Frank, I’ve heard it said that there could be at least 6 genders, if people weren’t arbitrarily silenced or excluded for fitting nicely in the dual gender boxes like good little girls and boys. I don’t see why a broader set of options would be a negative thing: whatever is human should not be foreign to us; we shouldn’t erase people from existence who don’t fit neatly into our categories; people are more important than categories.
Anyway. The sex/gender division isn’t the be all end all of gender discussion, but it’s a pretty fundamental point that has to be got across before the effects we observe can be understood more clearly. It’s one of the stepping stones to seeing the territory as it is, instead of the map.
Frank, I’ve heard it said that there could be at least 6 genders, if people weren’t arbitrarily silenced or excluded for fitting nicely in the dual gender boxes like good little girls and boys. I don’t see why a broader set of options would be a negative thing: whatever is human should not be foreign to us; we shouldn’t erase people from existence who don’t fit neatly into our categories; people are more important than categories.
Anyway. The sex/gender division isn’t the be all end all of gender discussion, but it’s a pretty fundamental point that has to be got across before the effects we observe can be understood more clearly. It’s one of the stepping stones to seeing the territory as it is, instead of the map.