Another child that was raised gender neutral was Storm who was known as the genderless baby. Storm has older siblings and the older brother had liked dresses and wanted to be known as a girl. Storm's parents then decided that Storm can have the choice to be whoever Storm wants to be without the pressure of knowing if Storm is male or female. Again I can see why the parents did this because their oldest son had felt restricted by gender norms, I still don't totally agree with it. Children are very moldable so gender norms present from a very young age influence them throughout their lives. I don't know if being gender neutral helps to get out of those gender roles. I think that if children are given gender neutral options and if they happened to want to wear a dress, then why not. But I think the label of gender neutral can be harmful. This is fairly recent so I would be interested to see how these children grown up are like. I honestly don't think that this improves that much, but it is difficult to be sure, so whatever parents think is right for their children, whether raising them in their gender or gender neutral, is up to them. Personally I don't think hiding their biological sex isn't necessarily helpful, but it is great that parents want to break gender norms.
Thursday, April 23, 2015
Gender-Neutral Children
Recently some parents have decided to raise their children gender-neutral to help them avoid the gender norms forced on children from a very young age. I like the idea of not having to deal with the gender roles and the pressures put on young children, but I feel like this creates other issues. Sasha was raised gender neutral and his parents only revealed his sex when he started going to school and it was difficult for them to keep the secret. Sasha's parents don't want "to lumber their son with stereotyping their fear gender brings." The issue with this is that they put pressure on him by making him an outsider from the beginning. His mom talks about how she was labeled the "loony woman" and Sasha probably was labeled as well. By taking him out of the gender stereotypes it puts Sasha into a position where he can wear pink or blue if he wants, play with legos or dolls, which is perfectly fine, but refusing to give him a gender he is placed in a different box. Sasha will always be known as the gender-nuetral child and that label makes people make assumptions about him and also puts pressure on Sasha. I liked that Sasha had the choice of what he wanted to wear, but there are definitely ways to do that and promote individuality without bringing attention to him.
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I agree that the concept of raising a child as gender neutral sounds better than its actual implications. Labeling Sasha as "gender neutral" is placing him in a box of his own, which gives him little room to relate to others. Sasha's parents received harsh criticisms, and these negative perceptions can be transferred on to Sasha, who is a mere child. Children's malleability puts them into a tough spot as children, and the way they are raised lays the foundation for the rest of their life. Storm's situation is very similar to Sasha's, and although these children seem like ordinary infants now, I fear that they may develop psychological problems as they mature. It is definitely interesting to see where this will go in the future.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree that this concept has both its pros and cons. However, I do believe that it is great that parents are willing to accept their child no matter their gender. I agree with you when you state that the label can be harmful. With any label we have discussed in class, someone becomes oppressed. I can see your side where you don't agree with it and rather have the child decide for themselves by just growing up the way our society is. Honestly, that is probably easier for children to tell if they would rather be one gender over another.
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