Now, there is a ballot measure in Montgomery County, Maryland that supports this interpretation. The county passed a law outlawing all references to gender in any part of the county code. A citizens group place a measure on the ballot to overturn this law. Their opponents? Homosexual activists.
After the Montgomery County Board voted to render the citizens of their county legally androgynous by removing all references to gender from the county code, Maryland Citizens for Responsible Government began a petition drive to get the measure on the November ballot. Homosexual activists with Equality Maryland sued, trying to keep the people from voting.
In this article I had given the gay rights activists the benefit of the doubt. I made no claim one way or another about whether they intended to create a completely de-gendered society. I still believe there are many sensible gay people who do not want that outcome. But I now think it is clear that a completely de-gendered society will be the outcome, whether anyone wants it or not.
And plainly, some people in Maryland do want this outcome. I feel vindicated.
3 comments:
Does this mean that men will finally be given the right to abort our unborn children, the same as women can?
Surely this is a matter of equality, right?
This movement is called Postgenderism. From the wiki entry (note that it is the same entry as Transgenderism):
According to futurist George Dvorsky, postgenderism is a diverse social, political and cultural movement whose adherents affirm the voluntary elimination of gender in the human species through the application of advanced biotechnology and assisted reproductive technologies.
Advocates of postgenderism argue that the presence of gender roles, social stratification, and sexual dimorphisms are generally to the detriment of individuals and society. Given the potential for advanced assistive reproductive options, postgenderists believe that sex for reproductive purposes will eventually either become entirely unnecessary or that all human beings will have the ability, if they so choose, to both carry a pregnancy to term and father a child, placing the entire need for gender distinctions and gender differences into question. The ultimate ethos of postgenderism, however, is the desire for a world in which gender is optional for all people, and in which reproduction itself fully becomes a matter of individual choice and convenience.
I think I understand what it would mean to accomplish - removing the gender, I mean - but I don't necessarily agree that one should completely outlaw the use of references to gender. There are plain differences between the two, and I don't mean in personality or intellegence, I mean in physical traits...and I don't think I need to truly say it...
Please note, I am a full supporter of androgeny, and I am against such male and female stereotypes that have been set, but I don't think degendering the society is the best way to go about correcting the problems within the culture; instead, I think it would be best to finally install a firm set of laws defining the equality between males and females.
I don't mean to say that the problems exist only in certain situations, because each and every person can be discriminated against due to their gender to some degree, for instance: Women experience a lack of respect many times and unequal pay in the work force, people who identify themselves as (And I do hate using these words because I find them completely insulting) "gay," "lesbian," or "bisexual" are faced with unjust removal of themselves or children from jobs and schools, and many times have difficulty adopting a child or purchasing a home due to discriminatory realtors. But there is faults associated with being of the "straight" male sex as well; they are expected to care for females even if it is against their best interest while females are not truly encouraged the same, they have been expected to provide for their family and to feel shame if they cannot, even if it is a reason beyond their control, and it seems to me from my personal experience that adults (Women especially) seem to report that all males above the age of fifteen are conniving rapists looking for pretty young girls. Personally, I find that to be terribly untrue and insulting to men, and I wish it wouldn't be used. One should never assign particular crimes to one gender; there are both male and female rapists, murderers, sociopathic killers, and gang members, and it's time society realized that.
(I apologize for writing too much) So in conclusion, I think that while the idea of a degendered society is good for the destruction of awful stereotypes, it will only serve to take away a part of someone's identity, and I believe the issues with the stereotypes must be sorted out by other means before the culture is ready to eliminate the genders altogether.
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