Decidedly Obscure Human Complaints.

The other day my perceived dude gender got me into trouble. So there I sat, all studious-like, in my Psychology class as my professor rambled on aboot noticeably observable gender differences in toddlers something another.

As she lectured, I reminisced about my own toddlerhood and how I can’t recall noticing any extreme physical differences until the land o’ adolescent puberty. In my case, by the time I entered junior high school, I was all kinds of tall and awkward while all of the cisgender boys were itty bitty things scurrying around. There were numerous girls who were taller than the boys, having hit puberty earlier. Knowing that this had 95.6% to do with pubertal differences, I wanted to ask about what, biologically, accounted for the much more subtle observable differences pre-puberty in toddlers.

So I raised my hand and said: “I remember junior high, when there were all of these tall awkward girls who had hit puberty before boys…” , and, suddenly, a flurry of whispers and outcry and ooo’s happened. I finished my sentence, confused about what I’d said that had caused so much offence.

Turns out, it was from a perception that I had said there’s something awkward or “wrong” about tall women. Ohmygawd! In my past life, if I’d said the exact same thing it would’ve just been a given that, “Oh, hey, she was a tall girl in junior high. That must’ve been an awkward experience at the time!”, instead of, “How dare that douche dude say tall girls are awkward!”.

Oy vey.