In recent years, the likes of Ruby Rose, Miley Cyrus and Kristen Stewart have all come out to shed labels of sexuality and gender to embraced fluidity and neutrality.
Cyrus once admitted to Paper magazine in 2015: 'I don't relate to being boy or girl, and I don't have to have my partner relate to boy or girl.'
And now it's the turn of a child in Canada to choose their own gender.
For the first time in the country's history, a baby from Slocan Valley has become the first child without a gender designation on their health card after its parent continues to raise their child outside of the gender confines, which can often be dictated by society.
Parent Kori Doty – a non-binary trans parent who doesn't identify as either male or female– gave birth to baby Searyl Atli last November and has since campaigned to give their baby a genderless start to life without labels.
According to CBC News Network, Doty said: 'I'm raising Searyl in such a way that until they have the sense of self and command of vocabulary to tell me who they are, I'm recognising them as a baby and trying to give them all the love and support to be the most whole person that they can be outside of the restrictions that come with the boy box and the girl box.'
In April, Doty shared what life is like bringing up a non-binary child on YouTube.
However, despite the province's refusal to issue Searyl a genderless birth certificate, last month it did send out the child's health card marked with a 'U' under gender which stands for 'undetermined' or 'unassigned', in order to allow the child access to medical services.
According to Doty's lawyer, birth certificates in British Columbia, Canada (where the parent and child reside) currently only accommodate a male or female gender designation. Meanwhile, some provinces such as Ontario and Alberta, are reportedly in the process of reviewing their policies to include a third, non-binary gender option on official documents.
Doty, a member of the Gender-Free ID Coalition, has now applied for a judicial review to not include any gender identification on Searyl's birth certificate after years of experiencing the challenges of being assigned the wrong gender at her own birth.
'When I was born, doctors looked at my genitals and made assumptions about who I would be, and those assignments followed me and followed my identification throughout my life,' Doty said.
'Those assumptions were incorrect, and I ended up having to do a lot of adjustments since then,' they added.
In her YouTube video, Doty explains: 'The way people talk about and to a baby, really impose expectations of masculinity and feminist onto that human.
'Understanding gender as spectrum breaks us out of a binary concept where there's two options where there are only two options of man and woman, male and female, masculine and feminine, and instead looks at the way humans relate to their gender, how they feel and present.'
Doty – who reportedly believes assigning gender at birth to be a violation of a child's human rights to freely express their gender identity – explains they is raising Searyl so the baby has 'room for self-determination of their gender to come through' and uses the pronoun 'they' to identify their gender.
'I want my kid to have all of the space to be the most whole and complete person that they can be,' Doty added.
A controversial yet positive step in helping children develop into whoever they choose to become, without limitations or social constructs.
Katie O'Malley is the Site Director on ELLE UK. On a daily basis you’ll find Katie managing all digital workflow, editing site, video and newsletter content, liaising with commercial and sales teams on new partnerships and deals (eg Nike, Tiffany & Co., Cartier etc), implementing new digital strategies and compiling in-depth data traffic, SEO and ecomm reports. In addition to appearing on the radio and on TV, as well as interviewing everyone from Oprah Winfrey to Rishi Sunak PM, Katie enjoys writing about lifestyle, culture, wellness, fitness, fashion, and more.
