Gender in Life and Fiction

Today's New York Times has an op-ed piece entitled "My Daughter Is Not Transgender. She’s a Tomboy." It's by Lisa Selin Davis,  author of a young adult novel called “Lost Stars,” and in the Times article, she describes how her seven-year-old daughter is constantly asked whether she wants to be identified as a boy because of the way she dresses and because of her shaggy, short hair.

This, of course, reflects America's current hypersensitivity about gender issues: the idea that gender is something one can choose, as opposed to something one is born with, and the idea that it is a violation of a person's civil rights if such choices -- perhaps not always obvious -- are not respected.