The other day, I took my daughter to a 3-year-old health checkup in Okayama City. She was a little uncomfortable with one question asked of her daughter during an exam to check her development. She asked, “Is ___-chan a boy? Or a girl?” Her daughter couldn’t answer. Because I never told her daughter, “You’re a girl.” In an age where sexual diversity is being called out, how should we communicate to children about their own sexuality? We asked local government officials and experts what they thought.
According to the Health Promotion Division of the Okayama City Public Health Center, which is in charge of medical examinations, the tests also ask questions such as name, age, and color, to check whether the child understands the concept of gender. As for the reason for this, he explains, “Do they understand biological differences, not gender identity?If they don’t understand, they won’t understand when someone calls out to them, “Boys, come here.”” “If we don’t understand biological differences, we won’t be able to understand sexual diversity,” he said.
I asked how other municipalities in Okayama Prefecture are doing. Of the 27 municipalities, only 10 municipalities, including Okayama and Kurashiki, were in the minority in asking questions about gender during health checkups. Several local governments have recently stopped asking this question. Hayashima Town conducts medical checkups for 3-year-old children four times a year. Until August of this year, questions about gender had been asked, but from the perspective of diversity and gender, they decided not to ask questions at the November medical checkup. Among the local governments that responded that they were currently asking questions, one person said, “We would like to discuss whether a gender item is necessary.”
In other prefectures, Kusatsu City in Shiga Prefecture removed gender questions from April last year. When I asked the Kusatsu City Children’s Future Department Childcare Consultation Center in charge of the reason why, they said, “In the past two times, in the comment box submitted by citizens, I received a message from a parent who was probably undergoing a health checkup, saying, “Gender (at the time of health checkup)” “Why don’t we ask questions about this?’ We received opinions like, ‘Why don’t we ask questions about this?’ After discussions, we decided that it was not in keeping with the times.”
We also spoke to Yasumi (61), a psychiatrist who specializes in gender dysphoria. “Even if we say that we are asking about biological differences, the children who are asked the question will probably take it as referring to the gender they identify with,” he said, adding, “Genders cannot be divided into two. “It would also force a 3-year-old child to believe that they can only be boys or girls, when there are people who don’t have gender X.”
Yasushi says there is no need to ask questions about gender.
Children only learn about gender from their parents and those around them before they are able to verbalize it. For example, in order for a child to be able to answer “girl,” she must verbally communicate “you are a girl” on a daily basis. Yasushi is concerned that, “If someone teaches the lessons, stereotypes about what a man is and what a woman is will be introduced, which could confuse children with gender dysphoria.”
Yasushi believes that there is no need to teach children the difference between men and women until the middle grades of elementary school, when secondary sexual characteristics, which manifest as changes in the body, begin to emerge. Rather than that, “When a child expresses, “I like this,” even if it doesn’t fit in with the general idea of “boys” or “girls,” respect that feeling and say, “If you like it, that’s fine.” “It’s more important to convey the message.”
It is important to respect children’s preferences
2023-11-07 00:33:00
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