11 Aug 2016, 10:43 am
11 Aug 2016, 12:03 pm
Hopper wrote:
I'm with XFilesGeek on this.
The human condition is too open-ended, too radically unfinished, to satisfactorily build a society that has a slot for everyone. A human of either (and indeed, neither) sex is not a sleek, uncomplicated machine, untroubled by contradiction and ambiguity and doubt. Attempts to map gender expectations onto biological sex only complicate the matter. And it is folly to take a statistical norm or trend and deem all act and think and feel in accordance with that trend - we wouldn't demand all not of average height somehow be average height, so why would we have such expectations of behaviour or character?
I think the thinking on gender (and sex, and indeed sexuality) is failing us. I'd like to see the day when we throw out gender expectations altogether. This is not so as to see everyone act the same - a fine strawman, there - but to allow people to flourish as they are, and not to yoke them to expectations or demands that only serve to make them miserable.
Unfortunately, there are a lot of people for whom this is unthinkable - indeed, is their idea of hell, to take responsibility for their character and behaviour and desires and beliefs, preferring to look to some notion of the 'innate' upon which to pin them.
I'm a man. I've got the XY chromosomes, the genitals, the whole shebang. I've lost track of the number of times I've seen a fellow male project his desires onto men as a whole. 'Men want x', 'men prefer y', and so on, too cowardly to say 'I want x' or 'I prefer y'.
The human condition is too open-ended, too radically unfinished, to satisfactorily build a society that has a slot for everyone. A human of either (and indeed, neither) sex is not a sleek, uncomplicated machine, untroubled by contradiction and ambiguity and doubt. Attempts to map gender expectations onto biological sex only complicate the matter. And it is folly to take a statistical norm or trend and deem all act and think and feel in accordance with that trend - we wouldn't demand all not of average height somehow be average height, so why would we have such expectations of behaviour or character?
I think the thinking on gender (and sex, and indeed sexuality) is failing us. I'd like to see the day when we throw out gender expectations altogether. This is not so as to see everyone act the same - a fine strawman, there - but to allow people to flourish as they are, and not to yoke them to expectations or demands that only serve to make them miserable.
Unfortunately, there are a lot of people for whom this is unthinkable - indeed, is their idea of hell, to take responsibility for their character and behaviour and desires and beliefs, preferring to look to some notion of the 'innate' upon which to pin them.
I'm a man. I've got the XY chromosomes, the genitals, the whole shebang. I've lost track of the number of times I've seen a fellow male project his desires onto men as a whole. 'Men want x', 'men prefer y', and so on, too cowardly to say 'I want x' or 'I prefer y'.
Much more eloquently than my post. Your point about people not wanting to take responsibility for themselves or their own characters sums up my beef with most "social conservatives."
11 Aug 2016, 12:09 pm
11 Aug 2016, 3:05 pm
11 Aug 2016, 3:15 pm
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