Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Should babies be assigned a sex at birth or choose their own

245 replies

bambambini · 02/07/2017 20:12

Is that where we are heading? Following a twitter conversation that touched on identity politics. what do folk really make of this stuff? mobile.twitter.com/AsiaKateDillon/status/881501055657414659

Should babies be assigned a sex at birth or choose their own
OP posts:
msrisotto · 02/07/2017 21:11

I should have been assigned hamster at birth. My capacity to hibernate and stockpile food in my mouth is far more reminiscent of hammy than human.

Butterymuffin · 02/07/2017 21:11

This shite is complicating what is biologically very simple for the vast majority of people. Though I also like the idea of a gentleman vagina and will be adopting it for my own. Plus picking up TheSeaTheSky's idea, why should any observer tell me I'm 5 ft 4? I choose to identify as 5 ft 9, so there.

VestalVirgin · 02/07/2017 21:11

What about the people who identify as cats, goddammit!

True, that.

So, the midwifeperson should look at a a newborn and declare: "It is a young individual of unknown species and unknown sex!"

Just to be sure to not misgender or misspecies anyone.

Original poster
bambambini · 02/07/2017 21:11

Show some respect please, Asia has been on Ellen and is highly regarded.

OP posts:
BeyondDrinksAndKnowsThings · 02/07/2017 21:13

Watch out vestal, don't mis-age the individual.
They might look newborn, but identify as seventy-two.

HappyFlappy · 02/07/2017 21:13

Sex is not gender identity

THIS ^

As Pickachew says - sex and gender are different things. Your biological bits and bobs (possibly not a medical term) determines your sex. I don't think anyone fully knows what determines gender identity, and it doesn't matter.

It is important to be respectful and accepting of other peoples choices, as long as they involve consenting adults of the same species, but to say we shouldn't assign a "sex" is just nonsense.

Nature has already done that.

alpacasandwich · 02/07/2017 21:14

Show some respect please, Asia has been on Ellen and is highly regarded.

By who?

I don't respect anyone with such a pitiful understanding of biology.

HappyFlappy · 02/07/2017 21:15

I should have been assigned hamster at birth. My capacity to hibernate and stockpile food in my mouth is far more reminiscent of hammy than human

Msrisotto Grin

MsTREWQ · 02/07/2017 21:16
Hmm
MsTREWQ · 02/07/2017 21:17

Hmm at "Show some respect please, Asia has been on Ellen and is highly regarded."

msrisotto · 02/07/2017 21:19

I'll show about as much respect to Asia as I do to creationists and flat earthers.

paxillin · 02/07/2017 21:19

"It is a young individual of unknown species and unknown sex!"

You are discounting people who identify as several by calling them an INDIVIDUAL Shock?

Alisvolatpropiis · 02/07/2017 21:20

Whilst we're at it, we should not assume that babies born/children who do not develop disabilities will not ultimately identify as having disabities.

Nor should we assume that a white born child will grow up to identify as white.

HappyFlappy · 02/07/2017 21:20

Show some respect please, Asia has been on Ellen and is highly regarded

I assumed that this comment was tongue-in-cheek.

Was I wrong? Is bambambini serious? Surely not.

MrsKCastle · 02/07/2017 21:20

What do transactivists want to achieve by not making a baby's sex at birth? I find it really weird to think about how the world might change of that were the case. On the one hand... Maybe girls and boys could be treated the same, at least until puberty? No stereotyping and restricting options with regards to toys. More gender-neutral clothes, or at least not making assumptions about a person's genitalia based on what they wear.

On the other hand... Children being sold a narrative of 'you can choose your gender' could be even more distressed when puberty hits, or maybe their part will automatically start them on puberty blockers once their you and clothes preferences have been observed. Many children growing up infertile.

Now if only we could have a world where children had their sex observed at birth but the information was deemed pretty much unimportant until puberty and then only needed for a narrow set of circumstances such as sports and healthcare. I'm still dreaming that will happen one day, but it seems further away rather than closer.

M0stlyBowlingHedgehog · 02/07/2017 21:21

FWIW, my cat identifies as Supreme Ruler of the Universe. (But then I as far as I can tell, all cats identify as supreme ruler of the universe).

pinkpantsrock · 02/07/2017 21:22

is this thread for real? you either have a willy or vagina! how you live you life is down to you.....

M0stlyBowlingHedgehog · 02/07/2017 21:22

Now if only we could have a world where children had their sex observed at birth but the information was deemed pretty much unimportant until puberty and then only needed for a narrow set of circumstances such as sports and healthcare. I'm still dreaming that will happen one day, but it seems further away rather than closer.

Now that I could get behind, MrsK.

SeagullsStoleMyChurro · 02/07/2017 21:23

What a load of old shite Grin

WhiteMane · 02/07/2017 21:25

'Welcome to the world beautiful little baby. What sex would you like to be?'

'Wahwahwah'

HappyFlappy · 02/07/2017 21:26

Now if only we could have a world where children had their sex observed at birth but the information was deemed pretty much unimportant until puberty and then only needed for a narrow set of circumstances such as sports and healthcare.

YES!

(Re: gender-neutralclothes - from what I remember of my history lessons, children of both sexes wore dresses until they were about four or five up until well into the nineteenth century.)

WhiteMane · 02/07/2017 21:28

Eek pax don't you know people with DID term themselves multipul. Not to be joked about.

CherriesInTheSnow · 02/07/2017 21:28

But as Asia (just realised who she is) points out - who has actually had their chromosomes tested? The doctor or midwife does just decide on a quick glance at birth.

Erm, have I misunderstood this or are you suggesting that someone born with female genitalia could still be chromasomally male Confused

Are you aware that genetic sex is determined at conception, it is DNA carried in the chromosome? Just wondering if that is what you think, because that is the case I can see why people have some viewpoints (like the one in the OP) that are confusing to me.

Ignoring biological sex is not a good path to go down, regardless how you feel toward your or anyone else's biological sex. You can't ignore reality or science to appease your own beliefs, this is where ignorance breeds and (think not teaching evolutionary theory in schools).

Whatever you choose to do or think about your own sex and how you relate it to your gender is completely up to you. But pretending that different sexes don't exist or don't have a significant biological impact on many factors of your life and health is a dangerous road to go down, and also completely unnecessary really.

Original poster
bambambini · 02/07/2017 21:28

is this thread for real? you either have a willy or vagina! how you live you life is down to you....."

Well perhaps, but they don't indicate what sex you are - according to Asia and many other Tranactivists.

OP posts:
msrisotto · 02/07/2017 21:29

What is your opinion on this bambambini?