Boy or girl

Every since the birth of DS last summer, I’ve been interested in what facial features make boys look like boys and girls look like girls.  He is forever being mistaken for a girl, even when he is wearing obviously boyish clothes.  I know it’s partly because of his long, curly hair, impossible enormous eyes and to die for eyelashes.  We are now having similar problems with DD . . . she’s mistaken for a boy.  I even had someone ask me (while she was wearing a dress, mind you) “boy or girl?”   This is so strange to me because I think that DS looks like a boy and DD looks like a girl, and I’m pretty sure they both dress like their respective genders.

I’m reminded of an experience about 8 years ago.  A good friend and I were vacationing at a resort.  We decided to go down and use the pool, which closed to children at 9 and to adutls at 10pm.  It was cool out, so we walked down to the main building with our coats on.  We walk in, me in front, my friend in back.  Immediately this woman walks up to me and says, “the little boy has to go.”  I look at her, horrified and say, “One, SHE is not a boy!  And two, she is 25!”  Granted, my friend has really short hair, but she totally does not look like a boy!  So when we got back to the room, she stood in front of the bathroom mirror manipulating her face (covering up eyes, nose, making facing, squishing her face, etc.) to see what would happen.  Suddenly, there it was, I yelled “oh my goodness, you’re a boy!”  It was crazy, one little manipulation and her face went from beautiful female to male.  So weird.  So maybe there is a very fine line between male facial features and female facial features.

In any case, I expect to be correcting people on the gender of my children for a long time to come!