Post #1

Link to article: Is it a boy or is it a girl?

Is it a boy or is it a girl?
Health Reporter: Megan Ogilvie

The article I chose to discuss regarding Canadian issues has to do with health. More specifically, North America’s obsession with knowing the sex of fetus’ long before birth.

In this article health reporter Megan Ogilvie, discusses how in Canada knowing the sex of an unborn child holds an astonishingly high amount of importance.

Most Canadians recieve ultrasounds 10 weeks into their pregnancy.

By examining the features of critical criticism we can begin to understand and interpret the idea behind why in North American society we place so much importance on knowing a fetus’ sex. In my opinion, I can easily associate female feticide with patriarchy. This understanding will not only reveal how these groups are oppressed but also uncover hidden structures within social conditions.

In a lecture on January 18, 2012, to a COMM 372OU class, Communicating Diversity professor Dr. Tess Pierce spoke of Jürgen Habermas, a German sociologist (very) familiar with critical theory. Habermas looked at the way people are oppressed, and looked for change while combining work, interactions and power in order to show how society cooperates to construct society. (Which is also necessary for society to survive). Habermas focused attention on the greater influence of media’s role in setting the agenda of what society should think is important. In this case, importance of sex and gender of fetuses. But when we think about gender, we know that it is also socially constructed. From head to toe, our gender is simply formulated by society. Society is what influences these stereotypes, and what boys and girls and women and men should be like. These stereotypes further perpetuate patriarchy in our society, and continue to encourage the way in which society treats boys and girls.

In order to alleviate this as well as fight female feticide Ogilvie claims we need social change. She claimes "there needs to be an ongoing national conversation about gender to shake stereotypes and rid the country of gender discrimination — from the insidious kinds that happen every day to female feticide, what some have termed discrimination against women in its most extreme form,” (Ogilvie, 2012).

Although we cannot tell Canadians of any ethnicity how to perceive the value of males or females we can look to stimulate society’s conversation on this topic. Within the article North American’s have been noted to be known as a “knowledge-hungry society,” yet it is also known, in a lecture on January 18, 2012, to a COMM 372OU class, Professor Pierce claimed that within the public sphere people often forget we too have a say. "We forget that we are required to have our say. People want to know more issues and topics, you must talk about it and you must change it.”

Why is the sex of a fetus so important for us to know? What about in regards to gender?
Can’t we raise children gender-free? Maybe it is time to stop talking about the sex before a baby is brought into the world? Is it possible these stereotypes and restrictions are minimizing our diversity?

References

(T. Pierce, COMM 372OU, January 18, 2012).

Ogilvie, M. (2012, January 20). Is it a boy or is it a girl? The Toronto Star. Retrieved from http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1119129--is-it-a-boy-or-is-it-a-girl