Nature vs Nurture? Is CDing genetic, or learned (or both!)

[Sophie86]

My father was a very strong male role model and influence. He raised me to be an athlete. Football, basketball, etc. The stakes were high, and he was deadset serious about me being successful in athletics. There was no hint of "girlieness" in how he raised me.

But couldn't that very attempt to "make a man out of you" have had the opposite effect? In my own life, I've identified two ways I think that might have played out. One is that it turned everything associated with girlishness into forbidden fruit, and we all know how tasty forbidden fruit is. The other is that it made dressing up feel like an escape from the pressure of being male.

Neither. I think we were brainwashed!

Hey don't sell that idea short. I remember going through the Sears catalog with my sister playing a game we called "Pick". She would turn the page, and we would each quickly pick which female model we thought was the prettiest. She would always stop the game when we got to the underwear ads, so of course, I'd have to go look at those on my own.