The story "A Boys Life" is about a child who was born just like any other baby boy without any abnormalities. This baby's name was Brandon and though he was born a boy, his family started to notice some wierd behaviors occuring that most boys dont display. Brandon was only interested in girl things and wanted to look like one. The strangest thing about all of his actions was that he began wanting to be a female at such a young age, at only two years old he was already hiding his genetalia and pretending to be a girl. The article also goes on to describe not only how he is copping with his physical appearance but how his mother and stepfather are going about dealing with it.
My inicial perspective when i began reading was that Brandon was very lucky to have such understanding parents, especially his mother who didnt seem to doubt her son once. If anything she was constantly evaluating her own desicions because she was afraid of ruinning his life. One thing that never changed throughout the entire piece was her supportiveness, she didnt look down appon her son and simply aloud him to express himself freely. Tina, Brandons mother even made an effort to connect withother mothers she found who had transgender children. They lived in a confederate neighborhood and still Tina opened her mind to other ways of life, that to me showed how great of a mother she really was.
This article opened my eyes to that many different cases of transgender children living all around the world. I had no idea the numbers were so large and that these children could actually be aware of this at such a young innocent age. I feel asthough it is an extreme amout of growing to do so early on in life, these kids miss out on the best parts of there lives because they are dealing with so much hardship. I also learned about the harmone blockers wich to me seem like a very usefull treatment, though like any scientific movement need to be very carefully chosen. I do not agree with all of Zucker's oppinions about how he could simply change a child who believed they were born in the wrong body by raising them in a patriarchal invironment, but i do however believe that parents should be absolutly sure there children are not just homosexual and are really transgender. It is much better to allow your child to be who they are instead of causing them so much pain throughout there lives that they actually hurt themselves or others.
What i took from this piece was that this will always be a very heated debate, gender is always a controversal subject and when you add a child in the mix things can only get more complicated. Its very hard to choose a side on this subject because when it comes down to it, who really knows what is best for these children? Even there parents are unsure and they are crazy if they are confident in every choice they make because this is a child, not a document that is written out in a specific way and cannot be any different. I hope that as we all grow as a human race we can see that we are all connected and though we face different paths in life we still all have our differences and problems, though some people are dealt with a harder road it doesnt make them any less human. Brandon is now Bridget and i say more power to her, i think once she is able to mature and get over her struggles now it will only make her a stronger person. Its just a shame more people cant look at life through other peoples eyes, maybe then they would understand how it feels to be different.
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