When I was a child in the 1960s and 70s, I wanted to be a boy. I could see from a very early age that boys were given very much more freedom than girls.
They didn’t have to wear uncomfortable tights and dresses, they got better toys and, best of all, they didn’t have to play within sight of their parents because of ‘stranger danger’.
My brother, meanwhile, wanted to be a dinosaur and even used to tell people he was one. No one seemed to mind because everybody knows children have rich interior lives – which is why the fantasy worlds created by the likes of Roald Dahland JK Rowling have attracted such massive followings.
This is all healthy and good as long as the children concerned are happy, loved and supported.
