tiffanyneclace34

Suzannah and Luz are a lesbian couplewho sought out Paloma's X earrings therapy because they were concerned abouttheir youngest son. Kyle is a 5-year-old boy with a gentle naturewho distains traditional boys' toys and games. He spends most ofhis time in day care playing with girls, and his favorite gamesinvolve playing with dolls and dressing up in princess gowns.Suzannah and Luz are progressive parents who have never forcedgender-based roles or toys on any of their three children. "Ouroldest son also played with 'girls' things,'" they said, "but neverPaloma Picasso Loving Heart ring. Kyle's behavior is clearly extreme and everyone iscommenting on it."

When children transgress sociallyexpected gender boundaries even the Elsa Peretti Open Heart ring liberal clinicians findthemselves haunted by Freudian ideology that children need both amother and father to develop solid gender identities. Despite over30 years of feminist theory and social science evidencedemonstrating that gender-based play and clothing are socialconventions, children who deviate in extreme ways from expectedsocial conventions are labeled with mental health problems. Goldner(1988) suggested that gender is a "fundamental organizingprinciple" that is "not only restrictive" but "constitutive" andactually "determined what it was possible to know" (p. 17). Thisarticle explores emerging ways of "knowing" about genderdevelopment and family relations within the Tiffany 1837 lock ring of families whoare living outside of socially expected norms. A case history of alesbian family with a gender atypical child illustrates some of thechallenges facing family therapists.

Family is the cultural institution wherevalues and expectations of gender socialization are taught andreinforced. Although gender roles are learned in multiple arenas,including schools and through the media (see Golumbek & Fivish,1994), the lion's share of responsibility rests on parents who aredirected to Tiffany 1837 ring children in appropriate behaviors. Parentalduty includes assisting children in negotiating physical,psychological, and developmental processes so they can adaptsocially to the cultural mandates of gender expectations. A complexundertaking in any circumstance, these tasks have been impacted inthe past few decades by significant social revolutions that havechanged how gender is viewed within society and experienced inrelationships and families.