Saturday, July 01, 2006
People Wanting to Know Gender, Want to Assign Gender Role
[Author's Note: This was written June 10th. I've gotten a little behind on events, so I'm trying to catch up in chronological order. Thanks for your patience.]
The further along I get in this pregnancy, the more frequently people are now asking if we know it is a boy or a girl. Since I haven’t had an ultrasound in a while, we don’t know. However, it is at the next ultrasound that we can find out, if we want to. I have maintained that I want it to be a surprise. Brian is concerned that, if we tell them we don’t want to know, it will cause the technician to not do a complete exam. I disagree; medical professionals are not apt to neglect their responsibilities based on a request like this. I would argue that they can still conduct a thorough exam without telling us the gender. We can simply look away from the screen when necessary. We will talk some more about this.
The further along I get in this pregnancy, the more frequently people are now asking if we know it is a boy or a girl. Since I haven’t had an ultrasound in a while, we don’t know. However, it is at the next ultrasound that we can find out, if we want to. I have maintained that I want it to be a surprise. Brian is concerned that, if we tell them we don’t want to know, it will cause the technician to not do a complete exam. I disagree; medical professionals are not apt to neglect their responsibilities based on a request like this. I would argue that they can still conduct a thorough exam without telling us the gender. We can simply look away from the screen when necessary. We will talk some more about this.
I am reluctant to tell people Baby’s gender. I want Baby to be able to grow up and be the person he/she wants to be. So much in our cultural is determined by our genders and it shouldn’t be. Now with this ultrasound technology, we can assign those roles before they ever take their first breath. Our culture is so enamored with this that it’s difficult to find gender-neutral clothes and toys for babies – I’ve tried!
Enough of my rant. We’ll see what happens.
