Gender

As a whole, gender defines us as human beings. From the moment it is possible to know, before children are even born, people always seem to ask pregnant women the same question: “Is it a boy or a girl?” As if these two words define exactly who the baby will be in life, and quite frankly, it does. Girls wear pink dresses, play with Barbie dolls, have long hair, wear makeup, bare stronger emotions, while boys play outside in the dirt, work hard, keep their hair short, and are expected to be tough. In society, boys are girls are almost polar opposites because of these characteristics that we have defined based upon gender.

As many articles and news stories have proved, raising a child in a “genderless” environment is seen as absurd, unhealthy, and socially unjust. Which in some cases, I can see how it is. For example, one Canadian couple named their baby “Storm”, a gender neutral name, and is dressed in boys and girls clothing. However, they refuse to reveal the sex of the baby at all, which is extreme. Sex defines a human being biologically and physically, which pushes a different boundary of identifying yourself.

But overall, I believe raising a child as gender neutral gives the child more freedom to decide exactly who he/she wants to be. The only problem is, no matter how someone decides to raise their children as genderless or not, our world is already conformed to the differentialities and expectations of being defined as male or female. It’s something we cannot fight in this society.

However, simply giving a child the chance to decide who they want to be is the best thing you can give them. We should teach children that they do not have to be defined by society norms, and that they can be whoever they wish to be. Especially as educators we should support children’s decisions, whether the boys want to play with baby dolls or girls want to play basketball with the boys at recess.