Parents hope to raise genderless child

Linkage.

Doesn't sound like a terrible idea at first (if incredibly naive and misguided), but as I read on I'm kind of disturbed. These people don't sound like very good parents.

Seems fine to me. What's wrong with them?

Why not just say their child is biologically a boy/girl and be done with it?

Knowing that castrated boys act like boys regardless of their being raised as girls, and that transsexual people know their true sex regardless of what they're told, I doubt the child will truly feel genderless. It's a nice sentiment, though.

edited 22nd May '11 4:50:04 PM by Grain

Why is it their business?

Really?

Also, regardless of whether or not they're good parents, this sounds pretty interesting as a concept.

ಠ_ಠ

@AHR: Call me old-fashioned, but they encourage their other son to wear dresses and keep him from going to school because they know he'd get flak for it. That just doesn't sit right with me. I feel that an upbringing like this will cause problems in later life.

I don't think it's right to treat your child like a test subject.

edited 22nd May '11 5:15:50 PM by SoberIrishman

Bad idea.

Are they making their son wear dresses? What I got from reading the article is that he chooses to wear them himself.

Well, I can see the purposes of what they're trying to do, but I can't help but feel it can be a failure if taken too far. Children tend to have a natural instinct, or "identity", of what gender they belong to. For instance, most people who are biologically male are also psychologically male, except in cases of individuals who are convinced that they are, or are meant to be, female. Either way, this kid is going to experience gender based on his identity, and he's probably going to come to terms with his perception of himself eventually. What I'm afraid of is the kid is going to one day say, "I'm a boy," or "I'm a girl," and the parents are going to be like, "No, you're genderless! Don't be brainwashed by gender norms, kid!" Which is just as bad for a child's self-esteem as telling transsexual kids that they are wrong.

They aren't trying to keep it a secret forever, and I doubt they'll object once the child decides its gender.

edited 22nd May '11 4:53:11 PM by Grain

I was just going to post that. I'm a fairly liberal-minded guy, but these "gender is a social construct" people tick me off.

edited 22nd May '11 4:53:07 PM by SoberIrishman

There is a difference between raising someone as another gender, and raising them with loose gender boundaries.

Males have worn dresses in many cultures before, and it did not scar them.

@4 grain: Exactly, this is really just a political stunt.

@5 counterclock: They're friends perhaps?

@10: I can see this child being terribly confused by all of this, you need a certain age before you can really understand yourself.

@13: In this time period they do not, whether or not you agree with that is irrelevant, they're setting their child up for difficulties while there is a good chance that none exist.

If they were friends, then they're know what their friends were doing? that they trying this?

Also, if they were forcibly dressing up the kid and shouting that "There's no such thing as GENDER"

Then I might have a problem, but I'd need more information about how they're handling the situation before I could form an opinion.

Yeah. What Clocky said.

If these people just wanted to be in the news, they did a good job. Maybe they can get on TLC?

Yeah, I'm really not seeing the problem here. As far as I can tell, all they're doing is giving the children choices to do what they want instead of shoehorning them into wearing certain clothes/playing with certain toys/behaving in a certain way on the basis of their gender. Plus not telling random passer-bys the sex of their child because, let's face it, people treat newborns very differently depending on whether they think it's a boy or a girl.

I gotta say I agree with AHR here.

Though I'm positive the kids won't get the point of this until they are much older, that's not the point. Little kids have tons of gender shit pushed on them all the time that's quite a bit stronger than what adults get. I'm totally for any attempt to dodge that stuff.

EDIT: Not to mention this will be a very interesting experiment no matter how it turns out.

edited 22nd May '11 5:08:53 PM by BlackHumor

I don't mind that they're letting the kid make their own decisions.

I do have a problem if by "making their own decisions" they actually mean "shielding them from society and forcing them into being 'genderless'" which is what a lot of stupid stupid "progressive" liberals try to do. Even though they're completely missing the point.

Your first sentence is a bit difficult to understand, but because friends can disagree I'm guessing.

I can see them preaching that there is no such thing as gender to their children which can cause issues with society at large but again we don't have more information to go on.

18: There isn't an issue now but then again the child can't even talk yet. The amount of scorn transsexuals and the like receive is ridiculous and setting up a child for that kind of confusion isn't helping anyone.

But they aren't scientists and this isn't an experiment. This is an actual child who will actually be confused about who they are at a very young age.

edited 22nd May '11 5:10:47 PM by thatguythere47

I'm worried about what will happen to the child in later life. Particularly adolescence. It's a time where many people become confused about their identity; sexual or otherwise. Think about someone who's had to grow up with no sexual identity at all will feel about it.

EDIT: I hope nobody takes offence, but it disturbs me how some people in this thread are calling it an "interesting experiment" or something like that. Guys, this is another human being we're talking about.

edited 22nd May '11 5:15:27 PM by SoberIrishman

No more confused than people who've probably been forced into social constructs that don't fit them.

If society shuns someone for not fitting a specific gender role, then it's society's responsibility to stop being such dicks, not the individual's to hide who they are.

I hope nobody takes offence, but it disturbs me how some people in this thread are calling it an "interesting experiment" or something like that. Guys, this is another human being we're talking about.

Yes, and as long as they're going to happen anyway we might as well see what the results are, no?

Either it could go like David Reimer, in which case it would obviously be a bad idea to try again, or it could go much better, in which case there's no reason other parents couldn't do this. But somebody has to try it first no matter what.

EDIT: Think about someone who's had to grow up with no sexual identity at all will feel about it.

The kid will not be forced to grow up with no sexual identity at all:

edited 22nd May '11 5:22:43 PM by BlackHumor