TIME: Learning Baby’s Sex Before Birth May ‘Pressure’ it ‘Into Specific Gender Role’
Expectant moms: Be careful shopping in the baby department, ladies – you might just dictate your bundle of joy’s gender with your next purchase, or so says Time Magazine.
TIME Magazine’s Eliana Dockterman recently examined “The Problem with Wanting to Know Your Baby’s Sex before Birth.” In her article, Dockterman argued that buying pink or blue clothes could “pressure” children “into specific gender roles.” The article pointed to a study that claimed that women who wait to find out a baby’s sex are “more egalitarian, conscientious.” And probably more likely to care what Eliana Dockterman thinks of their choices.
On the other hand, the sort of troglodyte mother who wants to know her baby’s sex is “probably either a perfectionist or ha[s] conservative views about gender.” Therefore, there’s a good chance that mom might commit horrible child abuse: “Buying pink or blue clothes before your child is even born may pressure them into specific gender roles.” Heaven forbid!
The preview of the to-be-published Ohio State University study said that wanting to know a child’s sex in advance offered “subtle clues about her [the mother’s] views on proper gender roles.” It might also offer clues about how prepared she wants to be for the new baby or her financial situation, but either way, according to Dockterman, “Finding out your child’s sex before their born, the researchers suggest, may push them towards a certain gender identity later.” You heartless reactionary!
Dockterman reiterated a question by associate professor and study researcher Sarah Schoppe-Sullivan: “If you know ahead of time that you’re having a girl, are you layering on all the pink and purple in a way that is going to push an extremely feminine ideal on your child?” And if so, why haven’t you been assigned to a re-education camp?
But hey, it’s TIME, which compensates for its loss of prestige and readership by pushing the controversial, from recently promoting a hashtag bashing the Bible to deeming the transgender movement as “America’s next civil rights frontier.”
— Katie Yoder is Staff Writer, Joe and Betty Anderlik Fellow in Culture and Media at the Media Research Center. Follow Katie Yoder on Twitter.
