Before the start of her winter break, Squishy and I had a morning where we could actually spend talking about a bunch of different things. It had started with personal responsibility and not using anything as an excuse to be a poor person (anger management allowing someone to just be malicious as an example). More of that another day though.
We also went into talking about gender, transgender people, nonbinary people, and the like. We've had those discussions before, but apparently she wasn't listening, because she didn't remember it at all. On the bright side, she was receptive to all of it, and when I told her about me being Agender, she said it made sense.
I also at some point mentioned drag. I explained it as an exaggeration of gender, both for entertainment purposes, and to express oneself in an uncensored way. I told her that she would probably love seeing a drag show, because they're big silly things with lots of flash and personality.
And while she was at school that day, I got thinking about it. About how drag really does teach a lot of self expression in healthy ways. A way for people to take what they want on stage, and be allowed to present as whatever gender, or whatever role, and bring that to an extreme in a welcome way.
It teaches you that you don't have to follow any rules of gender, and you can do whatever you want, and whatever feels right for you, even if that is just for a stage voice, but to take that confidence in yourself to whatever you do beyond that. That we can be more than our appearance, and be complex beings that want to bring joy to the world.
Part of me wants to try to put together a family friendly drag show and encourage families to go with their kids. I want to find a show that I can bring Squishy to, because even if she isn't getting all the possible things she can from the show, I think she would love it.
We also went into talking about gender, transgender people, nonbinary people, and the like. We've had those discussions before, but apparently she wasn't listening, because she didn't remember it at all. On the bright side, she was receptive to all of it, and when I told her about me being Agender, she said it made sense.
I also at some point mentioned drag. I explained it as an exaggeration of gender, both for entertainment purposes, and to express oneself in an uncensored way. I told her that she would probably love seeing a drag show, because they're big silly things with lots of flash and personality.
And while she was at school that day, I got thinking about it. About how drag really does teach a lot of self expression in healthy ways. A way for people to take what they want on stage, and be allowed to present as whatever gender, or whatever role, and bring that to an extreme in a welcome way.
It teaches you that you don't have to follow any rules of gender, and you can do whatever you want, and whatever feels right for you, even if that is just for a stage voice, but to take that confidence in yourself to whatever you do beyond that. That we can be more than our appearance, and be complex beings that want to bring joy to the world.
Part of me wants to try to put together a family friendly drag show and encourage families to go with their kids. I want to find a show that I can bring Squishy to, because even if she isn't getting all the possible things she can from the show, I think she would love it.
Comments
Post a Comment