Pickles and Frosting: He-shes, she-hes, and the innocent but rightly confused us.

* Disclaimer before reading: I think some people might take this seriously. Please don't. I don't think short hair on girls is actually that bad nor long on boys.*

Okay, you've all done it before.
"Aw, your baby is so cute! How old is she?"
"It's a he."
"Oh..."
But that's only natural. Many babies have no hair and look EXACTLY the same. As they grow older, however, they grow hair. Hair, surprisingly enough, is the determining factor for young children on whether or not they look like a girl or a boy.

Copied from my Facebook status:

Dear Parents. Yes, you're right. You HAVE failed in being one. What were you thinking when you let your little boy's hair look like a girl's? Don't worry, at least he's super popular, only because all the girls think he's the prettiest girl in school. CUT YOUR BOY'S FREAKING HAIR LIKE A BOY! If you'd wanted a girl so bad, go adopt or something.

I have yet to understand why parents do that to their boys. I mean really, children will look like whatever gender you want them to until they're old enough to pick out their own fashions and hairstyles and they start gaining the physical features common to a male or female. I myself have mistaken people for genders that they're not solely because of their hair cuts. If you're one of those parents who like the fashionable Halle Berry pixie hair cut on little girls or the gorgeous Jennifer Aniston look on boys, here are cases which hopefully will convince you otherwise:

Case 1:

The little girl I nanny, we'll call her Tara, is four years old. One day, I took her to the new house her parents are building. One of the people who was working on the house had brought his son with him. He looked very much like a boy, with boy jeans and a jacket, and even his cute little chubby face resembled more a boy than a girl. He was three. And his hair was longer than Tara's and pulled back in a pony-tail. The man introduced his son, and they proceeded to play together. However, the entire time Tara was referring to the boy as 'she' or 'her'. I don't blame her. As a four-year-old, Tara has only recognized boys with short hair and girls with long hair. Poor boy. I just know he's being made fun of at school.

Case 2:

One of my best friends in Junior High has only boys in his family. For some reason, his dad allowed all their hair to grow shoulder-length until they're in first or second grade. THEY ALL LOOKED LIKE GIRLS!! Even my friend said that he was mistaken for girls by the other kids in his classes. It's so confusing! I bet little kids are having gender-confusion. They know what they are, why doesn't everyone else? Oh, it's because my parents don't care for my self-esteem at all and just want me to look stupid.

Case 3:

So, here's an interesting case. This is probably very politically incorrect, but I always picture people who let their sons hair grow out or chop their girls hair off to be rednecks who live in the Florida Everglades and have alligator stew every night. (I promise I'm not so narrow-minded as that in reality). When I was in elementary school, I helped my neighbor at a school carnival stand one year. It was one of those fishing ones where you throw the string over a board that looks like an ocean scene and then retrieve a prize. I was in charge of telling my neighbor whether it was a boy or a girl fishing. When this boy approached at some point in the day, I said 'boy' behind the board. The mother smiled and said, "It's a girl". To my utter shock I had mistaken a girl for a boy! What kind of a person does that? I did triple takes and then just settled for a blank stare eventually. She-he had a hair cut exactly like my brother's, was wearing boy clothes, and had on black boy sandals. Although I'll give her the girly long eye lashes. Girl??? Yes, one which must have been subjected to their parent's fashion ideas. But then I looked at the mom. She was no redneck who ate alligator stew every night. She looked like she could be the Relief Society President. She was very well groomed and had a nice demeanor. So these are my conclusions:

It WAS actually a boy, and he just likes girl stuff.
The she-he just likes to dress herself like a boy.
It was a foster child, whose parents WERE from the Florida Everglades.

Hopefully this has given you a taste of what sort of damage this he-she business can cause. Little boys should be made to look like little boys! At least dress them like what they are and spare the community from making embarrassing comments. Little girls should have long, pretty hair so they can feel like princesses. If the girl does what short hair, which is often the case, emphasis on the SHORT hair. Not a stupid boy hair cut.