Getting the Girl. This is where science starts out with good intentions (letting couples with sex-linked diseases have healthy children) but is quickly perverted to suit others' selfish needs (and I'm not using the non-negative aspects of the word "selfish" as the author does).
Sure, some people would want to have a boy. But that's due to current society--carrying on the family name, inheritance, greater social status--this desire will change once equality is recognized everywhere. The same argument can go for people who want girls. They've been conditioned to play with dolls in their childhood. And what is the gender of these dolls? Female. So it isn't surprising that there are anecdotes of women buying girly clothes for their imaginary daughters.
I think this me-me-me attitude for sex determination is both self-destructive and narcissistic. Making "mommy's little girl" is not just making a clone. It's making a super clone. The parents have all these expectations for their unborn (artificial) child. It's just one step beyond the parents who live vicariously through their kids by shipping them off to a kazillion activities and making them apply to law school.
Sometimes I wish some parents acted more reasonable. For instance, my parents didn't know whether I would be a boy or girl. They didn't have any expectations for me either. They picked out a male and female name. They also didn't want to disasterously anticipate by buying blue or pink baby clothes. Instead, they chose green. (Green, incidently, is my favorite color. I wonder why?) After my sister was born, my parents decided having two kids was enough to handle and that was that.
After a while, I began noticing other relatives making snide remarks to my parents, not so subtly hinting that it was bad that they had only girls. Because (gasp!) who will carry on the family name?
Well, at least I'm going to carry it on. I'm not changing my name for anything. I like its (lack of) length. I like how well it goes together. And in this case I'm completely disregarding traditionalists. I'm deeply disturbed by some people's lack of perspective on priorities. Caring about the personality of an individual is the only thing that should be important. Gender and other superficial qualities like height and attractiveness should be ignored.
And I don't like the author's generalization that mothers and daughters never greet each other on the phone. I always say hello to my Mom.
