I don't necessarily agree with this "spectrum" business. It may be true in objective reality but in "life" (quite different from objective reality) I'm AMAZED (
completely amazed) at how stiff and starchy the gender roles were back in the 1940's and 1950's in which I grew up. Not just what you may have been taught by your parents, but by everyone else as well, including all media at the time. Boys did this; Girls did that. Simple. If you did something appropriate only to the other group: BAM! Condemnation and/or hilarity! I remember becoming aware of this straitjacket around the age of four. Having certain ideas, I explained them to Mary, my nursemaid/au pair/babysitter, what have you. I believed that whatever you may have been as a child, when you Grew Up, you then chose the sex you wanted to belong to, which as far as I was concerned was to be female. Mary (probably around 17 at the time) erupted into gusts of (kindly) laughter, and told me that things really weren't like that; that (fortunately or unfortunately) one was stuck with one's sex at birth. You cannot imagine the shock this caused me. In our family, the person who had all the fun was Mom. Dad was the miserable person who suffered so that everyone else could have a happy life. Mary's words suddenly, and for the first time, threw me into dealing with the fact that I'd have to be like Dad, a bondslave, a sad and depressed worker ant. You haven't the vaguest idea how sudden and precipitous a down this was for me. Oh yes, I recovered and became an outstanding little boy. But, by God, I was NOT going to grow up to be like my Father! Take care!
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We must love one another or die.
W.H. Auden
We must love one another AND die.
Ygrec23