Gender Roles. Yes, They Are Important

I started off this week, before I even started the preparation for my Family 160 class, with reading a post on Facebook that stated "..as part of national coming out day.I am a nonbinary pansexual polyromantic. Yep. Now you know. I guess". This is someone close to me and I want to understand her beliefs and values.

When I first read the post I really didn't know what it was saying because I didn't know what these new terms were and maybe you don't either so... (I'm going to go get them from wikipedia)

Non-binary: a catch-all category for gender identities that are not exclusively masculine or feminine—identities which are thus outside of the gender binary and cisnormativity. 

Pansexual:  is sexual attraction, romantic love, or emotional attraction toward people of any sex or gender identity. Pansexual people may refer to themselves as gender-blind, asserting that gender and sex are insignificant or irrelevant in determining whether they will be sexually attracted to others.

Polyromantic: Attracted to many, but not necessarily all sexes in a romantic way, but not necessarily in a sexual way. Not to be confused with panromantic, with pan- meaning "all" and poly- meaning "many" but not necessarily all. Used to disregard the idea that there are two binary genders or sexes. (urban dictionary)

A couple of thoughts on this post was that first.. What the heck is National coming out day. I was very surprised by this because so many people are "coming out" that they need to have a day for that. I think is problematic because if people do decide that they want to declare themselves as gay or lesbian or bisexual or polyromantic, they should be able to do it when their time is right or those who aren't might want to feel apart of something so they will 'come out' too just because it is what everyone is doing now days.

This was a great little personal introduction to my class where we discussed this matter. The most interesting thing was another video. I love visual education things.

Men, Women, and the Sex Difference  

The thing I found most interesting about the video was that a lot of these guy did not have the acceptance or approval of men but yet then why did they become attracted to them?  At first I thought it was maybe because humans are so sex driven that they would subconsciously become sex objects but my teacher explained something that I never knew before. around 11-14 people start getting non-specific arousal. When these boys who were excited about spending time with other boys and feeling their approval they would get aroused and possibly identify that with have same sex attraction. With the other boys who had the approval it was normal to them have fun and be happy hanging with their buds but when they would have contact with the girls it was a new feeling. 

This is really interesting that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has a youth program (as well as other religions and community groups have similar programs) that gives opprotunities to build strong relationships with peers of their same gender. It also is great that they have activities together to help guide and direct the youth to build and respect one another.