MAIS 628

Thesis statement:

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This study examines how cisgender, heterosexual parents construct and reinforce binary gender from pregnancy through early infancy. Drawing on theories of gender performativity and doing gender, it argues that medical technologies, consumer culture, prenatal expectations, and early caregiving practices lead parents to assign gendered meanings to the fetus and infant, strengthening the two-sex framework. It also considers limited forms of resistance, showing that although some parents attempt to loosen gender expectations in infancy and early childhood, these efforts remain constrained by social pressures that continue to reproduce binary gendering.

 

Section 1: Background/Theoretical Framework

Main Point 1:

Gender is socially constructed and produced through repeated social practices and cultural expectations rather than determined solely by biological differences.

Supporting Point 1:

Gender performativity explains that gender becomes naturalized through repeated behaviours and cultural expectations that reinforce binary norms (Butler, 2002).

Supporting Point 2:

The “heterosexual matrix” maintains gender norms by requiring coherence between biological sex, gender identity, and heterosexual desire, so people who do not follow this alignment may be seen as socially unintelligible or outside what society considers normal (Butler, 2002).

Supporting Point 3:

“Doing gender” explains that gender is continuously created and reinforced through everyday social interactions. Individuals are expected to behave in ways that align with socially recognized categories of masculinity and femininity (West & Zimmerman, 1987).

 

Section 2: Analysis and Discussion

 

Medical Technology

Main Point

Medical technologies contribute to the early classification of the fetus within the two-sex binary.

Supporting point (socialization of the fetus)

Ultrasound imaging can encourage expectant parents to view the fetus as a baby or person before birth (Barnes, 2013). Once fetal sex is identified, parents begin interpreting the fetus through gendered expectations and stereotyped traits (Imhoff & Hoffmann, 2023).

Supporting point (medical authority)

Prenatal ultrasound is a routine part of medical care, and it carries medical authority in shaping how pregnancy and the fetus are understood. Although it appears to function as a neutral diagnostic tool, it also has important social and cultural effects (Favaretto & Rost, 2025).

 

Consumer Culture and Prenatal Gendering

Main point

Consumer culture surrounding pregnancy reinforces the two-sex binary by encouraging parents to anticipate and visibly mark gender before birth.

Supporting point

Knowing fetal sex through ultrasound allows expectant mothers to engage in gendered prenatal consumption, including creating bedrooms and material environments geared toward a boy or girl baby, which contributes to the increased gendering of newborns from birth (Barnes, 2013).

Supporting Point

Gender reveal parties immerse pregnancy in blue and pink symbolism, rely on gender stereotypes, and create a spectacle of gender performance around the unborn child, pushing what was once a more private stage of pregnancy into public knowledge (Nair, 2021).

Supporting Point

Once fetal sex is known, expectant parents may begin assigning gendered meanings to the fetus, including personality traits. Research shows that male fetuses are often described as stronger or more active, while female fetuses are imagined as calmer or more delicate, revealing how gender expectations begin before birth (Imhoff & Hoffmann, 2023).

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Birth and Early Infancy

Main Point

Gendering does not stop at birth. It continues through the ways newborns and infants are dressed, described, and socially presented by parents and others.

Supporting Point

Adults begin “doing” the child’s gender from birth, as the announcement of sex transforms an “it” into a “he” or “she,” and as naming, colour coding, and gendered interpretations shape how infants are perceived and treated (Eckert & McConnell-Ginet, 2013).

Supporting Point

When the same infant is presented under different gender labels, adults may respond in gender stereotyped ways, especially in how parents choose toys and interact physically with their babies (Seavey et al., 1975).

 

Gender Flexibility in Early Childhood

Main Point

Some cisgender, heterosexual parents show openness to gender flexibility in early childhood, but these efforts are often limited by broader social expectations about masculinity and femininity.

Supporting Point (openness)

Some heterosexual parents broaden acceptable masculinity by encouraging boys’ nurturance, empathy, and domestic skills, but this openness remains limited and does not necessarily disrupt binary gender norms (Kane, 2006).

Supporting Point (constraint)

Even when parents support less gendered parenting, family members, community expectations, and broader social norms can make these practices difficult to maintain, which helps explain why traditional gender norms continue to shape early childhood socialization (Gates et al., 2026).