We’re not sure if they celebrate Father’s Day in Germany, but if they do Nils Pickert deserves more than lumpy pancakes and a loud tie.
Pickert’s five-year-old son enjoyed wearing dresses when their family lived in West Berlin, but was nervous about doing so when they moved in to a quiet South German village.
“I didn’t want to talk my son into not wearing dresses and skirts,” Pickert told the feminist magazine Emma. “He didn’t make friends in doing that in Berlin already and after a lot of contemplation I had only one option left: To broaden my shoulders for my little buddy and dress in a skirt myself.”
Dad says he’s trying to raise his son to believe he doesn’t have to conform to social expectations just because of his sex. “I’m not one of those pseudo-intellectual daddies that rambles on about studying gender justice, and then, as soon as the child is born, falls back into the comfortable and clichéd gender roles.”
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Having his dad show such strong support gave Pickert’s kinder the security he needed to start wearing a frock in public. Once, a judgmental neighbor stared so intently, she slammed face-first into a streetlight. “My son was roaring with laughter,” says Pickert.
Now the little tiger has started painting his nails. When classmates give him the stinkeye, he simple says “You only don’t dare to wear skirts and dresses because your dads don’t dare to either.” “That’s how broad his own shoulders have become by now,” says Pickert “All thanks to daddy in a skirt.”
Werk, little buddy!
Gotjee
Awwww!! This made my day 😀
Mr. Enemabag Jones
Sadly, all the cowardly fathers who would harass their sons, will call this father names even though he has more guts than they ever will.
Neo
@Mr. Enemabag Jones: But that is their failures and insecurities as people.
Taking a stand for your child is awesome. Kudos to Mr. Pickert and his son.
londonbridge
Totally made my day! What a great Dad!
GeriHew
The thing is that the people staring in the street would be staring at dad in a dress. The five year old child in a dress they would probably just assume is his daughter – at least if dad was wearing trousers they would.
In previous centuries, up to the early nineteenth century it was common practice to dress little boys in the same way as girls in dresses up to the age of 5, 6 or 7, when the boys would then start wearing breaches.
Gender specific colors for baby clothes is an invention of 20th century America. And when first introduced it was pink for the boys, and blue for the girls!
A Ladies’ Home Journal article in June 1918 said, “The generally accepted rule is pink for the boys, and blue for the girls. The reason is that pink, being a more decided and stronger color, is more suitable for the boy, while blue, which is more delicate and dainty, is prettier for the girl.” Other sources said blue was flattering for blonds, pink for brunettes; or blue was for blue-eyed babies, pink for brown-eyed babies, according to Paoletti.
In 1927, Time magazine printed a chart showing sex-appropriate colors for girls and boys according to leading U.S. stores. In Boston, Filene’s told parents to dress boys in pink. So did Best & Co. in New York City, Halle’s in Cleveland and Marshall Field in Chicago.
But during the 1940s manufacturers settled on pink for girls and blue for boys.
miamiman
Herr Pickert, kudos to you.
Father’s Day (Vatertag) is definitely celebrated in Germany, but not on the same day
we do in the States. For 2013, the date is May 9th. It’s a great opportunity for everybody to get really drunk and I’ve heard of many, many interesting stories
happening on this day.
I never developed a taste for dresses, nail polish or hair spray, but I can guarantee
you that if I had, my father would have been another Pickert. I used to love
wearing bright colors: pink, orange, red in a world when men always wore gray, black or navy blue. My father wore all the bright colors and prints that I loved and believe it
or not, he got the attention of many a lady for being so avant-garde and secure of his
masculinity and for not fearing what other men would say.
This article deeply touched home.
May God bless my father wherever he may be.
Dionte
Wow that’s great, heartwarming.
mikehipp
So great to see this devoted father don a dress to back his son up. Cheers all the way around. Cheers for his attitude about gender non-conformity and cheers for acting like what every parent should act like in similar circumstances.
As a person who was thrown out of his house at 17 by religious parents; kudos to this father.
jmmartin
What a moving story! The thought that a father would be that open-minded and supportive of his child almost brought me to tears. Thanks for the story, folks.
LadyLady
What an ******AWESOME****** Dad! Thank you for being a great person.
nwilsontaylor
However, if in the future the son wants to become a woman and has an operation, wears women’s clothes and makeup, any geneticist – by talking a DNA sample – will say that he is a male. Conversely, consider Chastity Bono. She is still a woman because her DNA says so.
