On May 26, 2011, in The Week magazine “Should a baby's gender be kept a secret?” Babble raises contradictory viewpoints on the issue of a Canadian couple who kept their kid -4 months old baby- Storm's gender undeclared to everyone except for his/her two young brothers, two midwives and a one close family friend. Holler, who thinks that raising a genderless baby is a “fascinating experiment”, says that people's interest in knowing the baby's gender support the parents concern of hiding it. On the other hand, Dr. Alvarez states that choosing a personal gender is a personal right, but the Stoker's method in applying it is incorrect. In fact, they are putting their kid in a situation of being unable to identify his gender. Moreover, this decision may harm Storm's siblings by confusing them about the reason for the secret gender.
After viewing the different opinions, I think that the negative consequences outweigh the benefits of making the decision to hide a child's gender. First of all, keeping a child's gender as a secret may cause psychological problems for the kid. How would the little kid feel about him/herself when others call the child by different pronouns; how can a child get over the misunderstanding of his/her gender, and how can a child's parents explain this to him/her? In addition, the consequences may extend to his/her siblings as well. And not only this, it is a new experiment, so we can't see its full dimensions in the current days. After a while when the kid reaches 40 years old, may it appear. Therefore, i question the likelihood of hiding Storm's gender resulting in protecting Storm from any assault, or giving Storm the freedom to choose his/her gender. In the end, I believe that gender is not a social construction; it is a biological situation that should be declared and embraced.
Good work asma , looking how we did the same subject , i found in your
ReplyDeletesummery a couple of important details that i have missed in mine , which
indicates a really powerful ability in conducting a sufficient useful summery
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Very strong, unbiased summary. Well done. Your reaction is very thoughtful. I like your distinction between social constructions and biological constructions. Many scholars view gender as a social construct and sex as a biological construct. Would you disagree? This is the question of nature vs. nurture. Do we develop as we do because of the way we are raised (e.g. girls play with dolls and boys play with trucks), or are these natural tendencies that will express themselves no matter what the social environment provides?
ReplyDeleteResponse to your question Nikki, although many cultures agree with the gender as a social construction, I agree with the nature.
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