Ray D'arcy on RTE Radio 1 **Mod Warning post 1** 27th Jan Forward

Was listening to the interview with mother who has a “gender neutral” house. I had to laugh when she started off slipping into stereotypes when she said one child liked pink, therefore they were obviously a girl. She’s obviously very naturally given to stereotyping herself. In other times it was “pink for boys, blue for girls”. I could say that I was actually brought up in a “gender neutral” home but by default rather than deliberate action by my parents.

Born a biological girl, naturally inclined towards mechanical things, cars, airplanes probably because both parents were mechanically minded; loved pink, probably because most ladies’ toilets were decorated pink back in 60s so became fascinated by the colour; liked to be dressed boyishly, probably because I felt it felt more secure being a bit more modestly covered; loved male company, probably because I was surrounded by boys and good male role models; grew up a typical female boy-admiring teenager. I am fairly certain if I were a child these days I would at some stage get the idea to identify as male, especially if doing so got me more of the requisite attention and I heard about some other people doing it. I wouldn’t have wanted to miss out on that, having entertained the idea of being a different nationality, religion etc, anything to be”different”. These times parents make a huge deal out of everything a child comes up with, reinforcing temporary role play rather than just not making a big deal out of everything and airing it all on public radio.

Right, that segment's over. Frances ? was well on top of her subject, and passionate about it; which is great, especially when you are engaging with and enthusing kids. She struggled with Ray, though, who couldn't stay on one topic for more than one banal question before hopping off on another tangent. Poor woman