31 December 2011

I'll Show You Mine If...

In June 2005 I recounted this memory from my childhood (with minor editing).

"There comes a time in a little boy's life when he begins to understand that little girls are different from little boys. Different in ways that he cannot easily see. He becomes aware that he possesses something that little girls don't have, and in turn little girls posses something the he doesn't. A little boy knows what he has, after all, he's had his whole life, but how can he discover what makes a boy a boy and a girl a girl. A child's curiosity is ever rarely satisfied by theoretical rhetoric, but rather a child needs concrete evidence. 

Growing up, I had something that most little boys don't have -a twin sister. It became apparent to me that my closest playmate was different from myself, and I wanted to know how so. Her curiosity was no less than mine. We made a deal, a pact. I would show her mine if she would show me hers. Standing by the ditch bank I dropped my pants and showed her what made a boy a boy. She giggled! And then ran off, leaving me with my pants down, without showing me what made a girl a girl. Boys will be boys, and girls will be girls, but I would not learn what exactly made them so."