“Gender-neutral” Childrearing: When a Sexual Hang-up Leads to Child Abuse

By Selwyn Duke

First there was “Pop” in Sweden, then “Storm” in Canada. Now out of Britain comes Sasha, a boy, we hear, who is being raised by his parents in a “sex-neutral” fashion. And this isn’t just your modernistic grandmother’s neutrality, where she didn’t want to push toy guns and trucks on her son. Sasha’s parents, Beck Laxton and “partner,” as he’s described, Kieran Cooper, are going the full feminist monty. 

On Sasha’s birth announcement, there was no indication of sex; and for years Laxton wouldn’t use the pronoun “he” when referring to him on her blog, but instead just indentified him as “the infant.” She explained why in an interview with the Cambridge News, stating, “I wanted to avoid all that stereotyping. Stereotypes seem fundamentally stupid. Why would you want to slot people into boxes?” Therefore, writes Piper Weiss at Shine:

Sasha dresses in clothes he likes — be it a hand-me-downs [sic] from his sister or his brother. The big no-no's are hyper-masculine outfits like skull-print shirts and cargo pants. In one photo, sent to friends and family, Sasha's dressed in a shiny pink girl's swimsuit. "Children like sparkly things," says Beck. "And if someone thought Sasha was a girl because he was wearing a pink swimming costume, then what effect would that have?"

Laxton clearly doesn’t know — and doesn’t seem to care. After all, writes Weiss, “[Laxton is] open to her son pursing any career or sexual preference he chooses….” Yes, well, as long as, I suppose, it’s not “hyper-masculine.” This brings me to my first point.

Read the rest here.

Comments

[misty]

You gotta wonder about the fathers of these neuter-boys. I've sometimes wondered just how many gays and lesbians feigned heterosexual marriages in acts of suburban subversion. I think this could explain some weirdness in the families of a few of my classmates from high school. ;0)

They tried the gender-neutral upbringing with me as a female, except my dad wouldn't allow my mom to give me a boy's first name though he wanted me to like sports and got me a hotwheels set without my making the request. Then my grandmother kept buying me dolls and I sat around and made mud pies when I was outside. I'm thinking these boys are young yet which means some of their natural masculine tendencies may out before they're grown without anybody being able to do a darn thing about it.

[Selwyn Duke]

Well, Misty, we would certainly hope that these boys could emerge from this perversion unscathed, but as the 11-year-old boy raised by two lesbians who is initiating a "sex change" shows, it isn't something we'd want to bet on. "As the twig is bent, so grows the tree."

[yoyo]

selwyn, while I think this SET of parents are a bit deluded. Kids will go their own way no matter what we as parents do. I think you comment regarding correct parentin as making males hyper males and females hyper females similar to a child with a musical gift is somewhat specious. 50% of the population have a gift for being male? is not equivalent to a talent. Either way i think you are shooting fish in a barrel. So can we see an article about how much damage the Duggans do to their children next? Lack of attention over work etc etc etc.