Gender

[TruthOnTrial]

I am seriously flummoxed about the resurgence of this word's usage.

To me its a set of sex related behaviours/presentation which women have been trying to break away from for years because of the harm they cause, defining women by their behaviours or presentation purely because of their sex and resultant discriminations. This is the basis of the EA 2010 surely?

So, a boy or girl can now be free to wear whatever they want, to take up football, netball, art, music as all are no longer, thankfully, gendered activities.

Expressions like girly girl and tom boy can fall into complete disuse as having lost a purpose. These are old, out of date expressions, to try to label children using different styles as being inconsistent behaviourally with their sex, this has all gone away now right? Or it had, as children have branched out into the realms of previously gendered control activities.

Men wearing head bands like Beckham or skirts, also a la Beckham, which didn't make him less male, there's huge truth and significance in that.

Sporting long hair, whether you are a man or a woman. Painting nails, male or female. Again, as I can't call any other examples to mind just now Beckham has done.

As parents, on a parenting forum, how much does gender even exist anymore?

I do wear a bra, but thats because I have breasts that benefit from being gathered up and reined in, this is to do with my sex, in the same way that a man wears front opening pants because as a man you have a penis.

I mean, we're never going to be the same, we are very different, but it doesn't mean that we have to be gendered and restricted to a gender fallacy of women wear dresses and such stuff that I thought was now behind us.

As part of my education I was involved in gender stereotyping research. It was, at the time, shocking how prevalent it was in society, but a lot has changed since then...

hasn't it...

All I see is more exaggerated version nows, breast augmentation, false plastic nails, pumped up lips, all exaggeration of gendered sterotypes. Over-sexualisation of children.

Its been a welcome relief to see a newer trend for the natural look.

You can put laws in place for equality, but

the subconscious fight back agaisnt loss of privilege,

The fact that it does take many generations to effect real change
a harking back to some idealistic past when the future is uncertain ( climate change, shortening life expectancy , loss of pensions ...)
A society run on instagrams and pithy one liners, on image not substance, simplistic not complex
It's natural for humans to express how well they fit in during troubled times ( so post 2008 crash)

For starters

The use of the word gender in place of sex is seen by many people as part of the queer politics that took hold in universities during the eighties.

ie women's studies became gender studies

there was also a sucessful campaign and / or because students from the era of university entered the media to start using the word sex instead of gender (as they did stop the use of the word prostitute and insisted it should be sex worker).

Many people believe this was / is part of a long term strategy to try and deny the reality of lived biology, not only because it then makes impossible to argue that women are oppresses as a sex class by men as a sex class, but because it is the groundwork for the concept of transitioning. ie everyone knows that you can no more actually change your sex than you can your race.

But this misuse of the word gender is now so firmly in place that even parts of the health service, who of anybody need to know your sex, now ask or record your gender.

Selina Todd gave a very good analysis of the in her speech at the WPUK Meeting in London (called "Back in Town") which is available to read or listen to. Some people have said she expressed as a socialist academic what had happened and the consequences, as radical feminist had tried to alert other women at the time it started happening.

There are now currently articles about how part of the trans activism movement deliberately targets the young because once they are "captured" it is extremely hard for any older not just to be dismissed as out of touch olders (eg in the same way as the current eco movement talks in terms of baby boomers being the enemy rather than the political class, as it captures the emotions of young people feeling hard done by).

This slow drip drip campaign of words has been so sucessfull that people now accept you can change sex to the extent that the next census will allow you to record your sex as the one you identify as, not the one on your birth certificate.

The more I try to understand the whole gender thing, the more confused I get, although it's apparently so straight forward children as young as 3 get it.

'Gender' appears to be an ever changing word that can mean biology, gender expression, gender identity or cultural expectations and according to the ideology they are all distinct concepts. So whenever you try to have a rational argument with a TRA they always have the get out of "Duh you are talking about expression/identity/expectations/biology whilst I am talking about something entirely different"

I just don't use the word unless it's followed by 'identity'.

Sex
Gender identity

Gender on its own is being misused and deliberately misinterpreted. I always ask what someone means when they use it.

I don't want to be stereotyped, or gendered in any way.

Surely gender identity is the one that disappearing. aren't we all working to be rid of gender stereotypes, and what else is left other than the stereotypes.

Those pp make interesting reading.

Does anyone ever get to the source of these trends or breaking ideologies...

The word gender started to replace sex in many settings, with very little ideology attached to it. For most people it was just a word that meant the same thing, without the possibility of being mistaken for sex the act.

So far as getting rid of cultural gender expressions, I think that is impossible. Sex is too important a reality in people's lives, both in practical terms and in terms of mental preoccupation. That will inevitable result in cultural constructs which function to adapt society to the practical realities of sex differences, but also which reflect the amount of mental space dedicated to awareness of sex and sexuality.

Unless we start reproducing asexually, I don't think that will ever change, so the important thing IMO is not to try and snuff out cultural gender expressions but to try and ensure they don't have significant detrimental effects. I've also wondered, increasingly in fact, if the effort to invalidate or undermine any cultural gender expression hasn't played into the creation of a strange kind of gender essentialism.

I've also wondered, increasingly in fact, if the effort to invalidate or undermine any cultural gender expression hasn't played into the creation of a strange kind of gender essentialism

That's a very interesting point. I think you could be right about that.

Interestingly the word gender doesn't seem to be used as a replacement for sex in French. I noticed this on Justin Trudeau's Instagram feed the other day (don't judge me). His posts are always bilingual. In his post about the Montreal Massacre he referred to "gender based violence" and "la violence fondée sur le sexe".

What would make English language/society more susceptible to this nonsense?

the important thing IMO is not to try and snuff out cultural gender expressions but to try and ensure they don't have significant detrimental effects. I've also wondered, increasingly in fact, if the effort to invalidate or undermine any cultural gender expression hasn't played into the creation of a strange kind of gender essentialism.

You raise some interesting points and it's something I've been wondering recently as well.

I've actually thought this too. Whether as some semblance of balance might be realised (although still far from it) its the push back to make sure any ground gained is lost.

I was pleasantly surprised today to hear the enlightenment thats shared (and normally only heard) on here being discussed by women out there! Very encouraging.