I recently had an interesting epiphany; deciding that my being dressed and living as a girl until age 5 was fun and I liked it! At the time, it was a profound disappointment that I was being called a boy since I just knew that I was like my sister and mom. So, as far as I am concernted, I was not abused, though it has taken me a few years to come to that conclusion.
My shrink and a friend of mine both do not agree. She says that my mind has accomodated the events in order to make them make sense. For me, abuse or not, I simply had to get to the place that I could accept things and move on. In today's world Mom's actions could posibly be seen as illegal. And, after having that discussion with my friend, it makes me wonder what it would have been like to have a father who was actually human and not a Troll.
Well, I am happy as I am. I don't think much about how I got this way or whose fault it was.
Khadijah
Comments
Your Doctor
Where did your 'Shrink' get his license to practice, a K-Mart blue light special?
Does he know how to spell DSM-IV?
Nancy Cole
"You may be what you resolve to be."
T.J. Jackson
What Is Wrong With Me
I'm agreeing with Nancy.
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
I would say, in my
I would say, in my non-medical opinion, that dressing you as a girl when you were less than 4 years old was not abuse or any kind. That does not include if you protested and didn't want to be in dresses and said so, and she put them on you anyway.
After that, you make the decision to wear girl's clothes and probably have the cognitive function to understand that girls wear skirts and dresses, and boys do not. I'm pretty sure that most five year olds can tell the difference between a girl and boy. Most parents teach that.
If she was punishing you with the dresses, humiliating you with them in front of others, then yes, that could be considered abuse.
Just keep in mind that as close as 60 years ago, children were dressed in dresses till they were about 3 or 4, then boys got pants and so on.
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May the Stars Light Your Path
Maid Joy
http://i-know-i-know-but.net/
Not so sure about that.
I remember a conversation when I was quite young (6 or 7?) when I was asked what the difference between girls and boys was. The only thing I could come up with was that girls had long hair and wore frocks ... and that was after frequent shared baths with my female cousin. I must have been singularly unobservant ... or just innocent.
It's much longer ago than 60 years when very young boys wore dresses. I'm 70 and it certainly wasn't the practice when I was that age, at least in the UK. My father was born in 1909 and I do vaguely remember seeing a picture of him as a toddler in a dress. However I certainly wore shorts until I was 15 which I don't think was common in the USA at that time.
Robi
I did not know the difference.
My step father was diligent in seeing to it that I did not get involved in any sort of activity that was not utterly Masculine. It had to be around 7 or 8 that I still did not know what the difference was, though girls had nice hair, and were quiet and I greatly prefered my sister over my brothers. Of course, she did not cotton to me that well.