X: A Fabulous Child's Story

During this past week’s lectures, discussion, and readings, I kept thinking about a short story I read in my junior year literature class in high school. We read “X: A Fabulous Child’s Story” by Lois Gould. It is an incredible and powerful short story about a child who is raised to be completely genderless. Instead of calling the baby a girl or a boy, it is referred to as an “X”. X’s parents bought X both girl clothes and boy clothes, and both dolls and trucks. X was encouraged to select the toys and clothes that it liked the most, rather than limiting X to only one type or another. X’s parents were careful to balance both physical activities and loving affection, in attempts to cultivate a love for both. While X’s parents were overjoyed by X’s development, other people did not feel the same way. Relatives and friends were extremely frustrated by what they perceived to be a limitation of expression due to a lack of gender. They struggled with how to treat the baby and how to talk to it, as they were unable to say things such as “What a pretty little girl!” and “What a strong little boy!”.

It became worse when X enrolled in school. X’s classmates’ parents became enraged over X’s lack of gender identity. The ambiguity that accompanied X’s was terrifying to the parents because X did not replicate social gender norms and failed to fit into societies narrow definition of gender. They feared that X would influence their own children to reject gender roles. The parents demanded that X be evaluated by a psychologist as they were convinced that little genderless X must be experiencing severe psychological distress. However, after the psych evaluation, the doctor declared that X was the most well-adjusted, healthy, and happy child he had ever encountered. This indicated that while society is intimidated by the idea of gender neutrality, the impact on X was tremendously positive. Our culture demands that everyone fit into the two distinct and defined categories of gender, and those whom fail to do so are seen as abnormal and elicit discomfort in society.

I couldn’t help becoming infatuated by Lois Gould’s gender-neutral utopia. The idea of removing the socialization of gender in children is incredible to the point that I would almost want to do that when I have babies. However, as we discussed in lecture, that wont actually fix anything. I don’t think that the solution to gender inequality is to remove gender entirely, but rather to teach boys and girls the same values and passions. If a little boy has toy trucks and action figures, a little girl should too. If a little girl has a doll that cries and coos, a little boy should as well. Little boys and little girls should both be encouraged to be independent and curious, to be nurturing and gentle, and to be strong and brave. It’s not the expression of gender in and of itself that is concerning, it is the biased and distorted way in which we endorse and enforce gender in our society that is alarming. To me, the idea that a little boy would be dissuaded from playing with dolls and a little girl from playing football is so sad and narrow-minded. I plan to encourage my children to engage in both male and female activities and hobbies, and to value both male and female attributes. While I obviously cannot raise my children gender neutral, I want to eliminate gendering my children’s lives as much as possible.