Raising a Gender-neutral Storm
Storm Witterick is 4-months old but already the centre of a storm. Parents Cathy Witterick and David Stocker have decided that the baby should be protected from being ‘stereotyped’ by society, and allowed to choose his or her own gender in due course.
According to the Toronto Star, Cathy and David have decided not to tell anyone the baby’s gender, although its two brothers both know, as do those present at the birth. There is no question of a medical problem. Rather, the couple believe they are releasing Storm from the constraints society imposes on males and females. They claim that children can make meaningful decisions for themselves from a very young age. They described parents who make choices for their children as 'obnoxious'. Instead, they tell their children to challenge how they're expected to look and act based on their gender.
Critics of the couple suggest that they are setting their children up for a lifetime of bullying. The couple’s existing boys aged 3 and 5 have their hair cut in a feminine style, and choose their clothes from either the boy’s or the girl’s side of the shops. Jazz, the oldest child, could have started school last September but chose to stay at home. Both children and adults, his mother explained, would 'immediately react with Jazz over his gender' - mainly, the fact he is a little boy who loves the colour pink and wears his hair long. It was after Jazz suffered an “intense” time over people’s reaction to his appearance that the couple decided to bring up Storm without a gender.
Both Mrs Witterick and Mr Stocker grew up in very liberal families, have visited revolutionaries in Mexico and spent weeks in Cuba learning about the Communist revolution. Mr Stocker is a teacher at a school where lessons are framed by social justice issues. They say they will maintain their gender policy for Storm as long as the three children are happy with it.
However California-based psychologist Diane Ehrensaft said there is something innate about gender - and that Storm's case is worrying. She feels that the child will be unable to position him or herself in a world where you are either male, female or in between, arguing that they have created another category entirely: 'I believe that it puts restrictions on this particular baby so that in this culture this baby will be a singular person who is not being given an opportunity to find their true gender self, based on also what’s inside them.'
R. Albert Mohler, Jr. President of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, commented that “The controversy surrounding Storm is a sign of our times. Our rebellion against the Creator has now reached the point that we will deny the fact that our identity is not just our own personal project, but is first of all established in the Creator’s intention - and part of that intention is the fact that we are male or female.”
Article by Jos Johnson.
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