Raising Baby X

Paper Summary:

This paper examines a short story by Lois Gould in her writing "X:A Fabulous Child's Story" in which a baby named X is raised by a couple who have agreed not to impose gender stereotypes upon the baby. The story not only shows how people are preoccupied with gender stereotype, it also poses the question whether we are able to raise a non-gendered child. The author shows that realistically, raising Baby X is impossible because social institutions and norms force everyone in society to shape oneself according to the socially-accepted gender system.

From the Paper:

"Gender is "an achieved status"(Garfinkel, 1967). One's achievement of gender is largely influenced by social institutions such as family and the media. Families are "children's first source of information about gender" (Newman, 131). Children simply model the behavior of their parents and siblings. They learn values and beliefs from their families. Therefore, to raise Baby X, we also have to be non-gendered, and to act gender-free. However, even if we tried to raise Baby X without any gender stereotypes, we would unknowingly impose gender stereotypes upon X because "gender-typed expectations are so ingrained that [we] are [...] unaware that [we] are behaving in accordance with them"(131). What we do, what we choose unconsciously are almost always gendered. According to Newman, "if you were to ask parents whether they treated sons any differently from daughters, most would probably say no. Yet there is considerable evidence that what parents do and what they say they do are two different things"(Newman, 1997:131). "Even parents who claim to consider sex and gender irrelevant may nevertheless spend a great deal of time ensuring that their child has the culturally appropriate physical appearance of a boy or girl"(Newman, 1997:132). Judith Lorber (1993) also writes that "many feminist parents who want to raise androgynous children soon lose their children to the pull of gendered norms" (107). That is, even if we made a conscious effort to treat Baby X gender-neutral, we could not ignore gendered norms and result in treating Baby X with gender bias.
"Family members also engage in the gender-based division of labor in household. West et al.(1991) contend that "whenever people face issues of allocation--who is to do what, get what, plan or execute action, direct or be directed, incumbency in significant social categories such as 'female' and 'male' seems to become pointedly relevant"(29). In fact, women do more housework than men. Men work more outside. Fesntermarker Berk (1985) found that "wives, even when employed outside the home, do the vast majority of household and child-care tasks [and,] moreover, both wives and husbands tend to perceive this as a 'fair' arrangement"(West et al., 1991:30). Once we accept such unfair arrangement as natural, Baby X comes to be raised in our gendered household and look up own parents playing unfairly distributed gendered roles. It makes difficult for Baby X to become a non-gendered human."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Bornstein, Kate (1994) Gender Outlaw. New York. First Vintage Book.
• Garfinkel, Harold
• Gould, Lois (1972/1995). Women: Images and Realities, eds. Kesselman, Amy, Lily D. McNair, and Nancy Schniedewind, pp. 82-87, "X: A Fabulous Child's Story."
• Lorber, Judith (1993). Paradoxes of Gender, pp. 3-15 and 17-27, "Night to His Day." Yale University Press. No.
• Newman, David M. (1997). "The Socialization of Gender," pp. 127-139, from Chapter 5, "Building Identity The Social Construction of Self," in Sociology: Exploring the Architecture of Everyday Life. Thousand Oaks, California Pine Forge Press.

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