this local woman who has a tomboy kid reached out to my butch group to see if a few of us wouldn’t mind having brunch with her family and a couple more of the girls tomboy friends, cuz she read that it’s important for your development to have adult versions of “people like you” in your life when you’re growing up. which is definitely true. so we’re going over tomorrow. can you believe that? like, I’m gonna cry.
Op how did it go if I may ask?
Hi! Figure I’ll answer everyone at once here. It was kinda incredible… it was three little tomboy kids, 5 adult butch pals, and a couple of the parents, eating pancakes and muffins and playing games for a few hours. Learned a lot about each other and told each other stories, both good and bad. We lent the kind of advice that these good natured straight parents just don’t have the frame of reference for, and we talked about what we did for work and school, learned about what sports they play, suggested reading Tamora Pierce. Colored some protest posters too — the kids came up with all the words on their own, stuff like “were here whether you like it or not!”
It is awful to think about all the BS that these children have had to go through already — weird to think that we (the adult butches) know these stories of exclusion and hostility so VISCERALLY from our own and each other’s lives and childhoods, but hearing them come out of the mouth of a 10 year old girl is… something else. they have had to learn how to stand up for themselves, and they’ve got such thick skin now, but… most of us learn that so much later, or lose it as we leave childhood, and I’m so confident that at least THESE KIDS have a very real support system, parents who love them for who they are and want to encourage them to be happy and healthy even if it means life in the outside world will be harder. I dunno. I feel really hopeful.
I want one of those scenes in a dude bro film where “tomboy” chick has to wear a dress to go undercover or whatever, but instead of the guys drooling as she walks down the stairs, they’re like “k. U need to stop. Go put the cargo pants back on. You look super uncomfortable and awkward in that. Brutus, you go be the fake prostitute.”
I’m just imagining this super ripped guy called Brutus being like ‘YESSS!!! I’VE ALWAYS WANTED TO BE THE FAKE PROSTITUTE!! Now is my time to shine!!’
knitting in the dark 