Androgynous and Ambiguous: Why It's Harming the Next Generation

A child in Canada was recently born, and they didn't state any gender. Pop stars and many others dress so that you can’t tell whether they’re male or female. This androgynous style is trending in Korea and Japan. A little boy applies drag makeup so well he can morph his face to look like many different women. Parents are calling a little boy a girl. In school, kids are taught they can choose their gender—or no gender at all, if they prefer. I even read about a couple where the one partner is trans-male, the other pan-gender, and the child is being reared as non-gender.

I’m not making these up!

There’s a philosophy out there that’s doing away with birth gender and making it acceptable not to really be anything. It’s almost like gender neutral. No more girls. No more boys. Now, we have ????? I’m not sure. The biological definitions have been erased.

Our ideas about gender come from our culture and background. As far as I know, most cultures have always held some kind of distinction between the genders. Male and female clothing is somewhat different. Roles in society are different. Why? Because it’s evident that human beings are born either male or female.

So what’s going on?

Why confuse the issue?

Why create a middle ground of gender mixing or non-gender or whatever they want to call it? Why the emphasis on helping children not to be what they were born to be—and especially finding a place in between? Why is this significant? Or is it just a passing, harmless fad?

I believe it’s important and dangerous, because blurring the lines between male and female harms children mentally, socially, and morally. When children know who they are as a boy or girl, they grow up with a healthy attitude towards growing up to be a man or a woman. They don’t even think much about gender. They're secure in knowing who they are—and what roles are expected of them in the future.

Now, I believe that a woman can be an excellent mechanic, and a man can be a five-star chef. I think “non-traditional” jobs are absolutely fine, according to a person’s talents and interests. That’s not what we’re talking about in this blog post.

I’m addressing blurring or doing away with gender identity. I believe it’s helpful to know what the Bible says. In the first chapter of the Bible, we read: So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth (Genesis 1:27-28). Let’s understand what these two verses say about gender and about God's purpose for making mankind.

• People are made in God’s image. It’s repeated for emphasis.
• God made people male and female.
• God blessed them.
• God told them to multiply. Biology teaches us you need sperm and egg to do that. You need a male and a female.
• God gave human beings dominion (leadership) over all animal forms. 

From the beginning, God made genders. God made genders for a purpose, and He made people in His own image.

Later, we read how God made Adam. And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul (Genesis 2:7).

God created Eve differently. And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man (Genesis 2:21-23).

Adam and Eve were different from each other. They were also created differently. And Adam called his wife's name Eve; because she was the mother of all living (Genesis 3:20). Her name Eve actually means she was the mother of the whole human race.

There’s a holy purpose to gender. It is God’s original design. It’s correct to identify ourselves as male and female.

A friend recently filled out a form having three boxes on it. The boxes said:

Male

Female

Other

She laughingly confessed she was tempted to check “other”!

Why is blurring the lines of gender harmful? It does away with God’s design. It harms children mentally and emotionally.

What kind of problems will future generations have when children are clueless about what they are? What kinds of homes will result when there’s no longer father and mother? What will the children from these homes become? This trend is as damaging as anything that’s happening.

As Christians, we need to be aware and help our own children to appreciate who God made them to be. We want them to grow up confident and secure in their own bodies and then to mature into men and women who can impact their world for Christ and ultimately, become fathers and mothers to the next generation.