I read this story about a Canadian couple who intends to raise their baby as genderless. They won’t tell others the sex of the child and will allow the child to play and dress in any way it likes.
Sorry for the use of “it” for the pronoun but the fact that I couldn’t come up with a different gender-neutral word that everybody knows, is part of my question.

Is this neutrality possible in our society? Besides simple day-to-day language issues—- will they always use the child’s full name in reference? They will have to replace the gender references everywhere; in, for example, “Give that ball to your brother! I said, give it to him!”

What words do they expect people outside the family to use?

How will it effect this child to have no gender identity when he has 2 older siblings already identified as boys? How will they prevent the boys from comparing genitalia and determining if they are the same or different as the youngest child’s? Are these parents truly giving the child freedom, or are they setting the child up for a difficult life?

Topics: wtf, parenting, sociology, gender issues, gender