Showing posts with label growing up. Show all posts
Showing posts with label growing up. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 9, 2019

Tower Envy

In my previous post, Ann Onymous left the following comment:
Here's my two part question, Stana. 
1. Do you think that had you from the get-go in life been allowed to live as a girl/woman you would have developed an interest in HAM radio? 
2. Had you been born with an XY [sic] chromosome body do you think you'd have developed that interest? 
I'm not trying to be provocative, I've always been curious about traditionally male/female activities and how those intersect with gender identity.
My interest in radio was sparked by two things.

👧   My childhood home was located in the shadow of the towers of AM radio station WATR. The towers were an imposing presence in my early life; so much so that I wanted my own radio tower.

👧   My parents gifted me a Remco AM radio kit for Christmas when I was about 10-years-old. Living so close to WATR, its signal swamped my Remco radio and it was the only station I could hear. However, I discovered that WATR went off the air early Sunday mornings for maintenance and I could hear other stations on my Remco. Thus began my interest in receiving distant radio stations (DX).

If I lived as a girl or had been born a girl, I guess that instead of a radio kit, my parents would have given me a makeup kit, as well as dolls, toy kitchen appliances, etc., that is, gifts like my sister received. (For what it's worth, I played with my sister's "girls'" toys almost as often as I played with my own toys.)

My sister, my only sibling who was 18 months my junior, was not fascinated by the imposing radio towers located on the next block. If I lived as a girl or had been born a girl, would I be disinterested in those towers, too?

Was my interest in those towers a "guy thing"?

Or since I was so naturally feminine, was it penis envy?

(Some food for thought, but I don't think I answered Ann's questions!)




Source: Moda Operandi
Wearing Leal Daccarett (Source: Moda Operandi)




Oslo Gay Men's Chorus
Members of the Oslo gay mens chorus (Oslo fagottkor) femulating for a Mad Men parody.