Learning sex of baby “pushes toward ‘traditional gender roles'”
by Kelli
“These results suggest women who choose not to learn their baby’s sex may not worry about having clothes, toys and colors for their child that match traditional gender expectations,” said Letitia Kotila, lead author of the study, which will be published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences.
Finding out your child’s sex before their born, the researchers suggest, may push them towards a certain gender identity later.
“If you know ahead of time that you’re having a girl, are you layering on all the pink and purple in a way that is going to push an extremely feminine ideal on your child?” Sarah Schoppe-Sullivan, another researcher who worked on the study, said.
~ Eliana Dockterman, discussing a new study which suggests that “buying pink or blue clothes before your child is even born may pressure them into specific gender roles,” Time, June 3
[HT: Newsbusters]
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
In my opinion it causes heavy damage to force people into a box they don’t fit into, and parents should think about that. Your girl might not be very feminine and your boy might not be masculine.
With my first child I didnt want to know her sex. With my last 3 I did.
Look, it annoys me when parents force their children into little gender boxes. It’s frustrating to me and makes me upset. But on the other hand… I like knowing the gender of my child before hand so I can get to know the child and have a specific name. I loved knowing my baby was a boy, giving him a name, and talking about him like he was there a lot.
But I get where they’re coming from. It sucks to be a kid whose parents try to make them what they’re not.
I think a lot of that comes from people being afraid of homosexuality.
But newsflash: a girl who plays with traditionally boy things and a boy who plays with traditionally girl things does NOT indicated automatically that they’re bi or homo sexual. It just means they are playing in different ways and using their brains.
But incidentally, this is why I’m *never* having a gender reveal party. Ever.
One does not choose a “gender identity,” nor can a such a concept be forced upon a child by infant clothes or toys.
In nature, boys are boys and girls are girls — and it is still okay to enjoy treating them as such.
Nothing is more oppressive than a room painted blue instead of yellow. Children will be unable to cope with the selection of toddler clothers they wear. I still remember that awful time my parents put that hetero-normative flowery shirt on me because it was the only clean one they had… I literally pooped in my diaper.
What color a child wears or toys he or she plays with has far less influence on his or her identity as a whole (gender, self-esteem, boundaries, etc) than the child’s parental involvement.
I’m not saying it’s bad to enjoy treating girls and boys as such and it’s true that a child’s sense of self is more determined more by parental influence than colors. But pink and blue isn’t for everyone. And girls and boys don’t have to and shouldn’t be pressured into behaving in a preconceived manner of behavior to be a “real boy/girl.” That’s just annoying and, I think, wrong. But that’s more for when they can start forming opinions. When they’re infants? Who cares! Someone lent me something for my son and were like… “but its pink!” And I was like, well good thing he doesn’t know orncare.
I keep hearing from liberals that “sex” and “gender” aren’t the same thing.
So what they’re claiming here is that finding out what biological sex your child is could influence the child’s “choice” of “gender” in the future.
And frankly, I think their study has been a stupid waste of time.
When a child is old enough, he or she will gravitate to the things he or she finds most interesting. And good parents won’t force their daughter to wear frilly dresses if she HATES frilly dresses. Good parents won’t force their daughter to play with dolls if she would rather have Legos.
When I was a kid, I owned Legos, Transformers, AND dolls.
Neither my gender NOR my sex have been affected or altered in any way.
I don’t think this “study” was done because researchers are super concerned about the poor little tykes getting “confused.” It was done to push the idea that “gender” and “sex” are mere social constructs.
Oh, and by the way – it’s now apparently not acceptable to find out your child’s sex because they might “get confused” but it’s A-OK to find out their sex for any other purpose, including a sex-selective abortion.
Doesn’t giving a girl a girl’s name — Sally, for instance — “pressure her into a gender box” as much as putting pink clothes on her does?
The big questions are about what being a boy or girl objectively means, and to what degree we should follow subjective societal norms.
Kids should just be given numbers. That avoids the whole gender thing. Although Charlie Brown perceives “3” and “4” as quite feminine…
http://peanuts.wikia.com/wiki/555_95472
MM, I had a female cousin named Michael. I guess her parents thought it was hip and edgy, but she got tired of explaining it and having people say “isn’t it Michelle?”
