The other day I praised my son for being “manly”. He’d handled a situation with a maturity beyond his nine years, showing honour, courage and responsibility. It seemed a fitting compliment. Yet he looked shocked. “I don’t want to be that,” he told me. “That’s a bad thing.” I reminded him of his school motto, right there on the crest of his uniform: “Viriliter Age”, meaning act manly. It was sad, as a mother, to have to reassure a boy his innate being is, in fact, a good trait. Not something to feel ashamed of, or guilty about.

That any child should feel bad about their gender identity is particularly rotten in a supposedly progressive society. Yet it wasn’t wholly a surprise, considering the cultural