X A Fabulous Child's Story Summary

In “X: A Fabulous Child’s Story”, Lois Gould reveals that she thinks gender stereotypes are unnecessary and negative. In the story, girls are expected by society to behave a certain way while boys are expected by society to behave another way (Gould). For example, Jim’s character starts “wheeling his little sister's doll carriage around the football field” which is a behavior his parents disapprove of (Gould). In this way, gender stereotyping limits what boys and girls feel is acceptable behavior which can prevent children from being themselves and contributing to society in their own ways. Expecting girls for example, to “vacuum the carpet” and expecting boys to “mow the lawn” forces the idea that girls and boys must each conform to gender

For example, the relatives of the Joneses feel “embarrassed about having an X in the family” and the clerk refuses to help Mr. Jones find clothes for a genderless child (Gould). Meanwhile, some of the children at school begin to accept the idea of refusing gender stereotyping and start to act in ways that are not considered appropriate for their genders by their parents (Gould). When X disregards the labelling of activities in accordance the gender, one child comments, “X is having twice as much fun as we are!" X’s embracement of activities and things associated with either boys or girls is gradually accepted by the children (Gould). The children’s readiness to imitate X and accept themselves over their gender roles is contrasted by the opposition and resistance to the genderless state by the adults (Gould). The children seem less disturbed by X than the adults because, unlike the adults, the children eventually embrace the destruction of gender roles while the parents of the children insist that there’s something wrong with not fitting gender stereotypes (Gould). The point that Gould is trying to make is that the adults are forcing the idea of gender stereotypes onto children because the adults have been taught to conform to gender roles as well. In this way, the adults believe their children should conform the same way the adults did. The children