Pop!

This article on Salon.com about an interesting parental choice brought back ideas that I haven't thought about extensively in a while. I haven't been too concerned with gender differences as of late, strange as that may seem.
Today at the store I witnessed a very common scene. A girl of about 5 or 6 stood in the check-out line with her mother pleading for another fruit wrap in the sweetest voice she could conjure. The woman in line behind them stood there with an unconscious, adoring look on her face. Finally, overwhelmed by the cuteness of this child she began to coo loudly. "Oh my gosh! Look at your shoes! And how they match that pretty shirt you have on. You are just so cute! Ah! Oh, I just know you have the fashion streak in you. Dontcha? And I have no doubt you'll keep being this fashionable when you get older." Then to the mother, "How adorable!". I clearly remember being told things like this from a very early age. And yes, I bet the little girl will stay this fashionable, in small part thanks to a stranger in line at the grocery store.
Considering how impressionable a young child is, and the speed with which a young brain absorbs information, ideas and symbolism, it's clear that envirionment plays a huge role in gender identity. If the environment includes people like that woman, it is very easy to be convinced that being typically male, or typically female is what you strive for. Perhaps this little girl never gave a second thought to her matching shoes and skirt. Perhaps it's the mother that picked them out in the first place. The idea was either planted in her head, or it was encouraged to flourish.

These Swedes are up to something, though I doubt that I would follow their example when it came to raising my own kids. I would try to be as gender neutral as possible, but I doubt I'd go so far as to hide the sex of the child from the world.