x by lois gould essay

(Updated to add link to the Lois Gould story. Thanks, Malta!)Each quarter, my students read Lois Gould's 1972 short story, X: A Fabulous Child's Story , in which fictional parents raise their fictional child without naming its gender so that it can grow up without internalizing gender stereotypes. That story was written in 1972, but it seems that a pair of real parents in present-day Sweden have decided to try the exact same experiment with their child, who is, for the purposes of the article, called Pop : Pop’s parents, both 24, made a decision when their baby was born to keep Pop’s sex a secret. Aside from a select few – those who have changed the child’s diaper – nobody knows Pop’s gender; if anyone enquires, Pop’s parents simply say they don’t disclose this information. In an interview with newspaper Svenska Dagbladet in March, the parents were quoted saying their decision was rooted in the feminist philosophy that gender is a social construction. “We want Pop to grow up more freely and avoid being forced into a specific gender mould from the outset,” Pop’s mother said. “It’s cruel to bring a child into the world with a blue or pink stamp on their forehead.” The child’s parents said so long as they keep Pop’s gender a secret, he or she will be able to avoid preconceived notions of how people should be treated if male or female. Pop’s wardrobe includes everything from dresses to trousers and Pop’s hairstyle changes on a regular basis. And Pop usually decides how Pop is going to dress on a given morning. Although Pop knows that there are physical differences between a boy and a girl, Pop’s parents never use personal pronouns when referring to the child – they just say Pop.“I believe that the self-confidence and personality that Pop has shaped will remain for a lifetime,” said Pop’s mother.LOVE this. I can't imagine how difficult it must be for these parents to.
Occasionally, as part of courses I teach on gender and education, I include a reading by Lois Gould entitled ‘X: A Fabulous Child’s Story’. Written in a fairy-tale style, and first published in 1978, it conveys a fictional story about a child – X – who is part of an ‘Xperiment’ (sic) to see what happens if a child is raised as an X rather than as a girl or a boy.In this Xperiment no-one except the parents (and the experiment organisers) have seen the child’s external genitalia. When asked whether the child is a boy or a girl, the parents reply ‘it’s an X’. Gould explores, in a light-hearted style, the issues raised when parents refuse to label a child as a girl or boy. Responses to their refusal to label include: anger by people who want to know the ‘truth’; embarrassment by relatives at being embroiled in such a scandal; confusion by people who don’t know how to speak to, or handle, the child; and uncertainty about what kinds of toys and clothes to give it. Of course, a host of issues emerge as the child begins school, and the teachers, other parents and administrators of the system more generally don’t know how to cope with X. In my opinion, it’s a great quick-and-easy read that highlights many issues that I want my undergraduates to engage with during their course. A few times I’ve been asked by students whether it’s a true story, ‘unfortunately not’, I’ve replied with a smile.  Now though, we do have the beginnings of a parallel, but this time true, story. A Canadian couple have recently hit the headlines around the world for refusing to label their 4-month-old child – Storm – a girl or a boy. There has been much coverage in the press; the following example comes from the Boston Globe: ‘Ridiculous or ultra-enlightened? A Toronto couple’s decision to keep the gender of their 4-month-old baby a secret has touched off a sometimes nasty debate over how far parents.
Only available on StudyMode Read full document → Save to my library No matter how hard we try, we will always be criticized, evaluated, judged. There are rules, trends, theories even rubrics that clearly indicate what we believe is to be right, wrong, acceptable, and what is frowned upon. Yet it is a combination of these criticisms to which the world generally adapts to. Lois Gould’s short story “X” combines all of these aspects, by portraying various criticism such as psychoanalytical, cultural, and Marxist, through a scientific machine called the Superpsychiamedicosocioculturometer. Difficult to pronounce, this wondrous and well-trusted scientific machine is able to unmask the truth and the faults of any individual. When examined, the tremendously long name of the machine can be divided up into sections, such as “psychia”, “socio”, and “culturo”. It is my belief that Gould was creating a metaphor for all of the things in our world that we use to determine what is right. “Psycia” symbolizes psychoanalysis, the mental aspect. It is dealing with our thoughts, feelings and impulses that we are not aware of. “Socio” represents social and Marxist points of view, which means we are dealing with the different social classes and the economical point of view. Finally the “culturo” clearly means cultural. Much of the stereotyping in the story comes from our popular culture, and what was acceptable in that current time. Throughout the novel each one of these criticisms play an important role in the experiment of baby X’s life. Whilst the baby is raised, we the readers can see how much the different criticisms affect ours lives, even at such a young age. At the end of the story, practically the entire community wanted X to be examined. So the scientists use this super-meter machine to determine what is wrong with X and come to a conclusion that by studying X, using the.
Lois Gould (December 18, 1931 – May 29, 2002) was an American writer, known for her novels and other works about women's lives.[1] She was born in Manhattan, the daughter of fashion designer Jo Copeland and Edward J. Regensburg, Jr., a cigar manufacturer. Gould's 1998 memoir of life with her mother, Mommy Dressing: A Love Story, After a Fashion,[1] enjoyed widespread critical praise. In 1970 Lois Gould published her first novel, Such Good Friends, about a woman who learns of her husband's many affairs only after he has lapsed into a coma while in the hospital. Such Good Friends was on the New York Times best-seller list for seven weeks and was subsequently adapted for film by Otto Preminger. The book was republished along with Gould's other novels in 1988.[1][2] The novel's plot was partly drawn from life: when, in 1966, Gould's then husband Philip Benjamin, a New York Times reporter, died accidentally in connection with minor surgery, his widow reputedly discovered, among his papers, an encoded diary which concerned his numerous acts of adultery.[1] Lois married psychiatrist Robert E. Gould in 1967, who adopted her sons Anthony and Roger V. Gould. Her novel Final Analysis, published in 1974, appears to be partly autobiographical as well; it features a writer falling in love with her former psychotherapist.[1] Gould published a collection of essays, Not Responsible for Personal Articles, in 1978, followed by several other novels, as well as writing for the now-defunct Star-Journal on New York's Long Island and writing the first and subsequent Hers columns for the New York Times.[1] Her only children's story, X: A Fabulous Child's Story, was a feminist story questioning gender roles; it was published in Ms. magazine in 1972 and in 1978 expanded into a book.[3] She was executive editor of the Ladies Home Journal and edited several other national magazines.[1] In 1979.