Its 3014, and we have achieved gender equality…

I like to think that either women will have caught up with men in most physical sports (the gap is closing for most), or will be receiving equal training (eg football) which will render them equally capable, or sports in which women have the physical advantage will have evolved and be as popular as sports in which men have the physical advantage, so no, there will be no gendered competitive sports either. People will just be able to compete in the sport which best suits their personal physicality, with all sports getting equal recognition/prize money. I mean, different nationalities/races tend towards physicalities which predispose them towards different sports, but no-one thinks we should have different sports leagues for different races, such as black and white basketball leagues, do they?

So, yes, I like to think that despite the lack of hoverboards, gender will be irrelevant, and can be disregarded. The same was as sexual orientation, people can just ask each other when it becomes relevant to pairing up, and health and safety can just be applied as and when medical conditions, including pregnancy, come up.

Aren't competitive sports a bit of a weird thing anyway? DS loves to run and says that when he grows up he's going to be The Flash. He likes to "use" his "super speed" for purposes like running to press the door of the train to keep it waiting for an extra few seconds or giving us a head start at the traffic lights, etc. It strikes me that being the fastest person on the planet could be pretty useful, transport in areas where transport is hard to use, etc. But no, instead their entire job is training and competing in expensive tournaments, to no end at all except that they get to introduce themselves as the fastest person in the world.

(Sorry, going really utterly off topic here but just a musing I had. As you were!)

I wonder if there will even still be employment in 3014, actually, DH reckons they're developing replicators now which will eventually negate the need for money/trade as an essential for survival. Then either some narcissist/power hungry people will find some other way to be on top just because, or our world and lives will look totally different as people won't have to work to survive any more, people can work if and how they want to.

I've often wondered if we really need gendered pronouns in language. Shouldn't there just be one word instead of he/she?
Doesn't having two different words only facilitate gender discrimination?

Is competitive sport the only time at which it would be unfair not to differentiate?

Wouldn't need to be. You could 'handicap' most sports based on stats. You won your last five races, you start five metres back (stupid example but YSWIM).

The things you need to avoid due to pregnancy are similar (except the avoidance of chemicals) to things you might need to avoid due to some illnesses so basically 'at risk individuals'. So documentation could be worded from that perspective. In fact (as someone who has had to fill in quite a few risk and COSHH assessments) even the aviodance of chemicals don't need to be couched in gender terms. Just 'list risk phrases' then 'proposed mitigation of risks', a common one at work is 'inform others working in the vicinity of additional risks associated with experiment'.

Actually all pregnancy stuff should be non-genderised since the partner of the mother does not have to be male even now in 2014.

I'm sure the words for the different sexes will still be used, but hopefully far less than now, in the same way as racial terms aren't used as much as they were historically (anyone read a book written in the last 10 years with a 'Jewess' as a character, plenty of Victorian novels do!).

Good question.

I'll wander off muttering and harumphing about the lack of hover boards and mull it over.