So your essay is not really about the differences between the two words, but what people ought to do with those words-- reject them entirely, evidently.
Erm...not entirely, really. More like, recognize that sex is "biological state" no more or less, and that "gender" is as limited as any construct and while useful as a vague shorthand, hardly worthwhile to turn oneself inside out trying to live up to that nebulous changing-goalposts ideal. I guess you could say part of that would be to take out the value judgment in "feminine" and "masculine" -- that to say, "that's so feminine" would not be an insult when the subject of the phrase is male, just as to say "that's masculine" wouldn't make a woman question not just her identity, but the value (and validity) of her sex as well.
Take away the teeth our culture(s) currently invest in these general if idealistic labels -- at least the label of gender as it applies to one's identity. In which case, to rephrase you, that were you to become male, you would be male, and it wouldn't freaking matter whether you're the most masculine or the most feminine, like polka-dots or hate stripes. That any kind of so-called gender identity is not a yardstick against which we can measure your success or failure of being 'male', and that we (society) no longer have the power to take that rough set of grouped concepts and beat you over the head with it.
That, really, is what bothers me the most. Not that the terms (any of them) exist, so much as that they're used to make people freaking miserable for not measuring up to something that's at best an ideal and at worst a freaking delusion.
no subject
Date: 6 Mar 2010 01:44 am (UTC)Erm...not entirely, really. More like, recognize that sex is "biological state" no more or less, and that "gender" is as limited as any construct and while useful as a vague shorthand, hardly worthwhile to turn oneself inside out trying to live up to that nebulous changing-goalposts ideal. I guess you could say part of that would be to take out the value judgment in "feminine" and "masculine" -- that to say, "that's so feminine" would not be an insult when the subject of the phrase is male, just as to say "that's masculine" wouldn't make a woman question not just her identity, but the value (and validity) of her sex as well.
Take away the teeth our culture(s) currently invest in these general if idealistic labels -- at least the label of gender as it applies to one's identity. In which case, to rephrase you, that were you to become male, you would be male, and it wouldn't freaking matter whether you're the most masculine or the most feminine, like polka-dots or hate stripes. That any kind of so-called gender identity is not a yardstick against which we can measure your success or failure of being 'male', and that we (society) no longer have the power to take that rough set of grouped concepts and beat you over the head with it.
That, really, is what bothers me the most. Not that the terms (any of them) exist, so much as that they're used to make people freaking miserable for not measuring up to something that's at best an ideal and at worst a freaking delusion.