When prudishness meets transgenderism: The genderless baby

Now this is just ODD.

What is the point anyway? People who ask if the baby is a boy are girl are usually being polite, not prejudiced.

And choosing one's gender? While I am all for it in adults, in kids it's just messed up.

 

interesting.

i don't think they want the baby to choose its gender, more not determine what it is for now. whilst i appreciate the sentiment, i don't think we have quite advanced to the point where we recognize the futility of gender identification etc.

but i admit i haven't seen the video yet. gotta get into work in a minute.

 

Gender is genetic, anatomy at birth speaks for itself.

Gender identity is a different thing entirely, and yes it's up to people to choose that but most people don't make that decision until much later in life.

 

I heard a piece about this on the radio. These people are delusional, self-important idiots and their kids should start saving up for therapy now.

 

Who actually cares? It's their problem innit. I tend to worry about things like Israel's illegal occupation of Palestinian land and the inhumane treatment of people there.

 

I took a Philosophy of Gender class when I was in college, and the professor there told about how in an effort to make sure her daughter was able to develop on her own and not have gender stereotypes force on her, she made sure to give her gender neutral toys only. By the time her daughter was 3 she was rocking her dump truck toy back and forth and pretending it was a doll. I think these parents have their heart in the right place, but they're ignoring prior research in favor of a hunch in the nature vs nurture debate.

 

Don't forget the starving kids in Africa.

 

I think we are all missing the important message here.


lol@Canadians.

 

It not about asking politely about the sex of the kid, it is about avoiding having too many genderised toys (such as pink is often the only colour for little girls toys) and treatment.

 

Baby has either boy bits or girl bits - so aside from a costly operation - the gender is chosen (and it doesn't matter which model you get both leak ).

I can understand the desire to avoid having gender stereotypes forced upon the child. However, with this method, unless they home-school, I see interactions with classmates going from the typical: "You can't play this your a girl." Or "Boys shouldn't play with dolls." to "This is a girls(boys) only game. You can't play because I don't know what you are." I'm all for overcoming gender role boundaries. My favorite sport in high school was football and I routinely took down a few of the varsity football players in our pick-up games. I wanted to go out for the team, but at that point, knew it would involve a legal battle that would have taken some of the joy out of playing the game. I had a friend in Jr. High that wrestled and she was rather good at it. Several matches were forfeited to her because some guys didn't want to fight a girl (whether it was due to the possibility of losing to a girl or upbringing telling him not to fight girls or some other reason).

Heck, my little brother fell victim to gender stereotypes in high school. His first paper was returned to him by his English teacher with a big red F on the top and a note that read. "If you are going to have your girlfriend do your work for you then tell her to write sloppier." It was, of course, easy enough for him to get the grade changed as the 'girly' handwriting was his.

 

This is what that child is going to be like when it grows up:

[image=http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_0jhe4AbFCnY/SkgKjG0hMaI/AAAAAAAACc8/jfob6XpAxEE/s400/pat.jpg]

 

I read the article a week ago.

The baby's two older brothers, who are 3 and 5, are also encouraged to dress themselves however they want.

So the boys wear pink and have braided long hair (yea, I'm sureeee they chose that), and the oldest boy is upset people think he's a girl. And the parents won't correct others who think their boys are girls, unless their sons ask them to.

I think it's messed up. By making them grow up "free of gender stereotyping" from their parents, that doesn't stop the rest of the world from stereotyping them. They are going to be bullied, and bullying should be a worse problem for their kids than any gender-conformity or whatever they're calling it. The parents should really think about how much more harm than good they're doing to their kids.

 

How is this being prudish?

 

I've never heard of anyone actually choosing.

 

In a perfect world, gender should be a non-issue to anyone but a person's physician. But we're not there yet, and probably won't be until the 22nd or 23rd century, at the rate we're going -- unless we fail to do something about global warming before the planet becomes inhospitable, in which case we'd have something more important to worry about than who's an innie or an outie or why it should matter to us.

 

And any potential sexual partners.

 

I get where they're coming from but this is just going to backfire. There's enough in the media now to understand how difficult it is for people to come out, and this is just putting a spotlight on the kid - whether he's/she's straight or gay. I feel bad for the kid when it reaches adolescence. They're going to have the normal burden of maturing and self identity and that much more now.


Also you should never use your child to prove a point.

 

At first, I used to think so, too. But now I don't think so anymore. Certainly one could be predisposed to being more attracted to one gender over the other. But if you meet the person who is right for you, it should not be an issue, even if it challenges what you thought you were attracted to, gender wise.

Chaz Bono's gf used to identify as lesbian before he transitioned, when he was still living as a lesbian named Chastity. Now he's a guy and she's still with him, so I guess she identifies as either straight or bi, or avoids those labels altogether (not sure because I watched that documentary but I don't remember).

So you can start out thinking you know you're sexual orientation, but meeting the right person could sometimes make you question your own assumptions about yourself. When you're open to that, a person's gender becomes unimportant, if you're really attracted to that person and the chemistry is right.

 

I had no choice being born male. None at all. Neither did my kids.

I did catch my youngest playing with some of my sister's old "My Little Pony" toys once. He was quickly backhanded and given a beer and a power drill.

 

I think that the only way to raise a genderless child would be to have genderless role-models (parents, siblings, extended family etc.), and there aren't too many of those running around.

So while I understand that these parents do not want their child to have the "harmful" conditioning of "gender", they will ultimately fail.