He, she or it? Family keeps baby's gender a secret
By Rachel Elbaum
The first question people ask after hearing of a new arrival is usually, “Boy or girl?”
Friends and family of one Canadian couple are getting no answer to this simple inquiry. Kathy Witterick and her husband David Stocker have decided to keep baby Storm's gender a secret. Steve Russell / TORONTO STAR
Boy or girl? They're not telling. Baby Storm, in red, gets a cuddle from brother Jazz.
“We've decided not to share Storm's sex for now — a tribute to freedom and choice in place of limitation, a stand up to what the world could become in Storm's lifetime (a more progressive place?),” the couple wrote in an email to friends and family after Storm’s birth, according to the Toronto Star.
Other than Storm’s parents, the only other people to know Storm’s gender are the couple’s two sons, Jazz, 5, and Kio, 2, the midwives who delivered the baby and a close family friend. They got the idea to raise a genderless child from a book they found in the library, and told the paper the secrecy is about giving their children freedom. Live Poll
What do you think of keeping baby's gender a secret?
Great idea!Terrible idea!VoteView Results
Great idea!
11%
Terrible idea!
89%
VoteTotal Votes: 35208
“What we noticed is that parents make so many choices for their children. It’s obnoxious,” Stocker told the paper. He and his wife allow Jazz and Kio to choose their clothing from both the boys' and girls' departments – including pink dresses - and how they want to wear their hair.
Although many parents rebel against traditional pink and blue clothing for their babies, and give dolls to their boys and trucks to their girls, Storm’s parents’ decision seems to have touched a nerve, sparking discussion on news outlets and blogs around the world. Comments on the original story accuse the parents of being “irresponsible,” confusing their children, and setting up Storm for “future damage.”
“Reading the story I thought about Storm’s brothers,” writes Lisa Belkin in the New York Times blog Motherlode. “What message is being sent to them, telling them that their sibling’s sex is an unspillable secret. Doesn’t that in itself give gender the all-defining importance that these parents are trying to avoid?”
This isn’t the first time a family has decided to raise a genderless child. A couple in Sweden kept the gender of their 2-year-old child, named Pop, a secret, saying they want “Pop to grow up more freely and avoid being forced into a specific gender mold from the outset.” The latest stories about Pop date back to last summer. Wonder how that's working out?
What do you think of this couple’s decision to keep Storm’s gender a secret?
then perhaps you can tie a millstone around your own neck and fling yourself into the ocean.
__________________
Looney tunes deductive reasoning:
--Me smell Mohican burning
--Me last Mohican
--Must be me!!!
--EEEOOOWWW!!!!!
That's the most irresponsible new form of parenting I've heard of lately.
Seriously, they don't want parents to make choices for their kids? How stupid. It's the choices a parent makes for their children, and the example they set, that shapes who they are.
Apparently the gender stereotyping of children that has led to thousands of years of successful families clearly makes no sense whatsoever...
There's a thread on this further down. I'll repost what I posted there because I feel like it.
I'm a biology major and the idea that there are more than two genders is really news to me. I would like to know more about this. Even in my personal experience, I've never encountered more than two although some people do seem confused about the proper behavior for people of one gender or the other.
There are some curious variants in reproductive activities among some lower critters, but only humans seem confused about it. This male/female reproductive scheme is what makes evolution work. I know it's possible for boys to do it with boys and girls to do it with girls. And, of course, it's possible to do it by yourself, but those are personal choices. And while those activities are possible for us, they're biologically inappropriate and not part of the normal reproductive process. They're merely recreational activities.
__________________
Proud parents of our own "Daddy's Little Girls"
I heard Jesus He drank wine and I bet we'd get along just fine.
OK I'll post some of what I posted in the same thread that DLG is referring to.
I know that some plant species can be hermaphrodites. I'm not sure if this phenomena is possible in humans. If it is could it be that this child was born one, and the parent's are just waiting for the child to define it's own gender before having some sort of corrective surgery done?
Like I said, I don't know if it's possible, just some food for thought.
__________________
Those who hammer their guns into plows, will plow for those who don't~ Thomas Jefferson~ Today's mighty oak is just yesterday's nut that held it's ground~Unknown~Just because your offended doesn't mean your right~Unknown.
OK I'll post some of what I posted in the same thread that DLG is referring to.
I know that some plant species can be hermaphrodites. I'm not sure if this phenomena is possible in humans. If it is could it be that this child was born one, and the parent's are just waiting for the child to define it's own gender before having some sort of corrective surgery done?
Like I said, I don't know if it's possible, just some food for thought.
Hermaphroditism does occur in humans. In those cases, the physical characteristics are inconsistent. DNA analysis will reveal the true sex of the person and, usually, surgery can make the physical characteristics conform to the true sex. I think a Russian athlete was disqualified in the last Olympics because she looked like a girl, but her DNA showed she was a boy. That's about all I really know about it though.
Looking at the article, you can't tell if that's the situation here or if the parents just have some new age ideas about child rearing.
__________________
Proud parents of our own "Daddy's Little Girls"
I heard Jesus He drank wine and I bet we'd get along just fine.
Imo, this particular article seems more like new age "wisdom", then any apprehension over a biological malformity. Just another something to make you shake your head, kiss your own kids, and wonder what some other parents are thinking.
__________________
Looney tunes deductive reasoning:
--Me smell Mohican burning
--Me last Mohican
--Must be me!!!
--EEEOOOWWW!!!!!
Imo, this particular article seems more like new age "wisdom", then any apprehension over a biological malformity. Just another something to make you shake your head, kiss your own kids, and wonder what some other parents are thinking.
Thinking about it further your probably right. If not they probably wouldn't have done the interview.
__________________
Those who hammer their guns into plows, will plow for those who don't~ Thomas Jefferson~ Today's mighty oak is just yesterday's nut that held it's ground~Unknown~Just because your offended doesn't mean your right~Unknown.
There are some curious variants in reproductive activities among some lower critters, but only humans seem confused about it. .
Ain't it the truth. LOL
Even a dumb chicken knows what it is. There was a local news story about some geese people had problems with, only the geese had no problems, they knew what was what. Hillarious the way the news described the peoples attempts to get the geese to get along as yet thought they should.
Knowing geese I know they left there views on the subject all over the place.
Why limit your kids to a specific gender???
Steve Russell / TORONTO STAR
