Summary
The Joneses buy Baby X clothes from both the Boys and Girls Departments of the store. The scientists are pleased with their purchases and tell the Joneses to keep up the good work. One day, while X was playing in the sand, a little girl hit X on the head with a shovel. The girl's mother is surprised and dismayed to find out that X is not a boy nor a girl but an X. When X tells the girl that "little girls mustn't hit little Xes," X's father laughs (110).
Soon it is time for X to go to school. The Joneses are worried whether X will be able to make friends. When X gets to school, the biggest problem is the Other Children: they are curious and confused by X, and keep asking X whether X is a boy or a girl. That night, X cries at home. The Joneses consult the Instruction Manual, which tells them that X is lucky not to have to obey the "silly" rules of boys and girls (111). The next day at school, X wins the spelling bee. X also wins a relay race, and X almost wins a baking contest. Soon, the other children start acting like X: Susie refuses to wear pink dresses to school and Jim, a football player, starts playing with his sister's dolls.
Analysis
While the beginning of the story focused on other people's negative reactions to X, this section of the story helps the reader understand what exactly it means to be an "X" to begin with. One of the major problems that the Joneses face as they attempt to raise X according to the scientists' instructions is that everything for children – from toys to clothing – is separated into the "boys" and "girls" categories: the color blue is for boys, the color pink is for girls; cooking is for girls, sports are for boys, etc. When the scientists instruct the Joneses to "buy plenty of everything," they encourage the family to thrust X into the full spectrum of childhood, one uninhibited by a gender marker (110). Thus, the fundamental element of being an "X," it turns out, is experiencing all genders or, more precisely, everything the world has to offer a child.
This wholesome portrait of X is contrasted, however, by the reception of X at school. Despite the teachers accommodating X by letting X use a different bathroom and by lining students up alphabetically rather than according to gender, the Other Children at school are confused by X. They attempt to discover X's gender by asking X gendered questions, to which X gives non-gendered answers. Notably, however, the narrator does not appear to judge the Other Children: the story suggests that the Other Children are simply expressing childlike curiosity toward something new. The narrator compounds this reading by having the Other Children embrace X and X's behavior by gender-bending themselves. When all the children start incorporating elements of all genders into their behavior, the story suggests not only that gender is performative but that gender relegates individuals to living an incomplete life.
