LAST week, a five year old boy who had be known only as 'the infant' so as to keep his gender secret, was finally given a name, Sasha. And he's a boy.
They made the decision from his birth to avoid the stereotyping they believe gender brings and brought him up as 'gender neutral'.
His parents, Beck Laxton and Kieran Cooper, kept his real gender hidden from everyone except a handful of close friends and relatives. They made the decision from his birth to avoid the stereotyping they believe gender brings and brought him up as 'gender neutral'.
They're thought to be among the first British parents to speak about their non-traditional method of raising a child.
Sasha parents encouraged him to play with dolls as much as Lego, he slept in a neutral yellow room and was allowed to wear both boys’ and girls’ clothes.
His gender has only been revealed because he started school recently.
And now the couple have posted a video on YouTube of Sasha talking to his mum about girls and boys, which has caused quite a stir.
In the video Miss Laxton says “What do people sometimes say to you about colours?”
Sasha says "Pink and yellow are girls’ colours and blue and green are boys’ colours. I think that is really silly."
Mum asks "Do you think people would think that boys are meant to do that or girls are meant to do that?"
Sasha replies "Girls were. I think that is so silly."
In a previous interview Miss Laxton has said “Stereotypes seem fundamentally stupid. Why would you want to slot people into boxes? Gender affects what children wear and what they can play with, and that shapes the kind of person they become. I start to get cross with it if it skews their potential."
Her partner, Mr Cooper, echoed her views saying "If Sasha wants to dress up in girls’ clothes then so be it,’ he added. ‘But we’re not forcing it. The girls’ clothes and fancy dress are for fun at home. We don’t make Sasha go out in girls’ clothes."
Some mental health experts disagree with their decision saying that early child development is about finding an identity and knowing whether you're a girl or a boy helps with forming one’s self-identity.
Other experts agree that stereotypes do cause problems, pointing out the abundance of pink toys available for girls that turn them into ‘passive princesses’ with little chance to form their own preferences.
Miss Laxton admitted that keeping her child’s gender secret for so long had'nt been easy, adding that she was regarded as ‘that loony woman who doesn’t know whether her baby is a boy or a girl’ at her mother and baby class.
"‘I could never persuade anyone in the group to come round for coffee. They just thought I was mental."
What do you think? Are they maverick or mad?
Source: Daily Mail/Mirror
