Right on, Target?

Target found itself under social media fire towards the end of last month, as a result of selling t-shirts that read TROPHY, MRS, and THIS IS MY BACKSTAGE PASS (among others)… in their junior girls department. Many groups representing different perspectives weighed in: outraged parents, verklempt feminists of all ages, fashionistas. Target responded by issuing an apology, assuring the public they never meant to offend anyone.

Fast forward to the present. Now Target is the focus of another social media storm, this time for removing gender qualifiers from several departments, such as Toys and Children’s Bedding. This move makes me both, incredibly happy and incredibly suspicious.

Why am I happy?
I identify as bi-gendered or androgynous, and people’s obsession with pegging each other as either male or female prevents me from enjoying life’s simple pleasures, like taking a piss in a public restroom without getting angrily redirected to the crapper people perceive as being the appropriate one for my gender presentation: I’m too feminine for the men’s room, and too masculine for the women’s. So I am stuck in an awkward limbo, where I have to wait until I’m about to wet my pants, so the urgency of taking a leak can supersede the feelings of embarrassment-driven hyper-awareness, or anger-driven self-righteousness.

Very much aside from my bathroom dilemma, I believe we should stop shaping up adults to grow up male or female, and focus more on cultivating individual strengths and aptitudes. Is it really that important for a child to wear pink or blue, or to love G.I. Joe vs. Hello Kitty, dependent on their genitalia? Shouldn’t we care more about nurturing and supporting them, period? Are we breeding to make gender-conforming individuals, or to bring productive happy caring humans into the world?

Why am I suspicious?
The timing of this controversial decision is worthy of attention. I have no way of knowing if Target has been considering this move for a while, or if they just scrammed in an attempt to distract people from the accusations of degrading sexism that stemmed from the Trophy t-shirt fiasco. To be fair, they have stirred the conservative pot quite a bit, but I don’t think it’d hurt to ponder on their motivations, even if only as an exercise in objectivity.

Shots fired near my home in San Salvador, El Salvador

Colonia Miramonte woke up to the sound of gunfire, at around 08:00am local time (2 hours behind EST, or same as MT). This is an overall safe neighborhood, of which there aren’t many left in El Salvador. We count ourselves lucky, and go through life mostly unaffected by the pervasive gang violence that has metastasized to the very core of our little country.

image credit: http://www.ibtimes.com

Even though I never saw combat when I was in the U.S. Army, they did train me well, and the sound of gunfire still gets me on my feet and ready to react. So in less than 2 seconds I had rolled out of bed and was checking out the situation.

Apparently police officers were in pursuit of some criminal, firing warning shots along the way. In his efforts to evade capture, the presumed thief/gang member was jumping over walls, running through roofs, and at one point, through a neighbor’s back yard. It seems despite the commotion, he was successful and got away. As far as we can tell nobody was wounded during the incident. Thankfully.

image credit: http://www.nydailynews.com, CABEZAS / GETTY,

Two hours later life is back to normal in our little bubble: people are walking to work, the gentleman who drives by in a pickup truck selling vegetables already made his rounds, and I’m back in bed. Humans are nothing if not adaptable.