Could raising a baby genderless be a bad idea?

Rapture

Rapture

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No one knows the sex of Storm Stocker, a 4-month-old baby from Toronto. Only the parents, midwives and two older brothers have ever peeked beneath the diaper.

That's because his -- or is it her -- parents, Kathy Witterick, 38, and David Stocker, 39, want to raise their child genderless.

When Storm came into the world in a birthing pool on New Year's Day, they sent out this email: "We decided not to share Storm's sex for now -- a tribute to freedom and choice in place of limitation, a standup to what the world could become in Storm's lifetime."

Even Storm's brothers, 2-year-old Kio and 5-year-old Jazz, have been sworn to secrecy, as well as one close family friend.

"What we noticed is that parents make so many choices for their children," Stocker said in a story in the Toronto Star. "It's obnoxious."
The newspaper was barraged with critical responses and even Storm's grandparents, although supportive, said they resented explaining their gender-free baby to friends and co-workers.

While child development experts applaud the family's efforts to raise their child free of the constraints of gender stereotypes, they say the parents have embarked on a psychological experiment that could be "potentially disastrous.

Source: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/baby-s...-dangerous-experiment-child/story?id=13693760

I thought this was weird 8( ...but interesting. In my opinion, shielding a child from the choices that are made being a boy or a girl is nothing compared to the ridicule this child is going to face when "it" goes to school one day. We know how cruel children can be...and how some adults are whether inadvertently or not. Not to mention the gender crisis this child is likely going to encounter later down the road in life.

To me, it just doesn't seem like its worth it. Its odd that parents would want to bring all of this on their child...your child is a person not someone to possibly get you famous or a psychological experiment. I don't see how its wrong to feed into the good/bad of either gender and nuture the good...and teach your child to be proud of who they are...no matter what.
 
I understand their point that they want to give their child free choice, but this is a horrible way to go about it. It will be ridiculed and ostracised as a child because other children wont understand it, also they are robbing it of a normal childhood. I understand the whole transgender issue, but something like that is rarely evident in a child that age, and if they do become confused later in life, the parents could easily step in then. Also, the child just has to look down, we all learn about ding dings and hoo hoos at some stage from sources other than our parents.
 
I remember reading about this in a different article. That article on Yahoo said another thing. The parents already allow their two boys to dress the way they want and have their hair the way they want. The two boys don't really know much about fashion, or even what they really want since they are only 3 and 5 I believe. They go to school wearing pink, sometimes dresses, and have long hair. People confuse their gender, and the older boy said it was embarrassing. Imagine, growing up and having people confuse your gender!
Now that is how they are raising their first two boys. How is this child going to be raised? With everything now days about supporting who you are, and with Lady Gaga's major hit Born this Way, this is completely going against all of that. The child will now be an it. The child no doubt will be bullied in school very much, especially if his older brothers are already. I think that it really is not a good idea. There are physical and psychological differences between men and women. Now this child will be confused and bullied in his life.
And like Licky said, the child is going to learn eventually, but it's going to learn the hard way.
 
I see the good points and the bad points.

I was raised gender free to a certain extent. I was never told to like or dislike things based on the fact that I was a boy, nor was I forced to overly confirm to any of the typical male norms present in our society. I got picked on a bit, but looking back I'm glad that I did in a way, because it made me realize that people are going to bitch about you if you aren't exactly like they are. And where's the fun in that?

But yeah this is a little insane. I always knew that I had a penis and that that made me male. By doing this, they are only supporting gender stereotypes in my opinion by saying that a baby has to be genderless to be itself. It doesn't.
 
I think it's a fucking stupid idea. Obviously the kid has wanker liberal cunts for parents. It's amazing people that stupid managed to have sex. All they're doing is getting attention for themselves whilst fucking up their kids' lives. They can call their equally moronic liberal friends while they eat their chickpea hummus and their kids get bullied.
The idea that they are for freedom is laughable as they are forcing their own batshit insane ideas upon kid C.
 
I can see the idea behind it, in a way they want the kid to be free from modern culture and form there own ideas and beliefs. But by doing that they have used modern culture as a the line and gone as far away from it as they can. They're making the choices for the child whether the want to admit it or not. Its silly really, as we reach our teenage years we kind of go that way anyway, not genderless lol but we rebel against culture and form our own paths. I think freedom and definition of gender are completely different things.

The choices made for this child will come back to haunt "it" when it reaches maturity and wants to make their own decisions as an adult. it makes me wonder when down the line did this couple decide they would raise such a family. Do the parents consider their genders male and female? Do they understand that one of each is required for reproduction lmao.

Poor kids..... the school years will be tough but hopefully it'll teach the children something ,it looks like, the parents never will. xxx
 
So what if this kid, as a toddler, decides to engage in toddler stripping in public. Then SUPRISE it's a boy/girl! What will the parents do then? And I highly doubt that the two and five year old are going to keep the secret. I can see them whispering to their friends the gender of their sibling who will then whisper the gender to other kids.

