On Gender, Choices, and Pride Month: Let’s Bring A Change
A controversial opinion: Gender’s worth should fade to nothing
On the Pride Month and LGBTQIA+ Community
Happy Pride Month!
The LGBTQIA+ acronym — standing for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Asexual — is used to describe either a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity.
Since few of us know about the community’s history, especially where I reside (Asia), here is a brief note on it:
The Stonewall riots1 were a series of spontaneous demonstrations by members of the gay community in response to a police raid at the Stonewall Inn (an Inn for gay people) in New York City.
People fought back when the police became violent. This incident is considered the event that transformed the fight for LGBT rights in the States. The residents organized into activist groups demanding the right to live openly regarding their sexual orientation without fear of being arrested.
After some years, gay rights organizations were founded across the world. Today, LGBT Pride events are held annually in June in honour of the Stonewall riots.
Despite the long and painful past of the community, several corners of the world still remain ignorant and hateful towards it.
Here is a gentle reminder to always remain open to the ideas of unorthodox and strive to understand each other rather than perpetuate hate.
“This world would be a whole lot better if we just made an effort to be less horrible to one another.” — Elliot Page
As a bookworm, I will celebrate this month by promoting books related to the community. I love reading gay romances; one of my favourites is mentioned below!
On Gender
It is time for the world to get rid of gender.
Let’s be clear about what a few words mean before I move on with my argument.
Gender refers to the characteristics of women, men, girls and boys that are “socially” constructed.
Sex refers to the different biological and physiological characteristics of females, males and intersex persons, such as chromosomes, hormones and reproductive organs.
Gender identity refers to a person’s deeply felt, internal and individual experience of gender, which may or may not correspond to the person’s physiology.
My main reason for abolishing gender is that it is a “social construct” — an idea concocted by men and women rather than coming from “nature”, an idea which continues to evolve over time.
For example, a woman (gender) in Ancient Greece couldn’t vote; now she can. On the other hand, a female (sex) in Ancient Greece had XX chromosomes; nothing has changed since.
With gender inequality coming to a close, this is a question the world faces:
Do women and men belong to two distinct classes?
Masculine attributes and feminine attributes divide our society and take us a step away from an equal world.
No longer “boyish” things like hunting are performed solely by boys. No longer “girlish” things like crying are only attributed to them.
As explained beautifully2, very few individuals have only female-typical or only male-typical characteristics.
Most humans are a mixture of both—a unique mosaic of female-typical and male-typical characteristics. As an example, I can be considered a well-mannered person who loves to read (typical girl), but I also like to play sports and voice my opinions (typical boy).
We don’t need gender as it is useless in determining traits of a person, just like being right-handed or left-handed doesn’t impact one’s abilities.
A world without gender would be one step closer to equality.
You can be a writer interested in physics, a dancer good in mathematics, a person who loves the colour pink and plays cricket — all without judgement from society. We will treat people according to their characteristics and their personalities rather than the shape of their bodies and the type of their genitals.
Let us all welcome a world without gender with open minds and wide arms! Do you agree?
Suggested Read
‘Will Grayson, Will Grayson’ by John Green and David Levithan — a rather harmless book — made me shed tears because I related so deeply to it.
I hope you’ll savour the read as well.
Here’s the problem with this book: Either you relate to it, or you do not.
We have two high-schoolers named Will Grayson and one large and gay Tiny Cooper to content ourselves with — which is easy if you belong to the former category mentioned above.
The first Will Grayson is who we can all relate to: An awkward, socially isolated, and anxious boy. He has two rules — to not care and to shut up — so that life doesn’t screw him. He is scared of caring too much; he is afraid of devoting too much of his emotions to someone who may not reciprocate the action.
As life progresses, Grayson realizes his social life is breaking and can’t remain the way it was.
The second will grayson is a depressed, gloomy, and tired-of-life lad. His life was in shambles from the day he was born: His parents are divorced, his mother is struggling financially to support the two of them, and his mental health has taken a toll on him. He sees himself in “lowercase” and hence I spell him as such.
He doesn’t believe that life can get any better; he only knows the feeling of sinking and sinking.
Cute and complicated and trying to unveil life’s secrets, I love will grayson too.
When these two guys cross each other, their lives begin to change.
In the middle of the novel, Tiny Cooper shifts farther from one Grayson and hovers nearer to the other, breaking some hearts and healing others.
Here’s a harsh quote from the novel:
“When things break, it's not the actual breaking that prevents them from getting back together again. It's because a little piece gets lost - the two remaining ends couldn't fit together even if they wanted to. The whole shape has changed.”
With all these people trying to figure out how to think beyond themselves, accept others the way they are, give people time and forgiveness, and move on the rough breakups (platonic or not), this rude, funny, and emotional book will win you over!
Previous issues, in case you missed them:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stonewall_riots#:~:text=The%20Stonewall%20riots%20(also%20known,in%20the%20Greenwich%20Village%20neighborhood
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/voices/its-time-for-a-world-without-gender/