When I found out that one of the pieces this week was through the eyes of a 6 year-old boy, I was really excited to read it because I love strong narrative voices like that, so I decided to tackle it first.

"As giant as he is, he's making me feel even smaller than I usually do, and I don't think I really like it." I've read through the blog posts before mine, and so the importance of size to boys has already been introduced into my chains of thought, but I think size in general is important to a small little kid. Everyone is so much more intimidating as a little kid not only because of their age, but because of their size! Anyone can easily hurt you just because of that advantage. I've always desired to be taller, and I'm sure many can empathize with me, no matter your height. I know people who are practically a foot taller than I am that still want to be taller. It's important to look like you can defend yourself, in a dog-eat-dog world that we are in.
I think it's really interesting that Jake then desires to see other men's penises after having such close contact with his brother's, but I don't think you can label it as homosexual tendencies. I think since it's such a regularity with his brother, he finds it normal and a mark of manhood, which makes sense why he would then want to compare his uncle's to his brother's. After all, he and his peers can't do the same thing his brother can. It gets to the point where he even wants to see his uncle shower, that he imagines it. It's a point of respect for him.

By the end of the read though, I connect the core question of "Can a child really speak? And if so, are we really listening?" Jake never answers his mom, but she automatically assumes his answer. Even if he had said something, she probably would've interpreted it on her own. Like Manan has pointed out, how should we take a child's testimony in a court of law? They may not even understand what is right or what is wrong. They may not be saying what exactly they want to convey. I've personally never thought about it in this sense. I've always thought that what children say should always be taken to heart because they're so honest, many seem to, or to me at least, lack a sense of filter. However, now I do think that there is a certain level of caution we should approach with when concerning a child's words.

As for Judith Butler's piece, I was immediately intrigued because she brought up the idea of writing as a lesbian. I thought it's kind of offensive to think of a lesbian as a different type of person, or an unattached part of oneself. It should be one whole person, should it not? Not a lesbian, and then, a woman! So it's funny to me that she's okay as "appearing as a lesbian" under political occasions, like it's a job or hers, a role she plays. I was also intrigued by this: "As a young person, i suffered for along time... that what I "am" is a copy, an imitation, a derivative example, a shadow of the real," because it reminds me of those short definitions we had to look up a couple of weeks back, particularly mine with the mirror stage, as we humans apparently take a lifetime trying to connect ourselves with what we see in the mirror, and the Imaginary that Lacan theorizes.
I was also really excited to see the author's thoughts on drag, and I'm a little disappointed that my group already went up to make our presentation because some of the thing she said about it surely would've been useful! It took me a couple of re-reads to really understand what she was saying though, I'm not going to lie, and I can't say that I really know what she's saying in the end, but I like this quote, "It seems there is no original or primary gender that drag imitates but gender is a kind of imitation for which there is no original." It just got me thinking that indeed, where is the original for gender norms? Where in the chain of time were certain stereotypes set by society? Where was the blueprint that said guys can't cry? She also says "gender is drag" which is true in a sense. Drag is a sort of persona, a personality type, a state of mind. Gender, because of what society demands of a man and a woman, is a state of mind as well, if we want to stay within the boundaries and norms. Gender is something we put on when guys decide to stay away from a dress and put on pants instead, when girls put on their make-up.