Are they going to tell their own child what gender he/she is? And if they do, is the child going to keep that a secret?
 
This is a very shit thing for those parents to do. They've prevented their child from growing up normally. The kid's not going to know what it is, and the worst part is they went to the media with it like they're trying to show it off. Obviously they're using the child as a billboard to advertise their own ridiculous views without thinking about how it's going to affect the kid when it's older...

Gender is random, if the kids born a girl, it's a girl. There's no choice in the matter. If it want's to be a boy/girl later in life then the kid can make it's own choice when it comes to it.
 
Children are likely to be ridiculed and picked on no matter who they are, what they look like, or what choices they make. It doesn't matter if you're the most beautiful, sincere, enjoyable person in school; someone out there will want to make fun of you or hurt you. :confused:

And to be honest, I already have a hard time differentiating genders sometimes (now that girls dress like guys and guys wear makeup). o_O


Rydia said:
So what if this kid, as a toddler, decides to engage in toddler stripping in public. Then SUPRISE it's a boy/girl! What will the parents do then?
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Funny, because most toddlers do strip whenever the desire does so arise. It's bound to happen. XD
 
Right. Assuming "its" a boy, what happens then when the kid asks when/ if taking a bath with its parents "Daddy, why do i have this and mummy doesnt?" or vise versa "Why don't you have what daddy has mum?"

In fact, how the FUCK are they going to toilet train "it"? Telling "it" to sit is going to make it female. Telling it to stand is going to make "it" male. And when "it" starts to get notions of "its" gender, i dont think they'll be able to keep the genderless upbringing shit.
 
Not only that, but when this child attends school which bathroom is it going to use? When do these parents plan on disclosing the gender? And aren't it's brothers going to have a bias with the way they treat it?
 
Rydia said:
Not only that, but when this child attends school which bathroom is it going to use? When do these parents plan on disclosing the gender? And aren't it's brothers going to have a bias with the way they treat it?
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Well I'm sure by their thinking it will use the third bathroom that will no doubt become the social norm when raising your child genderless really catches on.

For that matter, how is it going to learn about sex? So many things they aren't thinking about. Raising your child with no grasp of the social norm for their gender is one thing, raising them without a grasp of the biological aspects of it quite another.
 
I get the feeling "it" would then be shoved into the same catagory as a hermaphrodite. Now there is nothing wrong with them if they are born like that, but if you are normal, have the common decency to use the right toilet if its there.

Tbh, if the parents wants their child to be free of social sterotypes, don't even have a kid then. No way in hell in such an information age will you keep them free from gender stereotypes. I am going to be cynical and say that they just wan publicity.
 
I think they want the kid to pick what ever gender it wants. So by the time it's old enough to go toilet by itself they'll have it pick it's gender therefore which loo it uses.
 
Tipsynaruto said:
Tbh, if the parents wants their child to be free of social sterotypes, don't even have a kid then. No way in hell in such an information age will you keep them free from gender stereotypes. I am going to be cynical and say that they just wan publicity.
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I don't that's a true statement. You can keep your children from becoming a gender stereotype, you may not be able to prevent them from seeing them. I mean, I was never a gender stereotype as a child. I liked things I wasn't supposed to like, and hated things I was supposed. Yet I knew that I had a penis and that meant I was a boy.

I played with dolls, and didn't want to do sports. I liked to listen to Britney Spears and not some rock band. I was an odd child, and I got quite a bit of heat for it, but I don't regret my parents raising me to be who I am. I would have been a lot less happy being accepted for something I wasn't.

But that's not what these parents are doing. They are trying to ignore the sex of the child totally, which is impossible. Eventually he's going to realize that he has a penis or she a vagina or what the fuck ever. This is just stupidity. And probably publicity like you said.
 
eh. true. i was feeling antsy and irritated when i typed that, so it might be a bit uncalled for.

If you want the good for the child, sure, do what you want to do. But, WHY. WHY go and tell the media? And even give them "its" name.

From now on. Its going to be "Yo, Storm. Whatcha have? A penis? Vagina? Neither?"

God that just painted a target on the poor kid's back.
 
I think it's a great idea. Best way of eliminating the inequalities between men and women. Now we just need a way to disguise our voices and blur our body outlines.
 
Doubt they've thought much of what will happen when the teachers make the kids sit in a boygirlboygirl fashion...or which bathroom they'll go in to as a child...or which box they'll tick in the "gender" column...

Load of crap, once any shred of hormones kick in, gender stereotyping will come in to play all on its own.
 
I can understand their reasoning I guess, but I just think the method is almost ridiculous. They could still raise the child comfortably knowing it's own gender yet still with a set of open-minded beliefs and support them with the knowledge that whatever feels comfortable to them is right by them.

To strip it's gender away is puzzling.
 
Raising a child like a hermaphrodite is not the ideal method of transcending gender constraints.

Contrary to popular belief hermaphrodites do not enjoy an ideal gender role based existence.
 
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