Boys Beat Out Girls As Most-Wanted Baby

on July 1, 2011 at 11:49 AM

baby boy This was my first reaction to the results of a new poll revealing that if they could only choose one child, more Americans would prefer a boy over a girl: Where are my pearls? I need to get all dolled up to vacuum the house before Ward and "the Beav" get home!

Seriously, what is this, 1958? Are we in China? I know we're a long way from gender equality, but I was still shocked to hear that the majority of our country apparently values males over females.

Except ... wait. Look a little bit closer at those Gallup poll results and the big picture begins to come into focus.

Turns out it's a certain sort of American who's hung up on the idea of having a son. You'll never guess which type! Get ready to fall off your chair!! Okay, here goes ... MEN! Men want sons. I know, are you freaking out?? Wait, wait. There's more. Oh my god, you're never going to believe this. Guess the political persuasion of most of these son-hungry dudes? Nope, not fascist ... REPUBLICAN!

It's just so crazy, isn't it? I mean, you'd think Republican men thought of women as second class citizens or something. You'd think they were secretly scared of women taking over their big important roles in society, maybe even enough to, oh, I don't know, nominate the most dim-witted females walking the planet for office as part of one big smear campaign against our gender!

But I digress. Once I realized who was tipping the scales here, my second reaction to these results was that of deep concern for the pregnant or soon-to-be pregnant wives of said Republican men. I'll use a little parable from my personal life to explain why: Once there was a young girl (me) who was madly in love with her highly charismatic (not unlike a politician), domineering, womanizing (again, not unlike a politician) boyfriend. Said boyfriend always talked about how much he wanted a son someday. But alas, the girl and the boyfriend parted ways, and the boyfriend married another girl. They had a baby. A girl. Then they had another girl. And another. And another. They had seven daughters before that poor exhausted wife finally popped out a baby boy.

The moral of the story is: Thank god I didn't end up with that guy.

Would you really care if you had a son or a daughter, as long as your baby was healthy?

Image via D. Sharon Pruitt/Flickr

About the author Jacqueline Burt

has written for numerous magazines, newspapers, and websites. She is easily bored and often tired, so she requires constant entertainment to keep her awake. Dance, Monkey! Dance!

Filed Under: boy or girl

Comments (23)

Nonmember comment from me

on Jul 1, 2011 at 12:01 PM

I'm scared to have a boy. I don't get their interests they have dumb toys. I just don't get them.

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Nonmember comment from joan

on Jul 1, 2011 at 12:10 PM

I had friends who wanted four kids (really!) They had three girls and then a boy. The dad was adamant that they had to have one more child so his daughters would never wonder if he wanted a son more than he wanted each of them. That (non-Republican) guy was my hero.

Nonmember comment from lisa

i love having boys--figuring out all those race tracks and transformers help keep my mind sharp. having a house full of dolls and the color pink is a prelude to one of my nightmares!

momtothemax2910

on Jul 1, 2011 at 12:18 PM

I've always thought of myself as a mom of boys but DH always thought he'd be a better dad to a girl. First baby was a boy. He's doing good so far!

And it's too interesting those results - most of my cousins wanted daddies girls!

Facebook comment from Sumiya Cherry

on Jul 1, 2011 at 12:52 PM

Watch The Dying Rooms documentary. That will really get your blood boiling.

Nonmember comment from Anon

on Jul 1, 2011 at 12:53 PM

Well, I'm about as conservative as they come, but I wanted girls. I've helped raise both in my younger years, and I find girls to be easier, smarter, more considerate, more fun. I adopted in a situation where I was able to choose the gender. One of the reasons I didn't mind not procreating was because - what if I birthed a boy??

MommyKKay

on Jul 1, 2011 at 1:03 PM

What would your reaction be if the study found that more Americans want girls?

CoolRelax

on Jul 1, 2011 at 1:10 PM

I admit, I was a little scared when I found out that both my twins were girls (I just had an image of both of them slamming doors at 13, yikes). But I love having girls, and dh is really good with them. They will be daddy's girls for sure.

Nonmember comment from HoogieFutz

on Jul 1, 2011 at 1:38 PM

I'm a republican female who wanted a boy. I'm glad I got one, too. I'm not going to piss on someone else's thoughts on what they'd like just because it doesn't line with mine. My least favorite is "I don't care as long as it's healthy". Well no shit...what kind of expecting parent is hoping they have a disabled child? Morons.

Facebook comment from Leanne Carnegie

on Jul 1, 2011 at 2:14 PM

This assesment of the results is a little ridiculous. For starters there's only 4 percentage points between republicans and democrats on wanting boys. To say it's some evil plot to rid the country of girls because of that is just nuts.