So if you've taken Dawn Graff Haights Human Sex class, you might recognize this story. It's about a child that was raised completely ungendered. It's kind of silly, but very pertinent to our earlier class discussions. I was reminded of it in Wal-Mart today while I was looking at toys, and thought I'd share. It's kind of long, but funny and interesting. What do you guys think?
http://etransgender.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=1850
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It was a very cute and inspiring story. I think it would be important to not have such strong gender socialization's for children. It could give people more room to be creative and find interest's in things that normally they might not do. It gives more chance for someone to be who they are.
ReplyDeleteI really liked the story. I thoughti was neat that being degenderized made him a muh happier child. He didn't really care what others thought he just went on he's merry way. The parents of the other children also showed how much we depend on gender to define who we are, what we play with, and how we act.
ReplyDeleteI really liked how the story focused on not only removing some stereotypical gender roles but also shifting them. X's parents also changed their roles by altering their lifestlye for X. I agree with Alex about the importance of removing the strong gender roles portrayed to children but as this story points out, it is difficult to do. Visiting the toy store for our second project accompanies the section of the story where they go shopping, there really was no "mixed aisle". It was either the classic pink "for girls" and blue "for boys". This story is a delicate way of portraying how people become uncomfortable when there is no easy, quick way to identify a person.
ReplyDeleteWhen I heard this story in Dawn's class, it made the most of the class and I laugh at certain parts. But since taking sociology, I have realized that this is a problem in our society today. Why should girls and boys be treated differently with perceptions of how they should or shouldnt act as a child. It really doesnt make any sense but its what our society has conformed to.
ReplyDeleteI heard this story in my high school sociology class and I remember thinking that it could not be real, becuse it would just be too hard not be able to tell wether if was a girl or boy based on physical features, but maybe not. It is a very interesting story and would be nice if gender roles didnt play such a strong part in how we are forced to identify ourselves. It also makes me wonder where the gender stereotypes have come from, why girls are supposed to like pink and dolls while boys are supposed like blue and cars. It would be interesting to find out where that came from.
ReplyDeleteI heard this story in Dawn's class as well, and it shows just how much we let gender roles control our lives. When X's parents decide to do the experiment and raise X as gender neutral as possible, X is rejected by the adults and even his own peers at first. However, after the other kids get to know X, they realize how lucky it is that it can do whatever it wants and be happy. I think this story is a good example of how children should be allowed to behave, gender roles should not be pushed on children as much as they are now.
ReplyDeleteI also heard this story in Dawn's class, and I was surprised at how much I remembered the story when we began talking about gender and how much gender affects children's growth. I think it would be easier, in a sense, to not be so gender specific with children. I also agree with Mitch in that this is sort of a problem, why should we be telling children what types of toys they need to play with or what types of activities they need to do. I agree with what others have said also on wondering where the stereotypes came from in the first place. It would be really interesting to find out where they started.
ReplyDeleteThis story, especially the ending, reminded me of how some parents are overly eager to know the gender of their child before it is born. I can understand being curious, and I would probably do the same thing, but when you think about it, one of the main reasons for doing that is so the gender-specific shopping can begin. Once you find out it's a girl, the pink baby clothes start pouring in, and blue if it's a boy. Part of this I think is tradition. Boy and girl babies look pretty much the same, so you have to dress them in the correct color if you want people to know the gender, but it's an interesting thing to think about. If you were to wrap a baby boy in a pink blanket, you would have to explain that no, it's a boy, and then explain your reason for using a pink blanket. People would probably assume that you thought you were having a girl, so you bought pink accessories.
ReplyDeleteI thought that this story was very interesting. I had never heard of it before, but it sheds new light on how parents influence the way their child will become. I thought the experiment was funny at first, but as I read on, it was really interesting to see how the parents reacted to the situations and how they raised “X” to become completely open to both genders. I also agree with Lauren in that many people put a lot (and maybe too much) emphasis on what the gender of the baby is, and from there, go shopping for the gender specific clothes and toys. Parents usually go for the typical pink or blue, but in this experiment, it was completely 50/50 of both. It gave the child the option to learn not only one side of the spectrum, but both. Like Mitch said, I think that society has played a huge role in putting emphasis on the differences between girls and boys.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was in Wal-Mart doing the assignment a few weekends ago, I realized that besides baby toys, the only toys there are either girls toys or boys toys, no mixture. And I also noticed that there is an aisle that transitions the two, which has the small section of books and board games. Not only that, but a lot of the toys for each gender were socializing children to the way society thinks they should dress and act dependant on their gender, which I believe has become more and more of a problem today.
I have heard the story before in Dawn class. I agree with Airele that this story really shows us how much parents can influence a child idea of boys and girls and the taboo for each gender. I have an uncle who strongly dislikes the idea that his sons to play with dolls. When ever they come over to the house, we have lots of dolls because in my family we are all women except my father of course :) So sometimes my cousin get curious and grab my sisters dolls and if my uncle notices he always says "no don't play with that thats for girls" I always want to say something but that would be so disrespectful my parents would not be happy with me. It just me sad that parents sometimes deprive their child from doing certain thing just because of their gender. For example my mom doesn't like the idea that my younger sister plays soccer because it to rough for a woman to be play although they are all women playing. I just say to my mom its something that she really loves we should support her :)My mom always said "I know I just don't want you ladies to get hurt"
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