There is nothing anyone can do about changing DNA.
kailla93726
@mikehipp: Sorry that your parents kicked you out. How sad for them to have ‘lost’ you at that age, it sounds like you have a warm, compassionate spirit, in spite of their attitude.
GeriHew
@nwilsontaylor: How do you know what this child’s DNA will say?
Steve Crecelius
From Steve to Stevie- Man Goes to Doctor, Discovers He’s a Woman
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cL1m8d2erg%5D
Gotjee
@nwilsontaylor: Please take your trollish lies somewhere else, you vile queerphobic scum.
Bennett
My hat’s off to this father…he understands that the greatest thing in the world is to love your child just for who they are!!!
AndrewIB
well done that Dad..Can’t quite shake the image of my moustached military father wearing a tweed twin set and pearls which is slightly disturbing but kudos to this wonderful supportive father.
kw
@Gotjee: Wow – overreact much?!
nwilsontaylor
GeriHaw, genetic testing tells whether a person is male or female. Males have XY chromosomes while females have XX. Therefore, Chastity Bono is a woman forever because her chromosomes have always been, are now and always will be XX.
And Gotjee, it’s the truth – not a lie. XY means that the human person is a man while XX means that the person is a woman. Nothing anyone can do about the inbuilt identification of a human person.
GeriHew
@nwilsontaylor: I am not a geneticist. However I know enough about it to tell that you are obviously not a geneticist either – at least not a modern one – let alone an expert on transgender and transsexualism.
Katie Baratz is an XY woman. She is not a transwoman. She has an intersex condition called AIS – androgen insensitivity syndrome. On the outside she has the naturally developed body of a woman, and she has the psychology of a woman and is married to a man. She is infertile.
http://www.marieclaire.com/sex-love/relationship-issues/woman-with-male-chromosomes
There are also XX men. You’re on the Internet. You can google it or just look it up now on wikipedia.
Not only are there XX men & XY women there are people who aren’t even XX or XY. There is XO, XXX, XXY, XXXY and XYY and probably more beside.
Did you watch the video? [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cL1m8d2erg
it’s not a joke. Steve/Stevie Crecelius is very interesting because she is intersex and transgendered – and her intersex condition did not mean she was infertile.
nwilsontaylor
Leaving rare anomalies aside for the moment, people are male or female. Therefore, as stated in my original point, Chastity Bono is still a woman since she cannot change her genetic XX chromosome identity. Additionally, she herself has stated that she has not and probably won’t undergone/undergo a sex change operation. Therefore without clothes what have we here? A woman who had her breasts removed and is on testoterone looking like a male above the waist, but below the waist a womb and vagina. Nevertheless, she still is and always will be a woman.
GeriHew
@nwilsontaylor: I don’t pretend to know if Chaz Bono’s transgender is organic in nature or purely psychological, and I don’t think you should pretend to know either.
What I do know is that his gender identity is male and I have no problem with respecting that.
nwilsontaylor
Chastity Bony identifies herself as male however her genetic makeup is female and there is nothing she can do about it.
I have no problem giving every person the respect that is due to them as a human being, however in no way do other people have to respect and agree with ACTIONS that are immoral. And here we get into the area of objective truth and subjective truth. Is truth decreed by democratic vote? Is it what each person thinks it is for them? Is it transcendent? As Pontius Pilate asked, “What is truth?” He then turned and walked away without waiting for the answer.
GeriHew
@nwilsontaylor: “ACTIONS that are immoral”
?
So are we to take it that you have in fact examined Chaz Bono’s DNA profile in minute detail and that you are certain that there is absolutely no genetical reason for this individual to have a gender identity which is male?
You know what? Seriously just give it a rest please. They haven’t even found the “gay” gene yet – or have they?
http://www.medicaldaily.com/articles/10287/20120613/homosexuality-gene-mother-reproduction-evolution.htm
not that I believe they ever really will. But that’s whole other conversation.
wainiac
This is beautiful. I live in a quiet small town and a dad and his 5 or 6 year old son were buying a barbie doll. I smiled and asked if the doll was for the little boy. Dad replied’Yes.’ I gave the dad a knuckle bump and called him ‘Dad of the year!” Then the dad said bye and said”come on son, grab your barbie. time to go’.
I am so proud of that father!!