He, she or it? Family keeps baby's gender a secret

[PiKA2001]

We were somewhat discussing this in the Weird or Strange News Thread.

I'll say it again though here.

I don't think these parents are doing their kids any favors by doing this to them.

They say that kids receive messages from society that encourage them to fit into existing boxes, including with regard to gender. "We thought that if we delayed sharing that information, in this case hopefully, we might knock off a couple million of those messages by the time that Storm decides Storm would like to share," says Witteric

Unless these kids live in a bubble they are going to see gender played out on TV, over the internet, in Wal-Mart, etc.

Because Jazz and Kio wear pink and have long hair, they're frequently assumed to be girls, according to Stocker. He said he and Witterick don't correct people--they leave it to the kids to do it if they want to.

Seems this experiment is flawed if the kids are thought to be girls, thereby probably treated as girls by society, no?

But Stocker and Witterick's choices haven't always made life easy for their kids. Though Jazz likes dressing as a girl, he doesn't seem to want to be mistaken for one. He recently asked his mother to let the leaders of a nature center know that he's a boy. And he chose not to attend a conventional school because of the questions about his gender. Asked whether that upsets him, Jazz nodded.

And the issues seem to be creeping in already.

Why can't these parents just focus on teaching their kids that they can prefer dance lessons over football and that doesn't detract from their masculinity or make them any less of a boy. To pretend as if gender doesn't exist when it does exist and is completely natural is just off.