“So it’s a boy, right?” a neighbour calls out as Kathy Witterick walks by, her four month old baby, Storm, strapped to her chest in a carrier. The neighbours know Witterick and her husband, David Stocker, are raising a genderless baby. But they don’t pretend to understand it.
While there’s nothing ambiguous about Storm’s genitalia, they aren’t telling anyone whether their third child is a boy or a girl.
The only people who know are Storm’s brothers, Jazz, 5, and Kio, 2, a close family friend and the two midwives who helped deliver the baby in a birthing pool at their Toronto home on New Year’s Day.
When Storm was born, the couple sent an email to friends and family: “We've decided not to share Storm's sex for now — a tribute to freedom and choice in place of limitation, a stand up to what the world could become in Storm's lifetime (a more progressive place? ...).”
Witterick and Stocker believe they are giving their children the freedom to choose who they want to be, unconstrained by social norms about males and females. Some say their choice is alienating.
In an age where helicopter parents hover nervously over their kids micromanaging their lives, and tiger moms ferociously push their progeny to get into Harvard, Stocker, 39, and Witterick, 38, believe kids can make meaningful decisions for themselves from a very early age.
Stocker teaches at City View Alternative, a tiny school west of Dufferin Grove Park, with four teachers and about 60 Grade 7 and 8 students whose lessons are framed by social-justice issues around class, race and gender.
First thing, that baby is definitely a boy. There is an outside chance that the baby is an ugly girl. Now to the wonderful parents Kathy and David. Toronto has its share of granola-eating, alternative-schooling, bicycle-riding, wild flower-gardening families. They are mostly harmless. Yes the helicopter parents are annoying and produce even more annoying children. But equally annoying are parents who let their kids make all their own decisions. My favorite is American Alpine skier Picabo Street. Picabo's parents decided to let Picabo choose her own name when she was old enough so for the first two years of her life, she was called "Little Girl." When Picabo was two, her mother took her to get a US passport for a trip to Mexico. The passport office wouldn't accept "Little Girl" as her daughter's first name and told her she had two weeks to give her a real name. So, Stubby and Dee named their daughter Picabo (after a small village in Idaho.) When she was four, Picabo's parents said she could change her name but she decided to keep it.
7 comments:
What washroom will they use, the boys or the girls?
A mind is a terrible thing to waste.
Drugs fry your brain!
totally mentally abusing their kids. Messing them up for society and confusing them. Yes, confusing them. If they are given no direction in life they wont know which way to go when they are older. Parents are called parents for a reason, they need to be helping their children learn to make wise decisions and not expect them to know what is wise when they are 5, 2, 4 months!?! grrrr...
We're discussing this in my sociology class (gender roles and such) and I think it's complete bull. You are who you want to be, but that's only at a certain age. You can't decide who you are when you're 6 months old. The argument made in my class is that the child will grow up to like everything and won't be bothered by being called a pussy by guys or butch by girls. But people need to have a foundation that defines who they are and you can't get a more solid and lasting foundation than your gender. That kid's gonna grow up out of it's mind and probably become a serial killer or something.
To the commenters:
Who cares what bathroom they use?
Do you watch everyone who's in the public restroom with you to make sure they have the required equipment?
I do believe what you guys are saying is that it's wrong for these parents to implement societies gender roles and stereotypes on their baby. I mean, how is this baby going to learn to stay in the kitchen and bake a pie if it's a girl? How is it going to learn to be a mysoginist pig if it's a boy if no one knows? You're right. I am totally glad that I was raised in a world where I am judged based on not only my biology, but my society's opinion of it. Somebody pass me my apron, take my shoes and lay me on my back. let's knock this bitch up!
I think what's more disturbing is your inability to interact with another human being because you can't tell what's between their legs.
Jazz is a girl now she is now Storms sister just so you know. She chose to be a girl.
There is nothing wrong with it they are parents trying to do the right thing for there children. In my opinion this is a wonderful start. Unfortunatly as all of you are portraying this is only the beginning and it will take years before this becomes accepted. But they are taking a step in the right direction. If you didn't realize Jazz is not Storms brother Jazz is Storms sister because Jazz at a very young age knew she was a girl. And its all of you disrespectful hypocrites that make this so hard for them. And anyone who wants to be an individual. They are doing this for Storm so there will a choice. And Storm will end up happy with what ever choice Storm decides to make. Storm is only a baby why is everyone being such hypocrites!
Every boy should have some cooking and cleaning skills and every girl should learn some basic shop skills or car maintenance. Every child should pursue what they love. I would worry that the children raised gender neutral would not feel accepted with their peers. They may even have some issues with their own sexuality eventually, if not younger than the average teen. Figuring out who we are is difficult enough. This would be a good idea if the kids are to raise themselves without direction. Maybe this would be a great idea if the child was a hermaphrodite at birth.
Post a Comment