Stacey Dooley new doc will wade into gender debate

[NightmareDaemon]

I saw this on twitter this morning.

If I had children, I'd invite her and cheerfully tell her upon arrival that I am a radical feminist and she'll find no gender stereotyping in my house.

Well, of course I wouldn't, it would be suicide to give TRAs any hint as to where I live, but ... I might be tempted.

It might be interesting to see how this plays. It could also be frustrating with cries of “ you just don’t get it!”

I'm going to take a guess and assume she's woke.

She's going for a Louis Theroux type approach normally. I hope she'll handle it fairly well

I’m hoping for an open, critical mind. One that sees that reinforcing gender stereotypes is not gender neutral.

Is there a new, woke definition of gender-neutral parenting? Why should there be any controversy about avoiding gender stereotypes when bringing up a child? Surely the majority of people would agree that gender stereotypes are restrictive and harmful?

20+ years ago my partner and I brought our daughter up in what I would describe as a gender-neutral way. We avoided pink, dolls and princesses and focused on giving her strong female role-models. But while we brought her up as a 'person' we also did our best to foster her identity as a strong girl and as a strong young woman. Most of my friends (also '2nd wave' feminists) did the same.

So what's new about 'gender-neutral' parenting?

Surely this applies to any household that doesn't sign up to Barbie for girls and gl joe for boys I.e there is nothing boys (gender) can do that girls (gender) can't and vice versa (this obviously doesn't apply to sex/biological differences e.g. boys can't give birth). This is how most rational households that I know of act anyway. So in theory does that mean I could sign up as I'm raising my son to be gender neutral, but he damn well knows he is a boy (sex/biologically) and that can't be changed. Or would that just make for shitty boring tv?

Also I mean babies and go joe and pink and blue are for everyone, it just comes down to personal preference?

Fucking autocorrect, barbies and gi joe.

I rarely have high hopes anymore. But I like Stacey, and her very down to earth approach to documentary making was very effective when she looked at Russian misogyny, for example. I think she is very likely on the woker end of the social justice scale, but she's also a clever, generous person who is able to assess what is in front of her bravely, so my hopes, while not high, are certainly there.

So what's new about 'gender-neutral' parenting?

Is she perhaps looking for people who are raising theybies? The part where they don't tell anyone what sex the kid is, is novel. And actually quite interesting even though it often tends to come associated with a package of confused and ridiculous ideas.