I was raised in a small farming town by a single mother. My mother is one who could be considered as progressive, or forward-thinking. As a result, I was never chastised for participating in, what our textbook labels, “masculine” leisure activities. I also was never pressured to act “feminine”. Moreover, my family had no strong ethnic or religious parameters to influence our pastimes. Therefore, my gender and ethnicity never had an impact on my leisure pursuits. Honestly, I do not remember when I became aware of my gender identity. My younger brother was born when I was only three years old, so I knew the anatomical difference between males and females very early on (long before I have any memories). Since my mother raised us to understand that boys and girls were equally competent, I never had any realization that I needed to behave “girly”. It has always been a firm belief in my family that anatomy is the only distinguishing difference between men and women. …show more content…
As I mentioned, I spent most my life in a tiny rural town. At that time, there were very few African-American or Hispanic families in our town. When I was about 8, an African-American family moved into our apartment complex. Being so young, I was naturally curious why they physically appeared so different from us. However when I asked my mother, she explained the difference as simply being in appearance. She strongly instilled in us that all human beings, regardless of gender or ethnicity, were equal. I played with the children from that family as easily as the white children I was raised