Genderless Identity Does More Harm than Good

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When I finished reading the story of little Storm, in that instant, I felt deeply sorry for Storm, a child who would have grown up normally like everyone else around him/her, everyone else except for his/her two brothers. However, a decision was made by Storm’s parents to break the convention of identifying children by gender, and as a result the chance for Storm to be raised like others. Storm’s parents, Witterick and Stocker are indeed doing something wrong. Their extreme and unusual parenting decision would make Storm a lifelong victim of prejudice.

According to Storm’s parents, they want to love their children for who they are, not what genitals they have; they want to be supportive of the individuality of their children and empower them with the freedom to do anything they want, even things the parents themselves were not allowed to do as kids. Though this is also a very accurate description of what the majority of parents hope for their children, they are realistic about the society they live in. Whereas Storm’s parents are not only thinking, also acting as idealists through their action of raising a genderless baby in this imperfect world. In other words, their idealism has motivated them to rear Storm free of gender identities.

However, life is a much more complicated topic than what an idealist is willing to understand and seek answers for. As a result, idealists such as Storm’s parents are often not taking the scientific actualities and negative aspects of the issue into account. In this case, being idealists has also made Witterick and Stocker blinded to the irrefutable biological differences between boys and girls. Far more evidence has shown that male and female are genetically very different and ...

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...orm to be genderless. However, it is harmful to Storm growing up so far away from the biological and social norms because eventually Storm will have to make contact with society, and when he/she does, he/she would be feeling isolated, and be haunted by various difficulties in life. After all, the gender convention has been a part of society and well adapted to humans for thousands of years, and it will probably take another thousand of years for genderless babies like Storm to be able to tell anyone about their undefined gender identities without being alienated or judged. As for Storm living in the Twenty-First century, his/her parents are taking an enormous risk to gamble on the chance of Storm’s future to be desirable. In the end, I just hope that Witterick and Stocker know when to stop when they realize that Storm might have become another victim of prejudice.

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