"One is not born a woman...."

Two of my closest friends became parents today. I don't have many friends who have kids, so this will be interesting. I don't know much about kids, nor about the institutions surrounding birth. Do people say 'congratulation!'? That I am asking this type of question is, of course, a hint of my own confused perspective (as to the subject matter of kids and giving birth to them, in general). But of course I am glad for them and it perhaps doesn't matter what exact words one comes up with.

An interesting thing is that when I announced the news to other people, their first question was, in many cases: "a boy or a girl?" I don't know, perhaps I read too much into this question. But it gives me the creeps. As if "boy or girl" was a primary, decisive question, as if it has to do somehow with a form of life. As if this kid already, newly born, embodies a form of life. I don't like that.

Because of course this has nothing to do with genitalia - the question would be unintelligible were it not for the different things "boy" and "girl" mean (in this rotten world). But in this case, it is very unclear what meaning "girl" and "boy" is given - in other words: why this piece of information seems so interesting (In a way, of course, it is clear that "males" and "females", given the present world, will be confronted with problems and situations that sometimes differ in kinds - but I have no idea what to do with this perspective - do you?).

And now: "one is not born a woman, but becomes one". - Well, given your 'body' (this is problematic), are you destined to become a woman or a man? What a saddening perspective! Do I know how to reject the question? Did I say something intelligent? No, damn sure I didn't (My mind is as slow as my heart).

I shouldn't be thinking about these things, but I am. Bah. Sometimes I am prone to think that it is so unfair that we live in this world, and not another one.