Oh I love that family and I love that school!!!! I'm a little verklempt over here!

I'm unable to view the video as embedded above or on Tumblr, or on the New Day site. I found this YouTube clip which I'm guessing is the same as what you've embedded:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGdx8yPybGI

Oh god, watching this actually made me tear up a little. Dyson is so lucky to have such a supportive and open minded family, and its really amazing to see a community come together to help others -- the children in his school, the audience at that show, the people who read that book -- understand that not everyone performs gender in the same way, and there is nothing wrong with that. And, for reals, that child can rock a dress like nobody's business. <3

But a princess dress?

I'm so happy to see that some people in our country are open minded and worried more about empathy and making the world a better, more tolerant place than their own self-indulgent desires for how they want others to act/live.

Good for Dyson for wearing whatever he wants to wear.

Kudos to Dyson's family and his school for being accepting.

My twin brother had a love affair with a little white slip when we were toddlers playing dress up. He's always been a little more sensitive and empathetic then our other brother, I tend to attribute it to having a twin sister and having mostly friends that were girls when we were little. He went through phases. We played barbies together when we were really little but as we got older he preferred Star Wars action figures, and we would take turns. I would play Star Wars with him (which I absolutely adored) in exchange for playing barbies with me.

I'm glad he has such a supportive family and school.

I think my favorite part of this is when the annoying host is like "But you like basketball too, RIGHT?" and the kid just reiterates that he likes dressing up and jewelery.

I like this a lot, I guess the only thing that makes me a bit uncomfortable is that you're not really "normalizing" something when you make a huge deal out of it, write a book on it, go on TV, etc. Those things seem to highlight difference or "weirdness."

I have a princess boy. I love him to pieces and I would never take him on a talk show about it. If you want to right a book and go on T.V, then more power to you, speak your truth and try to make a difference, but leave the beautiful boy out of it. I agree with the above comments that all the attention is just confirming his difference rather than normalizing it. That said, I will be looking for this book to share with my princess boy and his family

It's interesting to see how MUCH praise (and applause!) the father gets for being accepting while the mother being open to her 'princess boy' is just considered normal/reasonable.

Are we just not noticing any racial dynamic or just not discussing it?

What racial dynamic is there, exactly, aside from the fact that the little boy is black?

That boy is adorable!!

I'm still trying to wrap my head around this. I know that gender "roles" are manufactured and malleable, but I'm still kind of caught up in thinking, "this is new, this is kind of unfamiliar," but then I immediately go to, "that's perfectly okay, you can and should keep your mind open and even accept things that are new and unfamiliar to you."

He will get remarks from other kids all through his life, but seeing so much support for his decisions is reassuring. I feel that calling him "Princess Boy" and writing a book calling him that are terrible ideas and will not help matters.

That being said, I'm sure it'll be rough but he's got a lot of support. I think that's the most important thing, especially in light of recent events...

These gender-free kids will keep on coming. Just as more and more gender-free people are breaking through all these binary system norms.

I feel uneasy... that it seems like everyone is very much treating Dyson as a crossdressing BOY. I mean, it's GREAT that his family and teachers are so supportive (and the story about the 3 adult men at his school wearing ballet costumes for Halloween is adorable!). And, at that age, who knows whether he will identify as male, female, or neither when he's older.

But does "accepting the boy who wears dresses" equal "accepting the 'boy' who is a girl inside"? It seems like the conversation could go far beyond gendered dress and toys to a discussion of gender dysphoria, transgender, etc. I want to hear more about Dyson's perspective, the language he uses to describe himself and his body... I guess I'm just thinking it might be hard for him if, one day he wants to identify as female and everyone knows "he" has a book about himself as a boy.

I guess you have to start somewhere :) And maybe Dyson really Is "just" a gender-noncomforming boy and I'm overanalyzing.

