Opposing Viewpoints on the Issue of Children Gender Choice - Essay Example

?Opposing Viewpoints From the perspective that a woman‘s role is to be barefoot and pregnant to a woman having the right to vote, the right to a career and the right to be married to another woman. Sex and gender issues have indeed come a long way. This paper analyzes the content of two articles of opposing viewpoints and makes a conclusion regarding the emerging role of children’s rights to live their life in a gender of choice. In the article entitled, ‘Toddling Past Gender Lines, Jan Hoffman highlighted the flexible nature parents have adopted in their nurturing of boys and girls in this new era. From a young age children are allowed to engage in activities portraying their gender of choice without any significant consequences for these choices. In fact, the parents go to endless length to ensure that their children are protected from those who still believe that a male child should wear the pants and play with cars but a female should wear dresses and play with dolls. Interestingly in the second article ‘Most Children's Books Present Male and Female Characters in Traditional Gender Roles’, Ya-Lun Tsao argues for the child’s exposure to a variety of books about both traditional and contemporary gender roles in order to understand and appreciate the differences in gender role. Tsao insists that children develop gender identity from exposure to particular types of picture books and as such children should be free to choose the role in which nature endowed them in order to live the rest of their life in harmony with their assigned genitals. For Tsao children should be allowed to develop their sense of self based on nature’s choice rather than their individual preference. Intriguingly, Hoffman in her article noted that in today’s society certain parents believe that their children should be free to wear what they want, like what they want and consequently represent the gender they want. Throughout the article Hoffman made mention of parents who had allowed their children to choose the gender they preferred but what is noteworthy is that many of the examples entailed children who were treated with scant courtesy because of this freedom to represent. In one particular example, Hoffman revealed that a couple decided to change location from one state that was doing damage to their child’s self esteem and the child’s right to choose to another state in which there was avid acceptance of a boy dressing in girls’ clothing. What was particularly appealing about this case was the fact that the boy noted that stereotyping also existed at this ‘vibrant gay community’ state albeit a different type of stereotyping. At six years old, he asked his parents, ''If Jersey City is so diverse and so understanding, then why does everyone keep calling me a girl?'' In light of his question one can assume that he was definitely beginning to accept himself and his sexual identity but at the same time he was aware that there are varying viewpoints about this gender issue. This idea of young children developing into their own sexual and gender identity is illustrated in Tsao’s article on the traditional representation of male and female roles in picture books. Tsao was rather strategic in the layout of the article. Firstly, a summary of several articles on the traditional representation of gender roles in picture books was given. By the end of the article Tsao had a holistic approach on the manner in which gender roles should be represented in children’s books. Thus, Tsao began by explaining that ‘Most themes represented in children's books reflect the expectation that male characters will use their brains to effectively and creatively solve problems, while female characters are portrayed as more concerned with appearance.’ The article ended with the idea that ‘The use of picture books that portray nontraditional gender roles, including boys and men in nurturing or caregiving roles, as well as girls and women in active, leadership roles, provides an important contrast to the commonly popular cultural messages often seen and heard by very young children.’ The controversy in article one about a children’s right to represent their gender of choice regardless of the sex in which they were born is certainly a present day phenomenon. At no time before in history have we noted such an upsurge in parents’ desire to please their children and adhere to their children’s whims and fancies. This controversy appears to me to be one that goes deeper than merely allowing children the opportunity to live on both sides of the fence but rather it appears to be a case of the tail wagging the horse. In times past, parents were the ones who would insist on a boy behaving like a boy which was strong, assertive and in total control. Today, parents are allowing their boys to wear pink, play with dolls and wear dresses. This situation seems to call for a complete paradigm shift in one’s psyche. In Hoffman’s article she noted that parents did not want to disclose the true identity of their child because they wanted to ‘protect their children.’ The question arises, why should there be a need for parents to protect their children if they believe that want they are doing is best for their children? It is true that all parents want to protect their children from fierce animals, from evil individuals from failure but why would one want to protect a child from a situation that could be completely avoided. This is a mystery to me. It appears to me that if one would allow one’s son to wear a dress in public instead of pants then one would allow him to shoot another child because it is his desire to so do. There appears to be no boundaries anymore. In this information age where everyone has the right to their freedom of information one is exposed to a variety of views. The author of this paper tends to agree with the view expressed by Tsao- expose children to the traditional roles as well as the present roles do not ‘choose ‘ for them because at age four or five a child should follow the lead of their parents. At a later stage in life when the child has had the opportunity to attempt to live with the sex in which he/she was born then the mature individual can choose which gender he/she would adopt for the rest of a lifetime. This idea of a child choosing to represent a gender of choice based is indeed a contentious one. There are those who would give their arms and legs for the child to be exposed to a variety of gender roles and be allowed to choose which gender is preferred at a later stage in life but there are also those who advocate for the child to be genderless as is the case in Pappas’, ‘Truth about genderless babies’. The study of sex and gender is indeed a growing controversy which would certainly not be resolved in the near future. There is tremendous data for researchers to investigate to further the sex and gender debate in this present age. References Hoffman, Jan. "Toddling past gender lines." New York Times 12 June 2011: 1(L). Gale Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 17 June 2011. Pappas, Stephanie.”The truth about genderless babies.” Live Science. 25 May 2011:Web.26 June 2011. "Most Children's Books Present Male and Female Characters in Traditional Gender Roles." Children and the Entertainment Industry. Ed. Karen Miller. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2010. Opposing Viewpoints. Gale Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 17 June 2011. Read More