“It: Good or Bad?”

     A Canadian couple has decided to raise their children “liberated” from gender. They have recently had a baby, Storm, and refuse to release its gender even going through the lengths of having their other two children be sworn to secrecy. Storm is now three years old and there seems to be no indication of its gender. Storm’s older siblings are both announced boys but are treated gender neutrally. The oldest, Jazz, is reported to ask to be referred to as a boy or a girl at different times displaying his gender freedom. All kids are “unschooled” at home which is a non-traditional style of homeschooling focused on education stimulated by the curiosity of the child.

     This is a very complex situation. The parents claim their actions are “a tribute to freedom and choice in place of limitation” in an email sent after Storm’s birth. While they may be limiting common gender stereotypes they are opening the door for two huge problems. Bullying would probably be the biggest concern. Kids are pretty cruel to people who are outside of the social norm and not holding certain gender norms would bring a lot of negative attention to any child. I am NOT saying the kid should be bullied nor am I justifying bullying. I am being realistic in recognition of a problem in our society in saying that bullying should be taken into account when child rearing technique is in question. My second biggest concern with this is that the child did not have a choice in whether it wanted to be part of some gender experiment. The current actions of the parents are going to have severe consequences that will affect the rest of their child’s life. In short, the solution to one problem, ie gender stereotypes, has the potential to cause many more.

     Honestly the idea of raising a child in a gender neutral environment is unsettling. Males and females are different in more ways than just their stereotypes. It is quite literally in our genes. To take away gender is to take away part of someone’s identity and that doesn’t sound very liberating at all. How much of our gender is nature over nurture? It’s a question that would be hard to answer seeing as gender plays such a large role in culture extreme isolation would be the only way to tell. It would have to mean isolation from any bias; even from a parent bent on not having bias. Seeing this as the only solution, it is impossible to truly raise a child in a gender neutral environment. Even if it was, what would society gain from its possibility?