Actually… no, it won’t. Men with 5-alpha reductase deficiency may have external genitals that look female at birth. This can change abruptly at puberty. It can also wreck all sorts of havoc on the guy in addition to normal adolescent upheaval.
That’s better than mine, definitely.
Aah, ignorance fought. I equated intersex to hermaphroditism only, which I now see isn’t the case.
On the one hand, this is a stupid article.
On the other hand, it’s awful how much life can suck for intersexed children and adults. My understanding is that some things are improving (that surgery at birth is not, now, done so automatically, etc.) but we have a long way to go in both medical and cultural treatment of people whose physical sex characteristics are different from the majority.
On the third hand, as somebody who has clearly either gotten knocked up or swallowed a watermelon seed, I can tell you it is weird how obsessed people are with the gender of this baby. I mean, I guess part of it is that there isn’t that much to talk about about a baby - it’s not like they have hobbies or accomplishments or anything. But after “when are you due?” is always “do you know what it is?” And of course “what it is” is “does it have a penis?” They’re not asking if it’s a Libra, or an artist, or an introvert or something. And then they make assumptions about which we wanted, depending on which of us is speaking (my husband of course is assumed to have wanted a boy; whether they think I did or not seems to be half age, half culture) and it’s SO FREAKING IMPORTANT. All the clothes, etc. I mean, I snagged a breastfeeding pillow at a really, really good deal. It was pink, which is all they had left. The clerk was weirded out when I told her (because of course she asked) that it’s for feeding a boy baby on. It’s a pillow.
And that doesn’t even start in on the crazy head squeezing bows to show people it’s a girl so nobody has any questions that it’s a girl, etc. (Or those baby wigs!) From the outside, it was a little weird how obsessed people are with the gender of children too young to worry about it. From the inside it’s positively creepy and we could all do with a LOT less of it.
Not that that is not, again, a stupid article.
Zsofia, I would so end up buying a headband bow thingie for my son just to fuck with people. 
Let us know if you can resist the urge.
Well, I’m inclined to agree, except that every time I think Slate has published the stupidest article ever, they find some way to outdo themselves.
Treating all children as genderless because a tiny minority have issues developing into adulthood roles is somewhere between hyper-PC and pure whack. The correct answer is more sensitivity and support for a spectrum of gender as it develops, not universal de-sexualization.
quoted for truth. The over whelming majority of people identify with their physical gender. Too confuse 95% of the children with PC babble about gender makes no sense.
Children that genuinely feel conflicted by gender should be supported and encouraged to find their identity. Most parents will never be faced by that challenge. Thankfully there are resources available for parents that need it.
I feel the same way whenever someone starts a Pit that thread called “[some despicable person] has hit a new low.” It’s always a temporary low. But anyway: the proposal would do nothing at all and makes no sense, and I assume it’s just a bid for attention. ‘Don’t force people into gender roles’ is sensible and unsexy, so Slate turned it into a vague pitch for a useless idea that sounds extreme.
I just had to google this - oh, those poor girls! But I laughed so hard in spite of myself.
Not only is it a stupid article, writing in in the second person made it an unpleasant read even before it got to the stupid idea. It comes across as too transparently (trying to be) emotionally manipulative. Maybe I’m just grumpy today, but “At your look of alarm, he smiles again, reassuringly.” pissed me off, because there had been no earlier mention of him smiling but there had been a mention of him wearing a mask.
There has got to be a better way to say, “Let’s not be unnecessarily rigid about gender identity.”
Zsofia it never ends. Our daycare informed me that my three-year-old boy needed a reusable water bottle for outside play time. I went down to the grocery store and all they had were pink ones, so I bought one and wrote his name on it.
When I handed it to the teacher, she said “But, it’s pink”.
I said “So it is”
She replied “And you’re okay with that?”
I said “Yeah, I think it will work perfectly as a water bottle, no matter what color it is.”
“Congratulations! It’s a… baby.”
I refuse to read the article on the grounds that it is stupid.
Surgery on “ambiguous genitals” should be stopped. At present, many surgeons scare the parents into consenting. The Lurking Horror The presence of a penis almost always means boy. But it ain’t 100%.
As far as trans kids go, they’ll correct the adults around them as their identity asserts itself. If you raise a transwoman as a boy, she’ll eventually tell you she’s a girl. She may then want stereotypical girl things. She may not.
Iamnotivan Intersex is, as others have said, a medical fact. It’s an umbrella term covering many conditions.
To sum up, you should address other human beings by the gender they present as. The vast majority of the time, a penis means a boy and a vagina means a girl. I agree that people get way to caught up in gender stereotypes when it comes to children and way to upset when you get a child’s gender wrong.
I accidentally came across that article today. I started reading thinking “in which way did doctors screw up my child”, then I get to the lower half and I had to read it twice because it sounded too stupid the first time. The second time it sounded even more stupid.
When my daughter was born I refused to buy “girly” stuff. I bought on the basis of quality, price, and confort. Her usual attire was a diaper and a cotton onesie (she was born in July in the tropics). Strangers would ask “what is she”, I wanted to answer “human”, but after telling them she was a girl some would have a disapproving look, and one lady asked me “how is she going to know she’s a girl”. How about she’ll know when she knows. Toys and games were based on similar criteria as clothes. Eventually she decided she was a girl and she liked ballet. All on her own. She’s a feminine tomboy, if there’s such thing, a bookworm who likes dresses but prefers pants because they are better for riding a bike.
I wish Slate could give me those minutes of my life back.
Yes, for fuck’s sake! I know, I know! Let’s… get rid of gender roles! Instead of coming up with new labels for any kind of combination of clothing style plus sex plus sexual interests plus hairdo, let’s break the pigeonholes!
Oh. Radical. Sorry, I’ve got this revolutionary gene, it’s a family thing.
All parents should take all the parenting advice from the most disturbed internet writers writing the most outrageous things just so they can get paid, or worse, because they believe them.
Evil doctors that come straight from cutting impressionable newborns out defenseless mothers, with KNIFES, and dispensing DRUGS for sweet sweet INSURANCE MONEY, shouldn’t hatecrime by labeling it a BABY.
Let the newling decide for itself if it wants to be a puppy, guppy, kitten or yes even a hatching.
Pink onesies for your sons (saying “boy” in pink too. Just to fcuk with people).
I admit one of the reasons I was kind of disappointed to hear it’s a boy is that I had no intention of repainting the nursery (it’s blue) and we’d decided to do it up in rocket ships, and I was looking forward to looking down on people who were surprised. And now that it’s a boy, of course, nobody is.
Quote of the week so far.
Years ago my cousins sent out a Christmas card with the family photo. Their youngest at the time daughter was about 6 months old and was sitting in her infant carrier with below shoulder length wavy thick auburn hair. It looked very freaky. Funny thing was, it was real. Everyone thought it was a wig.
“It’s possibly a human. Although further tests will be needed before I can scientifically prove that. I wouldn’t want to just give you my opinion.”