The photo of a blue man and pink woman with a question mark in between reflects my thinking at the young age of 4; I was confused. I specifically remember a brief moment where I questioned my gender identity. On a cold dark morning, as I was standing by the warm, cozy heater in our living room I asked my mother a question: “am I a boy?”. I don’t remember her exact answer, yet I'm sure she assured me that I was indeed a girl. Although always felt like a girl and was drawn to feminine products I feared I wasn’t a girl. Looking back, this was because I didn’t know the anatomical differences between boys and girls.
The image I chose for this event is a diagram of the male and female anatomy. This relates to my experience because when I was 5 years old my mother gave me the seemingly awkward lecture about body parts. I remember her using basic and proper terminology like vagina, breasts, and penis. Additionally, I became aware of the differences between genders. Although she kept the description very simple, she made sure I understood what differentiates genders; girls have vaginas while boys have penises. My mother also encouraged me to explore my identity. …show more content…
When I was younger, I loved barbies, baby dolls, and other “girly” toys, but I also loved building blocks, legos, and I really enjoyed playing video games on my Nintendo 64. She never made me feel weird for playing with “boy” toys. Due to this, I was briefly confused. I didn't understand that girls could play with boy toys and still be a girl. Once I realized that didn't dictate gender. Once I learned the different genitalia, that females have vaginas and males had penises, the fear that I wasn’t actually a girl subsided. My mother was straight and we weren't religious, however, often, my mother would assure me that no matter what I would be accepted. We would watch tv shows and when someone was gay she would pause the tv and explain the situation to me and always follow up with a statement similar to “if you're gay you can tell me, I'll always love and accept you”. I think this did influence my early experiences of gender and sexuality and how they were facilitated. Her openness gave me the freedom to explore myself and influenced how I saw the world around me. I was never hateful towards people differing from myself; I’ve always felt empathy towards people who are different from me and because of that, have a harder path in life. I created this picture of a tv set which portrays two men kissing. When I was younger I was slightly confused about my orientation. …show more content…
I heard words being tossed around like gay and lesbian and began to wonder what they meant. Later, I found out that they meant an individual likes the same gender; boys like boys, and girls like girls. I became concerned that maybe I was gay. I thought other girls were pretty, did this mean I was lesbian? Those kind of thoughts went through my head, but of course, I was younger, I didn't have the capacity to know that thinking those things doesn't make me gay. As I grew older it was very apparent that I was attracted to the opposite sex, males. I'm very comfortable with my sexuality and don't have a problem showing affection to other girls not sexually. I
The image I chose for this event is a diagram of the male and female anatomy. This relates to my experience because when I was 5 years old my mother gave me the seemingly awkward lecture about body parts. I remember her using basic and proper terminology like vagina, breasts, and penis. Additionally, I became aware of the differences between genders. Although she kept the description very simple, she made sure I understood what differentiates genders; girls have vaginas while boys have penises. My mother also encouraged me to explore my identity. …show more content…
When I was younger, I loved barbies, baby dolls, and other “girly” toys, but I also loved building blocks, legos, and I really enjoyed playing video games on my Nintendo 64. She never made me feel weird for playing with “boy” toys. Due to this, I was briefly confused. I didn't understand that girls could play with boy toys and still be a girl. Once I realized that didn't dictate gender. Once I learned the different genitalia, that females have vaginas and males had penises, the fear that I wasn’t actually a girl subsided. My mother was straight and we weren't religious, however, often, my mother would assure me that no matter what I would be accepted. We would watch tv shows and when someone was gay she would pause the tv and explain the situation to me and always follow up with a statement similar to “if you're gay you can tell me, I'll always love and accept you”. I think this did influence my early experiences of gender and sexuality and how they were facilitated. Her openness gave me the freedom to explore myself and influenced how I saw the world around me. I was never hateful towards people differing from myself; I’ve always felt empathy towards people who are different from me and because of that, have a harder path in life. I created this picture of a tv set which portrays two men kissing. When I was younger I was slightly confused about my orientation. …show more content…
I heard words being tossed around like gay and lesbian and began to wonder what they meant. Later, I found out that they meant an individual likes the same gender; boys like boys, and girls like girls. I became concerned that maybe I was gay. I thought other girls were pretty, did this mean I was lesbian? Those kind of thoughts went through my head, but of course, I was younger, I didn't have the capacity to know that thinking those things doesn't make me gay. As I grew older it was very apparent that I was attracted to the opposite sex, males. I'm very comfortable with my sexuality and don't have a problem showing affection to other girls not sexually. I