20: Can boys wear dresses - Level One

Welcome back to Six Minute Sex Ed, the podcast that helps families talk about sex and relationships, hosted by sex education teacher Kim Cavill. For more information about Kim, check out her website: //teaandintimacy.com/ and email her at sixminutesexed@gmail.com This week's episode is level one, which makes it good for listeners of any age, but especially great for families with younger listeners. This week's episode is called, "Can boys wear dresses?" Kim starts off this week's conversation by telling a story about two kids named Charlie and Mikaela, then talks about gender and clothing. We all use clothing to express parts of ourselves to the world: even though many people judge others based on the clothes they wear, clothes don’t have a gender. There’s really no such thing as a boy shirt or a girl shirt: shirts are shirts. Certain colors, decorations, or shapes might lead other people to think different things about the person wearing them, and some places like schools may have rules about what clothes people can wear and all of those things may be fair or unfair. It boils down to this: the things people think about our clothing may be complicated, but our choices don’t have to be complicated, too. They can be very simple, if we wish them to be: we can wear what we want. For more information about talking to children about gender expression, check out these great resources: //www.plannedparenthood.org/learn/parents/preschool/how-do-i-talk-with-my-preschooler-about-identity //www.amazon.com/Jacobs-New-Dress-Sarah-Hoffman/dp/0807563730 //www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/sc-boys-who-wear-dresses-family-0329-20160318-story.html Conversation starters: How do you think Charlie felt when Mikaella told him he couldn’t wear the princess dress? Think about your very favorite thing to wear and how it makes you feel, then tell someone about it. Make sure to follow the podcast on Instagram and Twitter to leave your comments and questions. See you back next week!