Sta.sh
Thank you for everyones lovely messages and wishes for mine and Jenn's 4 years!
-------Psychic Follow-Up-------
Well, that was a varied set of results! I'll be honest and say they don't entirely surprise me, not due to the legitimacy/illegitimacy of psychics... but because of my audience here on deviantART.
Most of the people who follow me and vote in my polls are young adults and teenagers, who are all part of an art website, and so can be assumed to be creatively minded and imaginative. As such, predisposition towards the possibility of psychics seems reasonably likely. If I were to post the same discussion on a psychology forum, or a science forum, I imagine the results would have been very different.
I noticed a strong trend in "psychic-believers" that their belief tended to stem from a single experience with a psychic, in which they or someone they knew received a very accurate or shocking reading that they couldn't logically explain. My only comment on that, is to not base your entire belief or disbelief in a notion purely on one piece of evidence or experience. I've seen psychics perform stuff that I previously (and some to this day!) couldn't explain, but have seen much more evidence against them than towards them, and used this broader range of evidence to form the basis of my opinion. I did the same thing with religion, with my views on capital punishment, on drug legalisation, and many other things besides. It is dangerous grounds to base your opinion on an entire topic purely on one main positive or negative experience with the subject. I urge you all to bear this in mind, on all matters. 
Still! It was a very interesting subject, so thank you to everyone who participated in the voting and discussion.
-------Gender Roles-------
Suggested by ~fluffy-mokona
There have been several clips and articles cropping up about gender roles as of late. A couple in Canada, I believe, have been publicised for raising their child as gender-neutrally as possible, so as to let their child decide their gender identity entirely without pressure or stigma. Childminders are being instructed to encourage play with dolls for boys as well as girls. Schools are challenging gender identity in preventing bullying of children who go against the gender normality for their sex.
A short time back, I was linked to this video of a lovely little girl called Riley, who gave her own thoughts on the subject:
[link]
Of course, she is quite young, and obviously reflects the views of her parents/guardians moreso than makes an entirely independent point of her own accord. Still, she has been taught the value of gender identity, and the freedom we have in it, from a young age. These lessons are likely to carry on into her adult life which, to me, is a very refreshing thing.
My sister and I were very lucky to have quite a gender-neutral upbringing. This wasn't because my parents had any particularly strong views on gender identity (indeed, they still have struggles understanding transexualism and transgenderism, though this doesn't stop them going against their 'live and let live' life policy), but more because they just... didn't see why kids should be pigeon-holed in the activities they could take part in. My sister loved toy dinosaurs, I was a Scaletrix nut. We both had a large collection of barbies and MLP's, but neither of us liked baby dolls. Both of us were part of the Brownie Guides, and I was on the girls after-school football team. Neither of us liked pink, yet we both liked to wear blue (it was our football team colour, after all!). We were both videogamers from a young age, loved 'boys' cartoons like Biker Mice From Mars.
As a result, we've both grown up with a rather neutral view on gender. We both seem to like a variety of girls and boys stuff, aren't phased by those whose gender doesn't match their sex, and don't blink twice at overly masculine women, or effeminate men. We generally prefer jeans and t-shirts, but have a handful of dresses each, too.
SO! How about you?
How were you bought up? Were you treated in a way stereotypical to your sex? Or were you given a reasonably gender-neutral upbringing? How do you think this has affected you later in life? What are your general thoughts on the subject?
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"If you enter this world knowing you are loved
and you leave this world knowing the same,
then everything that happens in between can be dealt with."
- Michael Jackson -
I'm a girl, was a bit more of a tomboy, but if I tried to express that, maybe, "no, I don't want to play with those dolls" or "no, I hate wearing dresses" or "no, I want my hair short, it's easier that way! ^^", my dad would let it slide, but my mom would constantly try to 'guilt' me out of my 'ideas'... If that makes sense... o_O
In a sense, it was "heavily implied" (read: "told to my face when my dad wasn't around") that she disapproved of such things (and still does...).
*shrug*
I think gender-neutral is the way to go when raising kids though! ^^ Let them figure it for themselves! They will have a more open mind to things as they grow older.
And just like you, we too arent phased by masculine women or feminine men, transgenders, wear what we want and such. I tend to dress quite girly, purely because I like wearing makeup and doing my hair and flowy clothing and such. Yet despite my girly appearance, personality wise I am who I want to be. I often surprise people when they judge me by my appearance, deem myself a perfect victim for a 'throw a bug at them" prank, only for me to not be phased by it in the slightest. But my sister is the opposite - She dresses quite boyish, no maekup, pants, shirt, yet is quite girly personality wise.
I can sit here and just think about how much we would have missed out on if our parents did try to squish us into gender molds - For one, we lived on a farm, and thus would have been stuck in the house all day if were werent allowed out with the farm animals and in the dirt. I just felt like sharing as I find it interesting that the outcome was both the same for a group of people raised similarly.
In my opinion, let kids do what they want basically. She wants to play with dinosaurs? Let her. He wants the pink DS and not the black one? Let him. She wants to read a book on lizards not ponies? Let her. It would be a lot less of a headache for both the parents and the child. WHY should your little girl like pink? WHY must your little boy want to play sports? WHY cant they just be want they want to be, why must they be defined by what society says? I mean, women are now allowed to wear pants nowadays, arent they? Gender neutralizing pants was a change for the better, was it not?