Would you ok your son wearing a dress?

I think the question posed by the OP doesn't actually have much to do with whether Harry Styles (an adult) should wear a dress. It's impossible to answer without considering how much duty a parent has to protect their child from pain by encouraging them to conform vs. how much a parent should teach their child that they are accepted and loved as they are. You can see from this thread that people come at that question from many different perspectives.

However, I think its good to be aware that concepts of conformity change.

medium.com/@NewAgeNews/why-is-president-franklin-d-roosevelt-wearing-a-dress-83fba3549523

Less important than love but more important than Twister? I’m not really sure how to answer that question other than by rehashing what I have already said.

It’s very important for teens as they are trying to develop a sense of identity and so is an easy way of fitting in with a sub culture while they are developing the maturity to have a more complex sense of self.

It is much less important to younger children, although the clothes they see will influence their aesthetic understanding in the same way interior design does.

None that I feel massively strongly about, but it encourages them to think clothing is more important than it is

What level of importance do you think is reasonable for clothing?

Namechange, your mum not allowing you pink, makeup or to choose your own clothes as a teenager is really very bizarre and not at all similar to what I have described.

How you have come to the conclusion that was like my experience I do not know. I just wore conventional clothes like every other kid until the age of about ten when I started having an interest in clothes at which point I chose my own. My kids were similar.

Mine were allowed to wear what they wanted with a few exceptions (school etc)

It led to some interesting sartorial choices

I am probably going off at a tangent here but I don’t recall my kids making clothing requests and I certainly didn’t set clothing up as a choice. I just told them what they were wearing until they were about ten. It was the same for me growing up.

My mum was very like this - she had a lot of fairly trad feminist views and I wasn't allowed pink or frills or overly 'girlie' stuff, and wasn't allowed to wear make up or shave my legs or have pierced ears until I was 18. It wasn't hugely disastrous for me, but I certainly felt from primary school age that I was missing out on stuff that I wanted, and felt like I did want to use clothes and colour etc as a way of expressing myself. Plus as a teen it was a bit miserable to be the weird kid in sensible M&S clothing with hair legs and a unibrow. Probably very character building, but not in a good way.

Yes, why not?

When my little cousin wanted a baby doll and pram, my DF was convinced someone had put him up to it. A child couldn't possibly see something his sister had and want it for himself, oh no. Must've been encouraged, poor child.

Yes, if he wanted to.

I would never suggest it.

The type of woman that allows her son to wear a dress is more likely than not, pushing their agenda on their poor children - feeding them to a pack of wolves all in the name of 'equality'.

I never remember my brothers, male friends or family ever asking or wanting to wear a dress!

Face it, it's you the parents, not your son wanting this.

Brainwashing at it's best.

[quote Savourysenorita]@ReeseWitherfork I appreciate your balanced reply and respect your opinion ps I don't agree with how your mother reacted to your brother being gay. I hope he's living a peaceful and happy life as a proud gay man.[/quote]
Thank you - he is. I don't think my mum is particularly proud of her response either. She was just scared his life would be harder for it. It draws on a lot of parallels with what you've been saying on this thread with regards to bullying etc. Of course the massive fundamental difference is that being gay isn't a choice. What clothes we wear is a choice; and also, they don't become part of who we are. Whereas being gay is of course who he is. She realises that now and is very very accepting. And his life has been harder for it, but she's supported him with that.

Either way, it is an important point that it is a generational influence.

My mum was very much a Tom boy, had no interest in clothes, much to the disappointment of her mother. When we were kids, my mum never really discussed anything to do with clothes, we wore hand me downs etc. So when it became a parent it never really crossed my mind to have conversations about clothes.

Food on the other hand, I would always give as much choice as possible. I feel it is somehow to do with bodily autonomy and remember kids being forced to eat stuff at school. But then other people thought I was crazy for allowing kids so much food choice like a short order cook.

So I guess we all prioritise where kids are allowed the most autonomy based on a mixture of our experiences and what seems to matter most to them.

Oh good. So, for me, if you've got a kid who has an opinion on their clothing, I don't think it does harm to ask them for it. Not many people like having their feelings discounted, particularly when it comes to something that mainly affects them.

Sorry, I didn’t see anywhere where she had said her clothing was particularly important to her.

I read it in: we would at least be heard and listened to, even if we didn't always get our way. I think there's value in allowing children that. But to be fair maybe that's me reading it wrong, not sure.

I think we understand empathy to mean the same thing rings.

It is about being able to understand and feel another person’s feelings as if you were in their place.

Sorry, I didn’t see anywhere where she had said her clothing was particularly important to her. I thought she had said it was important to her mother as a child.

Empathy would be more about noticing what things in life were particularly important to your child based on what your child says and how they behave.

And as Rings has said, it was particularly important to her.

I don’t think that is about empathy. The mother had decided what decisions she thought it was important for her child to have a say in based on her experiences of what mattered to her.

Empathy would be more about noticing what things in life were particularly important to your child based on what your child says and how they behave.

I'd actively discourage it as a DC his choice as a young adult.
There was an Elsa dress thread weekly at one time here.
There are many make up ranges launching for men the clothes are more feminine maybe in 10 years we'll all be gender free. No wait there is a label for that already.

I’d be fine with it. Not so worried about reading as DS is 5’10 and built like a rugby player. He used to wear nail polish, and “do his make up” as he was with me a lot and those are my thing! He did get mocked for nail polish at a play park once, but he didn’t care at all.

As long as he’s comfortable being male, in all its guises, I’m happy, no matter what he wears.

Empathy - the ability to understand and share the feelings of another.
I'm assuming FourPlatinumRings meant that she appreciated her own mother taking her feelings into account when it came to personal identity, which I also empathise with.