Imagine carrying out such a social experiment on your own child....

http://www.thelocal.se/20232/20090623/

 

People lay some awfully strange trips on their kids. *shaking my head*

 

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Now I have heard it all.

 

novice

 

A deeper question might be - at which point does a society have the right to remove a child from parental control? Is this child really being harmed? Are we judging the situation more strongly from a personal perspective than an objective one? The article clearly says they'll talk openly about the child's sexuality when the child determines it is time to do so - that could be next week, or during puberty, or 20 years from now or never :-| Of the things that clearly cause harm to a child, this one falls pretty far down the list for me.

For a bunch of porn-goers, you sure are a puritanical bunch :laughing:

 

It's not puritanical at all. From what I've read, a child's personality and sexual identity are formed by the time they're 6. This kid is going to go through that period with no reinforcement of his/her sexual identity, and probably emerge hopelessly confused. I'm not suggesting the child should be removed. I just think somebody should walk up to the parents and simply, politely, say, "Are you out of your fucking minds?"

 

As soon as I saw this thread title I thought of Iain Banks' Wasp Factory. Another social experiment involving gender identity.

I won't give away the plot due to the Roald Dahlesque sting in the tail, but I will post a link to the Wiki page.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wasp_Factory
Having said that, this is one of my all time favourite books!!

As far as this social experiment is concerned, I wonder where the statistics come from? No I don't, I know. They come from children who already have their gender identity imparted to them from birth, so to use those as an argument in this case is next to useless.

I think it is a very interesting Social Experiment and for those puritans jumping up and day, if you are parents, can you really say that you are not, or were not if they are now grown, involved in your own form of social experimenting yourself? After all, did yu do everything exactly as your parents did? Or your grandparents? Or neighbours?

I know that as I parent I was always trying to do what I thought was in the long term best interests of my children. There is no manual to tell you what is the best way to raise your children!!!

Are any of you any different?????

 

Common sense is always good when raising children...Personally, I wouldn't do this experiment...Who really knows, the child could end up being the most normal child in the world...However, the big questions is "who really knows?" I hope it works out for the child...

 

That's the point RP, no one really knows. This sounds like it is unique within our own culture.

 

. . . and what if this child grows up to be a centered, balanced, loving person full of self-esteem and free of some of the gender hang-ups that plague a certain percentage of the populace? Maybe the parents are onto something that we aren't willing to accept, and are much less out of their fucking minds than folks who might go up and say such a thing to them.

 

Actually, you're being very nice by calling it "unique." Myself, I'll call it "very weird."

 

three possibilities:

1) normal, adjusted, happy child

2) child that thinks he should have been the opposite sex than what they were born as

3) child angry with it's parents when it finds out what they did to him. Kind of like "A Boy Named Sue".

 

i only read some of the article, but from what i said, i bet my left nut its a girl and they dont want her to have a "worse of chance at life" for it.

 

I'm with you on this one - I purposely raised my kids in a way that ended up alienating certain members of the family, of our community, etc. I heard "that's just not the way you raise kids" in both not-so-subtle whispers and right in my face ~shrugs~ Had I been located in another part of the country, I very well may have had to deal with child protective services, et al - as I have had situations explained to me where communities inserted themselves into a family for no good cause except their own prejudices.

 

Perhaps you misread my intention. I was not being very nice, I was using unique in its strictest sense- the only one of its kind! Ergo, who knows?

 

No, I did get it but you said it so much nicer then I did..."Unique" sounds so much nicer then "very weird.":excited:

 

What is wrong with people today?

 

It is almost a unique experience having you with me on this one OT.

That's the thing with herd mentality; if members deviate from the norm they get persecuted. At least in the animal world, if you have the strength, you can always leave the herd and start your ow. In the human herd if you try and do that you get hunted down and stopped. Just have a look at the persecution of all those who have tried.Perhaps it's because it threatens the very existence of the herd itself!

Unique things are usually weird. In fact their uniqueness is what makes them weird

 

they are utterly bunkered in their own judgemental conception of this existence . . . enough so that truly progressive ideas are derided out of hand - as you have demonstrated so well.