Gendered and Genderless?

By Tina Yazdi

In case you haven’t come across the story of the genderless baby Storm, it’s about a Toronto couple who is keeping their child’s sex a secret to limit the invasive influence of attitudes regarding gender that is embedded into general behavior.

But why are we criticizing these parents for breaking away from the status quo? Is it because our current status quo is perfect and has no room for improvement, or perhaps because the current status quo has never presented any problems in regards to gender?

Perhaps it's concern for the child’s ability to orient itself with the world, but who are we to decide how the child should do such a thing? And how successfully ‘well-oriented’ is the rest of humanity anyways, that we so adamantly demand Storm's parents do as the rest have done?

Besides, I cannot think of a single gender norm in history that has been able to stand up to scrutiny. I challenge you to give an example, if you have one, in the comment section below.

Some people’s issue here is the risk component of breaking free of the centralized and internalized rules of gender (subconscious or otherwise) but that brings to mind the question – how do we feel about prevailing attitudes and facts regarding gender in our society? This year alone we witnessed a Toronto police officer telling women not to ‘dress like sluts’, and women still only make up 25 per cent of the house of commons. Women in 2011 only make 54-86% of men’s wages for the same tasks overall. These are examples in just one section of the greater discourse on gender.

If we are happy with things as they are, how do we reconcile the idea of equality with such skewed power structures present?

If we aren’t happy, then why are we criticizing parents who are trying to shift these structures? If we keep doing the same thing and expect different results, Einstein would label us insane.

Lastly, what does it say about our society that we so strongly attack Storm’s parents when there are thousands of parents out there who physically and sexually abuse their children and haven’t gotten even a fraction of this criticism? Is it just because we are accustomed to hearing those kinds of stories, and because this story is a bit different it has caught our momentary attention?

If we are so concerned about the well-being of the next generation of people, in Canada and elsewhere, perhaps being mindful of the greater damage issues like poverty and lack of access to education can be a better place to focus our energy.

Photo taken at tiff Bell Lightbox by Tina Yazdi