Gendering Kids Starts Early and Just Doesn't Quit

Just like Desdemona and her spoon as well as Milton and his thermometer, every couple wants to know what the gender of their unborn baby is- and since it’s no longer the seventies, it’s often fairly easy to do for a baby. Which is understandable for parents to want- with the pretty clear-cut lines of gender that our society draws, it’s a natural next step that everyone wants to know ahead of time. Even without the male-centered inheritance laws in Silence, a baby’s early life is going to be different whether they’re a boy or girl, even though those differences are shaped by the same society that dictates that people know ahead of time so that they can choose to treat their unborn child as a boy or girl early… so it sort of seems like a cycle that feeds itself to me.

And with social media being so prevalent in our society and a big way of how we keep in contact with others, I guess it’s another natural next step for “gender reveal” parties or announcements start popping up. Like the cake filled with blue or pink m&m’s. Or the box filled with blue or pink chalk that you then shoot to make the gender of your baby… explode… (?) into the air… filling the air with your love/ its gender? That’s where it gets weird. I feel like there’s some strange associations to be made with that particular type of gender reveal.

And even once they’re born, the babies are going to be highly gendered once again. There’s the clear cut of “boy” and “girl” clothes from the very start, with vastly different messages on the tiny, identical in structure, little onesies. Often, the messages on girls’ clothes are self-deprecating or talking about dating before they’re even old enough to understand what self-esteem or boyfriends are. Even though they obviously aren’t able to read this message, other people are and these people are going to be able to and will form some opinions of this and other babies from the very start. This also seems like of Silence being the most over-sexualized, hourglass figure little newborn, but updated and created for the mass consumption of all consumers.

This trend continues as the babies grow up into kids, with one notable exception that is also making small-time, facebook feed news- Target is specifically creating a kids’ room decoration brand that doesn’t have an overly gendered vibe. There’s a lot of speculation about why they’re doing it, and the main conclusion is, of course, profit. However, the fact remains that there’s some amount of hope that this weird gendering of babies and kids who don’t have any concept of what gender is could maybe not be so widespread in some future.

I think this concept also illustrates the difficulties in distinguishing the influences of nature and nurture, because the nurture that two babies will get is going to be different based on their nature, at least in some senses. While these are some extreme examples, I think they show the distinction that is made in the way kids are treated from the moment they enter social media and how it’s not the same and is often very strange.