When I was in grad school I knew a woman who was VERY upset that her little girl liked to play with dolls, dressup, and do other “girly” things. Huh? I say let them play with what they want. My son won’t believe that he had a doll when he was a toddler. He REALLY is incredulous when I told him he was a very good doll “daddy” — feeding “baby,” putting him to bed, etc.
Kel, I’m applauding your comment!
I don’t care whether you wear a skirt or pants, but I worry about people (including the parents of a 6 year old girl they call their ‘son’) who do or plan to pay quacks to perform surgery or prescribe hormone shots for gender dysmorphia.
We need to teach people body acceptance. Gender ROLES can be fluid, but GENDER is NOT.
Gender/sex is a hard reality. A person with a male body is a male. A person with a female body is a female.
If a male person has the psychological sensation that he is a female trapped inside of a male body, the problem is in his head — not with his body.
We should treat such persons with love and compassion, and help them to deal with their discomfort.
But we should not as the man with gender confusion to pretend like he is a female. We should not demand that all of his family, friends, and loved ones pretend like he is a female. We should not insist that strangers and the rest of the world must pretend that he is a female. We should not encourage him to mutilate and alter his body toward delusions of “changing gender.”
Bet we live in an age that denies reality. If we can imagine a thing in our head, that becomes our personal reality. “The child isn’t a person until I accept her as a person.” “Marriage is whatever we want it to be.” “Gender is whatever a person decides for himself.”
TIME Magazine’s current cover story is the “civil rights” of trans-gendered persons. Pretty soon, transgender-activists will be lobbying for partial gender (“I’m 70% female, today.”) There is no limit to the creativity of insanity.
This quote wasn’t about transgender people it was about gender roles. Different things.
Who cares about gender roles anymore?
Concerning gender roles, individuals and couples have pretty much all of the freedom that anyone can desire! A woman can range from a homeschooling mom to a $500k/yr CEO child-killer, and no one insults her for not fulfilling her “role.”
Um Del. There’s a lot of judgement for gender roles in Christian circles, and homeschooling circles… and well, come to think of it, outside of that too. It is a legitimate discussion.
And there are still lots of people who belittle their boys and yell at them for being “gay” if they play with dolls or like pink. Or tell their girls not to be “dykes” or whatever if they want to do traditionally boy things.
Gender roles are valuable — within the cultures that value them. The notion that gender roles are “bad” has not been proven to the satisfaction of most people.
However, being cruel to a child in order to modify her behavior is bad…. whether it is toward gender roles or academic excellence or whatever.
But there is no cruelty in invited a young boy to play with the toys that are commonly interesting to young toys.
Gender roles are harmful to those that don’t fit into them and get berated and mocked and abused for not doing so. Or just continually trying to force someone in that box when it’s just not them.
I think it’s harmful to predetermine what people should be like personality wise and try to make them like you imagined.
I think it’s harmful to predetermine what people should be like personality wise and try to make them like you imagined.
That’s true when it comes not only to gender, but race. Black women are “supposed” to be long-suffering, strong, and nurturing, especially to white wimmens and chilluns (and their little dogs, too)! Sorry, I am quiet and soft-spoken, and have just have enough energy to nurture myself these days. And don’t get me started with the “wise Latina” stereotype . . .
Well we’re not talking about child cruelty, Del. I agree that forcing a kid to be a certain way, including gender switching surgeries before you can make sure the kid was sure (ie wait till the kid is an adult) is not okay. But we’re talking about the effects of gender role expectations on kids, which is more subtle.
It’s hard to explain to people who don’t fit into certain stereotypes the kind of psychological pressure that puts on someone. Even though yes, being different is/can be good, it’s isolating. And it can be really frustrating and bad for kids.
Simple statement: I think the modern fad of being so concerned about “gender roles” is silly.
Being too firm to fit a child into a certain mold is unfair to the child.
But being too concerned about avoiding all gender roles is very silly.
Well, you probably haven’t been treated horribly for not being what other people decided a “man” is, Del. Not knocking on you, I’m glad you haven’t been treated badly. But I’ve seen tons of damage from the insistence on fitting people in boxes and I don’t agree it’s “silly” to be concerned about.
It’s always easy to be dismissive of issues that haven’t personally caused you pain.