When did it become unpopular for a baby to have a gender? Being a new father, my attention has been drawn to the many instances of parents’ seeming to downplay or even hide the gender of their children.
The supreme example came to light a few months ago when a Canadian couple gained publicity for purposely hiding the gender of their baby from everyone except their two older children and a close family friend. The parents, who dress the child in a way that makes no clear statement about his or her gender, say they do not want a biological sex to become the child’s identity. Rather, they want him or her to determine their own gender identity later in life.
Of course, few parents blur gender lines in such outlandish ways. But more subtle blurring is common. For instance, the Social Security Administration’s list of the 100 top baby names for boys and girls last year includes some that could just as easily fit one gender as the other. One mother remarked to my wife that she purposely gave her children names without a gender association, and she is not alone in that practice. Also consider the popular children’s retailer Pottery Barn Kids. When you purchase nursery bedding on their website, there are three options: boys, girls, and unisex.
Naturally, not all who choose a gender-neutral name or purchase unisex bedding have a nefarious agenda. The name might be a family tradition, and parents might hope to use the bedding for multiple children of different genders. Still, there seems to be something intentional about recent gender downplaying—especially since one would be hard pressed to find even one gender-neutral name on the list of popular names from a past generation.
In light of this, Christians should know that the Bible is not silent on the issue of gender, even as it pertains to babies. Leviticus 12, for example, explains the purification rituals for Hebrew women following childbirth. Notably, the Lord prescribed different rituals for the mothers of boys and the mothers of girls. While Jesus made obsolete all such laws of ritual purity, an underlying principle remains: from the beginning of a child’s life, God expected parents of boys to behave differently than parents of girls. The same principle could be drawn from God’s command to circumcise all Jewish males on the eighth day of life (Genesis 17:12). And it still applies.
Treating boys and girls differently is no trivial matter. It serves as a precursor to the different roles God assigns them later in life. Indeed, 1 Corinthians 14, Ephesians 5, and 1 Peter 3 all make a distinction between the roles of men and women. When we ignore the principle underlying Leviticus 12 and Genesis 17, we set children on a trajectory to disobey Ephesians 5 and 1 Corinthians 14 later in life.
So if you’re tempted to believe that downplaying a baby’s gender is positive, think back to Scripture. By the way, my child is a girl, her name is Caroline, and her bedding is pink.