter if you're wearing a dress. Doesn't even matter if you did something wrong or made the mistake of not fitting in. Odds are every kid has been teased at some point by some other kid.

 

[Froggy Slayer]

Dresses suit the dad much more than the kid. That's all I'm throwing in there.

 

[excalipoor]

I thought someone was going to drown again.

Much as I'd like to say "go dad!", I don't think the boy's peers are going to be so understanding. Challenging gender roles by wearing dresses? Wasn't that already done when pants became pretty much gender neutral? When I was five, I got picked on just for playing with girls, and frankly, I'm glad my mother never got me a dress.

 

[el_kabong]

I'd come to a compromise, and make him wear wizard robes.

Ninja'd. In all honesty, I would not support my son wearing dresses at that age. Reason being is that I'm definitely a "nurture-ist" (nature vs. nurture argument...look it up). My concern is that odd behaviors that I reinforce as a parent (in this case the wearing of dresses) could become a set pattern for this child's life without them having a logical say in it.

At this point in their life, I doubt any 5-year old is considering the gender and social ramifications of his actions. They are probably just wearing dresses because of some positive, tactile reinforcement (maybe dresses are a lot less restrictive). Because they can not directly understand the social risks that they are taking, parents need to adequately mirror societal norms so that, should the boy reach an age where he's able to consider the risks with some intelligence, he'll already have a sort of understanding what these choices mean. A good analog would be diet. Kids (at least all of them that I know) want to eat junk food. As a parent, you have to measure providing them with what they want (sugar) with what they need (vitamins and such).

When you reinforce the socially abnormal as completely acceptable, you are not preparing your child to integrate into social settings with any sort of ease. Once they hit school age, they may still make friends and gain acceptance, but it will potentially be more difficult. Kids in my class would have had a field day with a boy in a dress. The boy may gradually gain acceptance, but it may be a very "Boy Named Sue" type of acceptance, where it comes through heartache/pain.

As for those who say that he'll grow out of it. It's very possible. However, consider that, in these days of the internet, I know who this kid is from across the world. I can only imagine the horrifyingly embarrassing things that this generation (who will have grown up their whole lives with their parents posting whatever happens to them as a kid on Facebook) will have to suffer through because of the internet's way of never letting you escape what's already out of the box.

I'm not trying to be sexist (though I know that's what people will claim me), I just think it's unfair to set up a child who doesn't understand the consequences of their choices for future heartache and embarrassment because you want to seem like the most understanding parent in the world.

 

[DugMachine]

The child still needs to understand difference in clothing for the genders.

Why should this child - or anybody else, for that matter - decide which manner of dress they should wear based on what other people determine is right or wrong? Why should anybody in the world factor in to a personal decision that any given person makes that harms no one and infringes on no one's rights?

I didn't say to force the kid to stop wearing them did I? I said there is no harm in letting him know he's different and at least trying to make him understand. Kids can be fucking cruel and learning the lesson from your loving father or your 'friends' picking on you can make a world of difference.

The child most likely wears the dresses for reasons completely unrelated to gender and that's fine, hell even if he wants to be a girl at heart I wouldn't stop my son but totally ignoring the fact that he's different only sets him up for shit later in life. This is all assuming the father hasn't done this already but still decided to wear the dress anyways. Either way my issue is not the dress it's concern for the kids social experience.