Rising Gender-neutral Child Discussion
Please respond to all of the questions in paragraph form with the question numbers labeled. You should incorporate concepts from the readings into your answers and cite the readings as needed. The paper should be 2-4 pages.
Read the article, Parents Keep Child’s Gender Secret (Links to an external site.). It was published in 2011 by the Toronto Star about a Canadian family who refused to disclose their baby Storm’s sex, opting instead to raise it gender neutrally.
- What challenges does this couple face in raising a gender-neutral child?
- How do others ensure categorization, even if we reject the category for ourselves?
- What other categories shape how people think about and use their bodies?
Researchers have previously presented two different interpretations of the relationship between the body and culture.
- What are they? In the end, which interpretation do Orend and Gagné find the most support for?
- Are individuals with logo tattoos dupes or agents?
- What do the authors mean when they say that “consumers of corporate logo tattoos use these body modifications as an expression of pseudo-power and pseudo-resistance”?
- Why weren’t attempts to redefine the meanings underlying a logo more successful?
The Loe and Cuttino study focuses on how people try to control their bodies in order to experience both the physical sensations and the senses of self they desire.
- What is the nature of the relationship between the body and the self here?
- What other ways do college students try to control their bodies? Workers? Patients?
- What happens when someone is unable to control his or her body in the ways wanted?
- What happens to his or her sense of self? Why is authenticity so important to identity construction?