Gender

A newborn baby was found in a box shortly after 10 this morning in North Philadelphia. The infant, who was in good condition, was taken to St. Christopher's Hospital for Children, police said. The infant was found in the 2500 block of North 27th Street. As other details, such as the child's gender, become available, this article will be updated.

More than a decade after child-development counselors urged parents to use a light touch when prodding their kids toward adulthood, the "Savage" and the "Wildflower" ride across the landscape. These are the names of bicycles made and advertised by Huffy. Guess which is the boys' bike? In the 1970s, sexual stereotyping according to toys became passe. Or so it seemed as some parents encouraged such things as getting Johnny to play with dolls. But a decade later, Huffy is far from alone in offering blatantly sexist toys.

As Hillary Rodham Clinton prepares to go to Beijing for the International World Conference on Women, questions persist not only about the issue of human rights in China but about the conference itself, under fire from conservatives as a radical feminist cabal. Is the criticism fair? Yes and no. There has been, to be sure, much hyperbole and misinformation (e.g., that the conference draft platform speaks of "five genders," gays, lesbians and bisexuals being the other three)

This was not a great year for guys. Once again, our gender put up all the major candidates for president and suffered all the contempt and derision - any year you have Ross Perot, Dan Quayle and George Bush honking in public, manhood's negatives are bound to rise - whereas women, choosing to hang on the sidelines and cluck, managed to seem high-minded and discriminated against at the same time, a neat trick. Now that the best man has won and is talking in whole sentences and saying dignified things, some of us hope that the gender can recover.

The Del-Val Athletic Association will no longer use gender as a determining factor in assigning officials for boys' high school basketball games, according to the settlement of a lawsuit filed by referee Noreen Kemether against the league. The settlement occurred Friday and was announced yesterday. Kemether alleged in her suit against the league that women were not given the same opportunities as men to officiate boys' games. The league, which includes Academy Park, Chester, Chichester, Glen Mills, Harriton, Interboro, Penn Wood and Sun Valley, has agreed to adopt a written policy to go into effect for the upcoming season and distribute it to the schools and assigners.

Body found on Burlington County trail A decaying human body was discovered Sunday by passersby on a trail off Quail Run Road in a wooded area of Pemberton Township, according to authorities. The remains were in an "advanced state of decomposition" according to the Burlington County Prosecutor's Office, which offered no information about the deceased's gender or likely age. Officials said an autopsy by the county medical examiner's office was to be conducted Monday. An investigation is underway by police and the prosecutor's office.

The city has quickly repealed the patently ridiculous policies that kept young children and parents out of about 15 city swimming pools on the basis of gender. But the nonsensical, unfair rules that set up alternate "girls" and "boys" days in the pools apparently will take a little longer. The policies came to light when a mother complained to the Daily News that she wasn't allowed to enter a South Philadelphia pool with her 7-month-old son because it was "girls day. " Neighborhood recreation officials defended the "separate but equal" policies as necessary to prevent overcrowding and unpleasant incidents.

In the May 19 Supreme Court decision Wygant vs. Jackson Board of Education (voiding layoffs of nonminority faculty while retaining minority ones with less seniority in Jackson, Mich.), Justice Lewis F. Powell, speaking for the majority, argued that "as the basis for imposing discriminatory legal remedies that work against innocent people, societal discrimination is insufficient and over-expansive" and that the board "must have sufficient evidence to justify the conclusion that there has been prior discrimination.

Inspire spontaneous theatrical ensemble Tongue & Groove in their improv production "Impulse" by anonymously and honestly answering questions about your deepest desires and transitional life moments. The critically acclaimed ensemble will turn audience responses into a theatrical collage of monologues and scenes comical and touching, as well as live paintings that explore relationships and the forces that drive humanity. Rendell Room, Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, 300 S. Broad St., 9 tonight, $10. Don't miss the final performances of "Proliferation of the Imagination," a gender-bending clash of ballet, original music and theater.

RE: AVI NONSENSE. Taxpayers, we are going to have a class-action suit against the city of Philadelphia. I am not going to pay taxes on $56,000 to live in Kensington, which is a ghetto. My friend was held up at gunpoint in October. People down there don't clean up their yards, leaving dog waste and open trash all over. There's loud music all the time and no decency. This is what happens when you have one party ruling for too long. The Democrats have become dictators and have been thumbing their noses at us for years, and it's up to the people of this city to start voting another party into power.