Gender is What Gender Ain't: Can We Raise Gender-Neutral Children?
posted by Eric Steinman May 25, 2011 1:03 pm
http://www.care2.com/greenliving/gender-is-what-gender-aint-can-we-raise-gender-neutral-children.html#ixzz1NUtv3Edw (http://www.care2.com/greenliving/gender-is-what-gender-aint-can-we-raise-gender-neutral-children.html#ixzz1NUtv3Edw)
To be sure, the Witterick's fall in the very liberal/very progressive spectrum of parental identity. With their two other boys (who have more of a fixed, but not altogether rigid, gender identity) they practice something called "unschooling" which is an offshoot of home-schooling centered on the belief that learning should be driven by a child's curiosity. This means that tromping through the mud is just as important as learning to count in the Witterick household. That said, "unschooling" is potentially a small endeavor compared to the logistical difficulties that may come from keeping Storm as genderless as a violent weather pattern (even hurricanes are given gender specific names). When interviewed on the subject for the website parentcentral, Diane Ehrensaft, a California-based psychologist and author of Gender Born, Gender Made, a guide for parents of nonconforming children, says she believes parents should ultimately support gender-creative children, which includes the transgendered, who feel born in the wrong bodies, and gender hybrids, who feel they are part girl and part boy. Then there are gender "smoothies," who have a blended sense of gender that is purely "them." However, Ehrensaft expresses concern about not divulging Storm's sex, and how it may further marginalize the child and not afford him/her the ability to easily find a position in this male or female world.