Identity and difference were two key concepts that we unpacked in Week 7’s discussions around Donna Haraway’s A Cyborg Manifesto. Her paper proposes the idea of a world in which gender does not exist and she draws on her notion of the cyborg to demonstrate this discourse. During our group discussion I brought the Witterick family to light in an attempt to make this far-off cyborg idea more relatable to our own lives.
A cyborg is a rejection of strict boundaries; gender is a strict boundary. Gender refers to the socially constructed roles, behaviours, activities, and attributes that a society considers appropriate for men and women. Kathy Witterick and David Stocker, parents to two boys – Jazz and Kio – and one gender-neutral child – Storm, are choosing to raise their youngest child genderless. While their two elder children are biologically males, they are also raising them in a gender-neutral environment. Jazz and Kio have picked out their own clothes in the boys and girls sections of stores since they were 18 months old. The boys, if they choose, paint their fingernails, wear their hair in braids, dress in frilly pink dresses, and alternate between being referred to as a he or a she. While awaiting the arrival of their youngest child, Kathy and David decided to keep the sex of their child secret and let he or she tell them his or her gender when he or she is ready. The parents are giving their children the freedom to choose who they want to be, unconstrained by social norms about males and females.
The Witterick family’s story has caused much discussion, debate, and controversy; people question how the children will be treated out in the real world. However, Kathy claims she is demonstrating what the world could become in her children’s lifetime: a more progressive place. “Is it a girl or a boy?” is the first question people ask about a newborn; the Witterick parents want people to get to know their children without taking their male or femaleness into account. Haraway, whose paper was written in 1991, would praise this family’s progressive decision in today’s world.
a sense of rumour 