More American parents are choosing names that cross the gender binary. But they're mostly crossing in one direction, and that tells us something important.
This reminds me of the well-studied phenomenon where once a job changes stereotypical genderedness, its prestige and compensation change oh so predictably. For example, when computer programming was a woman's job, it was largely considered boring and menial and maybe only a slight variation from work as a secretary, but around the start of the microcomputer revolution suddenly it flipped to a male-centric job and became an intellectual and better paid career (with a depressingly misogynistic culture springing up around it). Or going way further back in history, brewing ale switched at some point from women's work to men's work and everything changed about its prestige — or vice versa, when medieval men did much more household work that later switched to women's work.
It also brings to mind that old brainteaser about the father and child in a car crash, the father dies on the scene but when the child is brought to the hospital the surgeon says "I cannot do this — this is my son". It doesn't work nowadays: nobody younger than me would have a hard time conceptualizing that the surgeon could be the child's mother, or the child have two fathers, or there being a blended family etc. However, I do wonder if you replaced 'father' with 'mother' and 'surgeon' with 'nurse' whether it would still trip people up.
Men can become secretaries any time they want. There's nothing stopping them and never has been. But they don't because, generally, men don't want to do that kind of work and never will. If low-skill male workers want a job, they go into bricklaying, maintenance, or construction. What is with this feminist obsession with making men into something they're not?
PS: If there ever is a boy named Olivia, I pray to God he ends up gay, because I guarantee that the overwhelming majority of straight women will never bang a guy named Olivia. Sorry, I live in the real world, not some bizarre progressive, utopian echo chamber.
My late exhusband's name was Dale Lynn ----------------. His mother wanted a boy but while she was pregnant she decided on gender neutral names in case the baby was a girl. I also knew a boy named Lynn in high school.
Evelyn used to be a man's name, as was Hillary. Both are now exclusively names for women. So were Beverly, Afton, Madison, Kim, Francis/Frances, Gale, Marion, and there are more.
Lately, having spent several hours in ER and other medical situations, I have been seeing (or maybe it's just noticing) numerous male nurses. And as for names, I still wonder why a family named Inch would name their son Justin.
This reminds me of the well-studied phenomenon where once a job changes stereotypical genderedness, its prestige and compensation change oh so predictably. For example, when computer programming was a woman's job, it was largely considered boring and menial and maybe only a slight variation from work as a secretary, but around the start of the microcomputer revolution suddenly it flipped to a male-centric job and became an intellectual and better paid career (with a depressingly misogynistic culture springing up around it). Or going way further back in history, brewing ale switched at some point from women's work to men's work and everything changed about its prestige — or vice versa, when medieval men did much more household work that later switched to women's work.
It also brings to mind that old brainteaser about the father and child in a car crash, the father dies on the scene but when the child is brought to the hospital the surgeon says "I cannot do this — this is my son". It doesn't work nowadays: nobody younger than me would have a hard time conceptualizing that the surgeon could be the child's mother, or the child have two fathers, or there being a blended family etc. However, I do wonder if you replaced 'father' with 'mother' and 'surgeon' with 'nurse' whether it would still trip people up.
Men can become secretaries any time they want. There's nothing stopping them and never has been. But they don't because, generally, men don't want to do that kind of work and never will. If low-skill male workers want a job, they go into bricklaying, maintenance, or construction. What is with this feminist obsession with making men into something they're not?
PS: If there ever is a boy named Olivia, I pray to God he ends up gay, because I guarantee that the overwhelming majority of straight women will never bang a guy named Olivia. Sorry, I live in the real world, not some bizarre progressive, utopian echo chamber.
My late exhusband's name was Dale Lynn ----------------. His mother wanted a boy but while she was pregnant she decided on gender neutral names in case the baby was a girl. I also knew a boy named Lynn in high school.
Evelyn used to be a man's name, as was Hillary. Both are now exclusively names for women. So were Beverly, Afton, Madison, Kim, Francis/Frances, Gale, Marion, and there are more.
Lately, having spent several hours in ER and other medical situations, I have been seeing (or maybe it's just noticing) numerous male nurses. And as for names, I still wonder why a family named Inch would name their son Justin.