I had some hippie friends who tried this to a certain degree, although they didn’t go to this extreme since even they knew it would screw up their kids.
Their first two kids were girls and they raised them to be gender neutral. It seemed to work because they played with the non-violent, non-competitive toys they bought.
Their third child was a boy. He got the same non-violent, non-competitive toys. Dolls were used as guns and wooden blocks became tanks. His first words were, “bang, bang!”
They learned pretty quickly that nature has a strong hand in how boys and girls act.
my wife gave our son her old baby dolls when he was about 1. he liked them very much! she was thrilled. i just smiled.
about an hour later he had 2 of the dolls on the floor, pushing them around making truck noises. that’s my boy!
One morning she left the two older ones at the breakfast table for a minute or two. When she came back, she found they had eaten their toast into gun shapes and were pointing them at each other and going "BANG!"
They got their toy guns.
Twentytwo years ago was in playgroup with my leftist friends. NPR announcer geeks, holistic health practioners, social workers, professors, leftist ministers and rabbis...that ilk.
We had all had one child and most were girls. Now we had our second child, mostly boys. It was amazing to watch all of these educated, leftists whisper among themselves about the fact that the kids actually came out of the womb DIFFERENT. All the gender study classes that focused on socialization became moot in that instant. In retrospect it was a watershed moment for many.
I have a nephew that was raised by leftists. Dad is a card-carrying member of the Communist Party, mom is a public school teacher. I wouldn’t say that they raised their son in a genderless environment, but it was an anti-masculine environment. Even his name could double as a girl’s name. No competitive toys, nothing that could be mistaken for a weapon, no athletic endeavors at all.
He grew into a socially awkward kid who spent his pre-school years getting stuffed into trash cans for having a girl’s name. Eventually, he chose to go by a nickname that would not incur the wrath of bullies. He’s now an adult, obsessed with Japanese anime...oh...and he’s gay. Go figure.
As a side note, before my husband and I had children he had a discussion with his sister, the mother of this poor boy. My husband made it clear that we would absolutely enforce gender roles on our children. Her response was that all our daughters would be whores, and all our sons would be rapists. Well, we have one modest young lady and one red-blooded American male. I think we’ve done just fine.