Maybe I should wait for my second cup of coffee before I embark on a discussion on the world's first officially named genderless person. That's right. Australia has officially and legally named Norrie May-Welby a "neuter" denoting the absence of gender. Instead of fighting and winning for a more fluid approach to gender i.e. transgender May-Welby decided to be removed from the whole idea of gender.
Part of me sings in rejoice for such an accomplishment for May-Welby and other self-identified "neuters". I understand their stance. But another part of me is a little upset or distraught. I believe that gender is a social structure, a structure that after it's construction must be deliberately reinforced, continuously, everyday. We are not born knowing how to act our social appropriate gender. We are taught. And then we look around in our environment and our socially created gender norms are reinforced through our peers, what we see other boys or other girls wearing in T.V. or just walking down the street. This is a binary structure. Meaning there are two sides there is Male and then there is Female. What is not Male is Female and vice verse which means they are opposites. This binary can be oppressive, and seems utterly absurd when taken as biological determinism instead of a human creation. Girls are not innately born with an instinctual drive towards all things pink- they are given pink things by parents and relatives. The girl picks up a pink glove and the family rejoices and praises her so she does it again later...and then later when she's 40 she praises her own daughter for using a pink crayon.
SO then the trans movement disables the gender binary. Something else that disturbed me when I was learning about it was that the trans community isn't doing anything new with gender except rearranging the already present "script". The masculine is still there, the feminine is still there. How can I pass as a man? The answer is to use the already established gender binary.
Now May-Welby has opted out of the binary completely. I'm not sure what decisions led up to self identifying as "neuter"- but I think that it's a brave attempt to make people really truly rethink gender. I don't think that it's possible though. To be genderless. Gender is so intricately interwoven in our daily rituals and this box that we live in called Gender is so huge- and has such a long history I wonder what is outside of this box? And since we have been raised inside the box, doesn't it distort our view of outside possibilities? What does a genderless society look like? Are we naked? Then biological determinism will really get us right? I am excited about the official establishment of "neuter" though- I'm curious where it will bring us- What new debates the Gender Theorists will have and who will be listening....
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