Baby X

As human beings, we instinctively have questions about internal or external conflict; one of these questions is about the origin of conflict. According to The Story Baby X, the word conflict is defined as the condition of being disagree. In this conflict, gender is defined by the characteristics of a baby and his/her sexual identity in relation to society. With the definition being clarified, one may ask whether conflict is instilled into us by society or naturally defined in our genes.

In the literature “X: A Fabulous Child's Story,” the author Lois Gould gives the readers a dilemma of how a child growing up in society will develop over time. Now, this isn't any ordinary child, this is Baby X (Gould, 3-6). We have no clue if Baby X was born a boy or a girl, so we really don't know if he'll become a man, or if she'll turn into a woman? With no one sided gender preference, we have to keep asking ourselves one question, “What will become of Baby X?” There are so many factors that can be weighed to determine the sex of a child in “real life,” but in the “Baby X World” we really can't tell. Every step has been taken by the scientists to make sure that their experiment will go along without a hitch.

The Essentialists believe that gender is predefined during birth; if one was born a male then he will naturally be masculine and vice-versa. The Constructionalists believe in the contrary; they believe that gender is molded and perfected by the society in which we live. In the reading "X: A Fabulous Child's Story" by Lois Gould, people were represented and ultimately suggests that gender is born to us as a natural phenomenon and "shaped" by the society in which we live.

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