Storm in a Teacup: Why all the fuss about a “genderless” baby?
Arthur Schafer, Winnipeg
Radio Talk Show lines across Canada are sizzling with angry denunciations of Kathy Witterick
and David Stocker, parents of two boys, Jazz (5) and Kio (2), plus baby Storm.
Jazz and Kio know the sex of their new sibling but close friends and other family members,
including grandparents, are not being told. Storm’s parents describe what they’re doing as
allowing the baby to grow and develop, for a time, without a fixed gender.
Is this a cruel experiment being carried out upon a defenceless baby, as critics allege, or a
reasonable attempt to undermine rigid sex role stereotypes, as Kathy and David insist?
When my children were born, in the early 1970s they were immediately wrapped in the
appropriate blanket: blue for my son and, two years later, pink for my daughter. My wife and I
were also given an educational booklet. The cover showed a little boy in astronaut gear and a
little girl wearing an apron and standing in front of a child’s bake oven.
This gender stereotyping was crude. But social science research shows that stereotyping often
occurs subtly. We handle baby boys in a rough-and-tumble fashion; girls are handled much more
delicately. This occurs without conscious awareness. We speak to baby girls in soft couchy-coo
tones while speaking more loudly to baby boys. It’s difficult to resolve the perennial “nature” vs.
“nurture” debate partly because differential socialization starts at birth.
The past half century has seen many significant changes. The toy department of the Bay used to
sell Doctor’s kits and Nurse’s kits. The contents of these kits were identical. But the cover of the
Doctor’s kit bore a picture of a boy while the Nurse’s kit showed a girl. Most Canadians see
unisex doctors’ kits as progress. Indeed, as Canadian women begin to outnumber men in
faculties of medicine and law, some critics now argue that the era of equal opportunity may have
gone too far.
And yet, one could argue that plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose. Overwhelmingly, boys
are still given GI Joe action figures while girls receive Barbies. At puberty, boys discover that
guys who weep at movies find it tough to get a second date. On reaching puberty, girls quickly
figure out that if they’re “too smart” their romantic life will suffer. The Globe’s “Appointments”
page still shows a huge predominance of men appointed to top jobs. But if you look at the photos
of male high school graduates you’ll be struck by how many, including the jocks, are wearing an
earring. When “The Governator”, famous for sneering at “girly men”, was recently exposed as
“The Spermanator”, there were many more jeers than shouts of “way to go, Arnie”. In short, the
evidence points every which way. Select your examples carefully and you can prove anything.
Jazz struggles with people’s reaction to his long hair. Both boys are given a tough time when
they wear dresses. Kathy and David hope that by creating “gender space” for Baby Storm the
inhibiting effects of sex role stereotyping will be counter-acted.
Success won’t be easy. Canadian gender norms will continue to evolve but along the way
deviation will still be punished with ridicule and worse. Homeschooling may temporarily shield
Storm and his/her brothers from the worst kinds of mockery and taunting. Soon enough,
however, they will have to engage with a society that can still manifest cruel intolerance.
Whatever their fate, the debate about what it means to be male or female in 21st Century Canada
is not going away any time soon.
Arthur Schafer is Director of the Centre for Professional and Applied Ethics at the University of
Manitoba