Is a culture that stereotypes people into expected behaviors based on their genitals critical to the functioning of society?
I was sent this article: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/445435/gender-identity-ashley-mcguire-new-book-men-and-women
The article criticizes the freedom of gender expression and the the transfer society is experiencing away from stereotyping people and treating them differently based on their genitals towards a society less obsessed with attempting to get everyone with the same genitals to act, dress, and work the same way. They believe that if people do not get enough prejudice based on their sex that society will force women to adhere to the standards of the ideal man while men become the enemy. They believe the queer movement doesn't even know that male and female genes are actually different. My response below is intended for people that believe a strong culture that stereotypes people into expected behaviors based on their genitals is critical to the functioning of society. The person that sent me this article I am replying to actually reads books about how society will fall apart without the cultural exaggeration of sex differences (!). I found my response worthy of posting here on steemit.
"The willful blindness to basic biological difference" -- There is nearly no person that is queer that thinks there are not biological differences. By far the biggest strawman used against queer community is claiming that they believe there are more than 2 biological sexes, or that they think biological differences don't exist. Neither are true. Sex is not a fault line in a battle, everyone on both sides of anything pretty much agree about sex and what these chromosomes typically do to the brain and body.
"a world that denies sexual difference, or that denies sex as a category outright" - Again not true, more lies pushed by conservative media and especially the Alt-right.
"men can’t really win. If they do something chivalrous, they are patronizing; if they don’t, they are chauvinists." - This is only perceived this way if the men ALWAYS refuse to allow women to pay, or open their own doors, or take the full on opposite of forcing women to do everything for them. If someone is blatantly and obviously sexist, yeah its hard to "win". I of course here am excluding the extremist minority of tumblr-type feminists that think they have something to prove at every opportunity.
"assert that only women have the ability to give birth, and that such capacity is what women should celebrate about themselves." - Is celebrating how your sex makes you better than another sex, not sexism? I mean of course this is a minor example, but shining spotlights on and cheering on ways in which some DNA is more capable than others is a dangerous line of thinking. Differences between sex should be seen as just simple facts, not something to gloat about.
"Association published a leaflet encouraging people to use the phrase “pregnant people” in lieu of “expectant mother” and “chestfeeding” instead of “breastfeeding” in order to be more “inclusive.” This example perfectly illustrates the thesis of my book: that in the quest to be gender neutral, we end up erasing woman." -- There is no reason to add a gender to the word pregnant, especially as in the near future different sexes will be able to do these things. Some people get emotionally bothered when reminded their body is not what they want...to them calling them a gender other than their own is like being called fat...the other person is under no obligation not to call them fat, but if there was another word that would not upset any customers, as a business, it makes sense to speak in a way that all customers will approve of. The point at which queer people cross the line is when they declare their discomfort about language is more important than your discomfort about language and are hateful towards you for using language they don't like. Even worse many of these extremist queers are attempting to use violence through the state to force people to use whatever pronoun they use. The conservative media really likes to cherry pick and focus on the extremist queers that demand violence, and not on the typical ones and pretend that this characterizes the entire freedom of gender expression movement. The same thing happens at riots....every cameraman is filming the burning limo and not at all examining the actual crowd or their beliefs.
"What we wind up devaluing is the uniquely female contribution" - The author apparently knows exactly how much society should value contributions from females...not what the free market values it at, but instead what this author values it at...because they glorify differences we are born with. Culture has for a very long time taken the relatively small biological differences in capabilities between sexes and OVERVALUE them by almost building a cult of personality around the ideal female and ideal male based on nothing more than tradition and culture. Society has for far too long over exaggerated the differences between males and females going so far as thinking only males can do some things and only females can do other things instead of recognizing there are bell curves with overlaps. I am ready for the cult of worshiping and overvaluing the differences of biological sex that is deeply engraved into every culture on earth to come to and end. According to Stefan Molyneux, only 20% of African decent have an IQ higher than that of the average European decent person...yet we should not celebrate openly how intelligent white people are. Really any difference that comes from birth should not be celebrated or valued in a cultural sense. Society is getting ready to drop the culturally enforced over-valuing and exaggeration of the differences between sexes, and all that will be left will be science. Many people including this author really enjoy the way society turns different sexes into cartoonish caricatures of the actual differences between sexes at birth, down to forcing them to pick toys, and activities that match what is culturally appropriate instead of what is merited by science or the passions of their own child.
