Gender Bender

I'm considering buying this onesie for my daughter:

I was mistaken for a boy until I was, oh, about 9 years old, so it's no surprise that my daughter would meet the same fate.

Fact is, she does look like a boy, especially if I dress her neutrally. Yesterday she was wearing a yellow t-shirt and white pants. On three separate occasions, people assumed she was a boy with such confidence that they didn't even bother to end sentences in which they used the pronoun HE with the type of upward lilt that signals a question or at least a socially appropriate degree of uncertainty.

You might think I'd rush to correct them, but whenever this happens I'm torn about what to do. Sometimes I just stay silent and smile. Boys are challenged more, engaged more, interacted with more vigorously. If people think she's a boy, maybe my daughter will receive better treatment -- better in the sense of more stimulating, less coddling. Then again, maybe she'll get a complex.

I'll have to think about this some more before adopting a consistent strategy. In the meantime, I've got her dressed in her pink Clash London Calling tee (thanks Auntie Monica) and pink pants. I need a break from my complex, you see.