My son, now almost 8, started wearing dresses, skirts and tights at around 3. He just loved pretty things. Boy clothes are, for the most part, really boring. He would wear his dresses to school, thrilled to death with his choices, even when the other kids would tease him. He told them he could wear whatever he wanted. (He didn't tell us about the teasing until a year or two later, probably afraid we'd be worried.) We always told him he could wear whatever he wanted as long as he was safe and warm. But we also warned him that others might not feel the same way and might tease him, and that he should be ready with whatever response he wanted to give. Eventually, he decided on his own to stop wearing the dresses and tights to school and just wear them at home.

It was interesting that the moms at the school barely noticed what he was wearing, but about half the dads couldn't even look at him, it made them so uncomfortable, even in lefty north Seattle.

The very best thing about this experience was that it left my son so empowered. The week after he first wore his dress to school, he conquered three of his greatest fears completely on his own. I think it was a combination of standing up for himself and having his parents believe in him.

This is a common phase, just not that many parents allow it to run its natural course.

My little brother went through a phase of dressing up as a princess as well. His favourite game was when his best (female) friend would be the prince, and have to rescue him. Now he's 13 and likes metal, rock climbing and Call of Duty.

I obviously think it's important that they're just as accepting of Dyson if he does turn out to be trans/genderqueer etc. But at the same time I think the most progressive thing is to realise that gender is socially constructed. The fact he likes dresses doesn't neccessarily mean he likes them cos he wants to be a girl. He might turn out to identify as a man, woman, genderqueer or genderfluid. I'd love it if we got to a point where liking dresses wasn't cosidered an indicator in anyway.

How low our bar is when we consider this behavior gender non-conforming. I get that society says that he's supposed to have his gender conform to his biological sex, but we can't do any better analysis of the situation on a feminist blog? What he is doing is just conforming to the other gender. Do people commenting here actually believe that if boys just switched to stereotypical feminine trappings and girls switched to stereotypical masculine trappings the world would be gender-free? Gender IS performance!

Dyson chose to dress as a princess, the very symbol of passive femininity. If he chose to wear a comfortable skirt with his basketball jersey, maybe some hot orange nail polish, his cap on backwards, but some light little dancer's kicks on his feet, THEN we could say that -maybe- he wasn't conforming to gender, but instead choosing what he thought looked and felt good.

In a patriarchy, the choices are few and any coherent analysis must take that into account.

The other disconnect in some of these comments is the conflation of gender expression with sexual orientation. What year is this again?

See my above comment... :) This is one of my pet peeves - my other son is very 'gender typical' and no one is discussing who he might grow up to date... It also reflects a total ignorance of both the stages of child development and the distinction b/t gender identity & sexuality... (Plus, if you are biologically male, but identify as a girl, dating men then is NOT homosexual if you are being true to your gender identity... etc, etc. sigh.)

Maybe Dyson didn't get any "thrill" or satisfaction with wearing boy clothes but when he saw the girls in his class bosting about how pretty their clothes were, he thought wearing girl clothes would make him look cool since boy clothes didn't.

I think this story was great. It is showing a way of expressing how you are and your individuality while still being accepted by friends in family. Dyson showed an intrest in girls clothes, and instead of forcing him to change his ways or laugh or make fun, his family, teachers, and friends all supported him and let him be happy.

This is a great story to prove the point eveyone has been trying to reach. its so nice to see people acccepting him. Also it is inspiring that at such a young age he standing out from the norm.

This story was very interesting as you don't see boys wearing girl clothes regularly. This was Dyson's way of expressing his feelings and he did not feel comfortable wearing boys clothes. It is interesting seeing how his family and friends accept the way he dresses. Instead of being bullied and put down, he has become his own individual and his peers have accepted it. Dyson's interest in girl's clothes should not be bothered and he should be able to wear girls clothes without any problems. Overall, his family and friends supported his "identification" instead of going against it. This is what society should be like!

It is surprising to find the boy who is interested in girls dresses!i can not blame him but it is necessary to conform to the norms regarding the culture.therefore i advise him to behave manly,otherwise it will bring confusion within the society,even among the girls!