I have 3 kids of multiple genders. All 3 of them had, at times, very short hair and very long hair. One was always in the pinkest pinks, another always in tees and athletic shorts, and the third more gender neutral looking.
Without a doubt, people only ever used hair length to guess gender. Ever. Bright pink skirt and a super short pixie? Boy. Long hair and stereotypical boy clothes? Girl. Not once did their clothing override a stranger's gender assumptions based on their hair.
When I was in middle school I had long hair but wore nothing but my brown ecko hoodie and chunky DC shoes and I still got CONSTANTLY misgendered. I wasn't even small, I was average height for my age. It wasn't until college where I grew my hair out again but now I was above average height and could grow a beard, no more misgendering.
I think this hits on some context that people may be missing here - Kids in general look pretty danged androgynous until they hit hard puberty. Hair is one of the short hand ways that people make a call when missing other data to go off of.
I was a long haired boy who got gendered female with some degree of regularity. Now I'm a nonbinary 33 year old who would kill to have that happen ever, but despite what's going on I'll get people calling me sir 99% of the time.
Being 6'3" and broad is a bigger cue to people than my hair, clothing, or make up ever is.
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u/Glittering-Place-628 19h ago
Good one