Say your newborn child was born genderless. Your child is perfectly normal but just lacks a complete reproductive system. This means that your child would never be able to have sex. Fearing that your child will be teased in school for being gender-less, you and your spouse decide to raise the child as a certain gender to avoid people finding out about your child's condition.
How would you raise your child regarding gender identity? Boy or girl and why?
How would you raise your child regarding gender identity? Boy or girl and why?
I'd just let the child do as they pleased, I'd let THEM choose how they preferred to act, dress or look. There's nothing wrong with the poor kid, there's something wrong with the people who would tease them over this, and also something wrong with the pussy parents.
*Which sport teams should that child play for?
*Which bathroom should that child use?
*What do they fill in on forms?
(see my answer)
I think it would be vital to allow the child to find their own way as a boy or girl, I just see it as so awful to put a dress on the baby because I want it to be a girl and teach it to hide it's differences or that it's 'weird' or 'wrong' to be what they are.
I'd assume since the poster said 'no reproductive organs' that the child would be technically genetically a boy or girl but have virtually no male or female hormones? Right? So really it would be all about their choice I guess, I don't know how, or when or where their gender feelings would come from since they'd have such low hormone levels I'd guess, I'm not sure about that though.
It would all have to come in stages....obviously you can't thrust this upon a 2 year old, and it would have to be handled appropriately for different ages. It's tough to say what bathroom a very young child would use, a child starts going to the potty at about 2 so that's a bit young to make that decision, unless the child is strongly identifying as a boy or girl already. I'd also assume there would be a catheter as there's no genitals? So perhaps it's not THAT big of a deal as far as peeing. Would they need to use a special restroom or nurse's office if they had to use catheters? I don't know...anything about that. If the child is very girly at 2, then I'd say let her be girly and use the girls room I suppose. This child wouldn't be seen as a threat to others sexually, I don't think, since it has no genitals, so would anyone care? I'd be more concerned about my child's safety in the restroom due to assholes who would try to harm or take a peek at her/him because of the condition, not the other way around!!
It's getting technical!! Sports team...hmm...well, I suppose that would be based on the child's choice as far as what they wanted to play and then whatever the team/school policy is. Tough one!! It seems like that issue could go either way depending on the school and the child's interest and gender choice, perhaps size would come into play as well? I don't know...If it's just high school then perhaps not such a huge deal but if it got to be college, pro or Olympics then there'd definitely be hard lines drawn and go by genetics only.
What to put on a form...well, for any formal paperwork like medical you'd always have to put your true sex.... legal, I guess you'd have to go by what you are genetically, at least for the most part, and up to a certain age anyway. Once they could get a driver's license/ID/passport...well, I guess they already have policy for that for transsexuals and transgendered people, so if the child was living as the opposite of what they were genetically then whatever the policy is for transgenders I suppose would apply. If they are living as what the truly are, then no issue.
Complicated!! I'd just hope the child could be happy, and that it could feel free and brave enough to be who they were. That's my main concern. I'd hope all this other stuff would fall right into place for the child, that's a high hope and there'd always be some issue somewhere but if taught that they're not some freak and fostered properly maybe it would all work out easier, anyway!!
But he owned it and he was such a chill person he ended up being one of the most liked guys in the school :3
You're still a guy or a girl, even if you don't have the parts to prove it.
The Y chromosome is usually dominant and having one will usually make you male. Mutation of an X or Y chromosome (very rare) can result in an XX male of XY female.
Still, they are male or female due to the development of that reproductive system. In the complete absence of of a reproductive system (the given scenario) my statement should be entirely valid.
You said that you will treat a child based on their chromosomes. So I was curious how you would treat a child who carries XY chromosomes but look like and act like females because of the Androgen insensitivity syndrome.
A male would likely behave more feminine due to the lack of testosterone and vice versa.
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AIS is a more complicated issue.
"Complete androgen insensitivity prevents the development of the penis and other male body parts. The child born appears to be a girl. The complete form of the syndrome occurs in as many as 1 in 20,000 live births." - Would be classified as a girl and AIS only likely to be discovered at a much later stage.
"The degree of sexual ambiguity varies widely in persons with incomplete AIS. Incomplete AIS can include other disorders such as Reifenstein syndrome (also known as Gilbert-Dreyfus syndrome or Lubs syndrome), which is associated with breast development in men, failure of one or both testes to descend into the scrotum after birth, and hypospadias, a condition where the opening of the urethra is on the underside, rather than at the tip, of the penis."
(source: <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0002163/" rel="nofollow">http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH000...</a>)
"Treatment and gender assignment can be a very complex issue, and must be individualized with great care."
That being the case, Gender would most likely be assigned by which the child resembles more and treatment undergone accordingly.