It’s now commonplace to see social media posts of cakes, balloons or clouds of smoke bursting with hues of pastel pink or blue, with exuberant parents-to-be in the foreground. This relatively new tradition is often called the 'gender reveal' of a developing baby. But experts say this ceremony is actually revealing the baby’s biological sex, as it’s based on external features. Gender is something else.
“Sex is the thing the doctor declares the day the child is born by looking at the child. Even though they use gender terms, what they mean is ‘this child is a male,’ or ‘this child is a female,’ which are sex terms,” explains Kristina Olson, a developmental psychologist at the University of Washington. “And the child's gender — I usually talk about gender identity — is the way that someone feels about their social category, whether they feel like they're a boy, a girl or something else.”
By these definitions, an ultrasound photo can’t reveal the gender of someone who hasn’t yet formed their own identity. Sarah Richardson, a feminist philosopher of science at Harvard University, also points out that gender can refer to the ways that others perceive us. It’s a social cue. “Gender could be talking about not just identity, but an individual's role or status. Being a mother is a gender role,” she says.
