The Fishers in La Paz, Bolivia

Avery is in the stage where she is trying to learn how you figure out who is a boy and who is a girl. This meant that for several months she made it very clear she did not like our two male friends with long hair. I think it messed up her catagories: women – long hair, men – short hair. Thankfully, they didn’t take it personally.

I am glad this process is happening in a country where most people don’t speak English. At the hair salon, she pointed at a woman with very short hair and loudly said, “Is that a he?” I explained that women can have short hair too, to which she responded, “But Mooommmm, she’s not wearing any earrings!” Then we were standing on the sidewalk in a busy part of town and as a woman passed by, Avery said to her with suspicion  (again, very loudly!), “Is that a dress?” The woman turned and said, “Why, yes it is!” So unfortunately that time Avery picked an English-speaker to question about her gender!