I thought my research went viral last Friday with the interview I did with Smithsonian Magazine online's Jean Maglaty. Clearly, I don't know viral. Used to toil away in the obscurity of my ivory tower (actually a windowless office in the basement of a crumbling brick building), I thought that having a bunch of friends (and THEIR friends) pass the article along on Twitter and Facebook was pretty exciting. Then Fox News decided to interview me for an item on a J.Crew mailer that featured this picture:
...and all hell broke loose. Since then, I have made my first live TV appearance and been contacted for a phone interview with Laura Ingraham. I even made a cameo appearance on the Huffington Post as an unnamed "lefty author". Don't think that's going to happen, though; I am alternating these days between Grading Hell and Office Hours Limbo. (I am mayor of both of these locations on Foursquare.)
I have email alerts set for for various phrases to help me with the "Pinkboys and Tomgirls" paper for the Popular Culture Association meeting, and it's delivering news items and blog posts like the conveyor belt threw chocolates at Ethel and Lucy. The news items are pretty repetitive, and the blog posts aren't much better -- most just quote the Fox News item, in part or the whole thing. But the comments, dear reader, the comments! There's enough material in those comments for a dissertation-sized research project. Conservatives who are sure this is the sign of moral rot. Conservatives who say they don't see what the fuss is about. Former pink boys who grew up gay; former pink boys who have transitioned to women; former pink boys who grew up straight (lots of them). Former tomboy moms. Lesbian moms, Grandmothers. Psychiatrists who say WTF.
Everybody's talking about pink and boys and gender. I never thought I would say it, but
Thank you, Fox News!
Thank you, Fox News!
UPDATE: This just in from The Daily Show on Twitter:
"Tonight: A mom paints her son's toenails pink, yet he manages to NOT turn into a little girl. Miracles DO happen!"
"Tonight: A mom paints her son's toenails pink, yet he manages to NOT turn into a little girl. Miracles DO happen!"
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