It worries me that the Author actually thinks fifty shades of grey is what romance is progressing towards. To start, there is a minority of people that enjoy that type of relationship, and it typically spawns from childhood abuse and not "a lack of respect for differences between sexes". Furthermore, within this community of people that enjoy the feeling of non-consensual sex, the movie fifty shades is near unanimously disapproved of as unhealthy, dangerous, sick, and near unanimously seen as Stockholm Syndrome type serial rape that has nothing to do with romance. The community was outraged that it depicted this as actual romance, and everyone was very worried it would lead people like you and this author to horrible strawman false conclusions...and it appears it has done so.
The article does not have much facts and is largely opinion, but it is still worth commenting on because I feel like this minor issue is being massively flaunted by corporate media both to divide the population, and to feed on the disgust and discomfort people feel if they slowly watch the culture they have grown to love become obsolete. As far as I can tell here is how both sides see the issue.
Conservative media has the following views in regards to the freedom of gender expression movement:
--Sex, gender, and gender expression are the same thing, this is science, and anyone trying to use these words in different ways than historically done is part of some corrupting entitled political correctness movement.
--Queers in general want to force government to be violent towards anyone that does not use their pronouns.
--Normal, happy, and efficient operation of society and institutions is constantly being held up and blocked by petty 'right not to be offended movements'
-- Only the most extremist petty actions by the queer community are cherry picked and shown on the media as if this is the quintessential example of what the movement is.
As for the crowd that is either queer, or supports freedom of gender expression, or a reduction in the way society views sexes to nothing more than what science merits instead of a cult, they have these views:
-- Sex is the physical genes you were born with, and creates actual recognizable differences between males and females that can not be denied. Sex is not a social construct.
-- Gender Expression is how masculine or feminine someone dresses and acts, and for conversational simplicity is often just referred to as gender. Any attempt to pressure people to dress and act to conform with a baseless tradition is unethical. Gender expression is almost if not entirely a social construct. It may seem contradictory that the same people that want to get rid of the importance of gender expression also are deeply emotionally invested in their own gender expression being respected, however the former is a long term solution, and the not feeling ostracized is the short term solution.
-- Human culture and tradition have taken the typical differences between males and females and taken them to extremes that everyone is expected to idolize and work towards in every way from how people dress, to how their kids are raised, what careers people should work, manners, and even segregated bathrooms.
-- The way in which culture enforces gender roles is not based on science and is overvaluing the differences between men and women. These extreme ideals that society pressures people to conform to goes far beyond what is merited.
-- People who adhere to and value the cultural enforcement of gender roles fail to recognizes that every masculine and feminine trait falls on a bell curve distributed spectrum where a minority but large portion of people have natural born traits that conflict with what is stereotypical. This results in society not only stereotyping people based on their genitals, but attempting to socially pressure them into behaving as if they are naturally 100% male or 100% female in their mental and physical capabilities. For example, females are less capable of being firefighters because of their physical strength, but it would be wrong to ostracize and encourage a strong female from seeking such a career.
-- Many people for sure prefer, and very likely were born in a way such that their brain characteristics are more feminine than masculine, or that their natural wiring to seek the opposing sex is weak or reversed. Its all part of evolution to try out different tactics, and these things are just as natural as being a tall female or a short male.
-- In the same way it feels wrong for you to dress opposing to your sex, or have a voice different than your physical sex, or have a your genitals swapped to something you have never liked, people with transgender or queer brains really feel grossed out by their body being different than the way they think. Virtually all of this dysphoria discomfort is due to how society enforces gender roles. In fact society is so hardcore about exaggerating the differences between sexes and ostracizing queers that 75% of trans people attempt suicide, and have double the chance of being unemployed. When the queer community is regularly exposed to the stress and anxiety these people feel for not fitting into the culture, and when the cultural situation is 95% tradition, and 5% science, it really starts to seem like the general solution is to try to have culture and people in general become more accepting of queers by dropping their cult like worship of feminine and masculine ideals.
Personally I support business owners to be able to without violent interference have whites only fountains and blacks only fountains, and penis only restrooms, and vagina only restrooms, or even just have any rules they want on their own property as long as they are not violent. Every store owner should be able to decide their own rules, but instead both conservatives and liberals are trying to solve this problem not with free market competition but with violent laws that force people from deciding how people move around on their own property and deciding how people talk to each other by requiring pronouns. I might refuse to eat at restaurants with a "separate but equal" policy on sex or skin color, and you might refuse to eat at places that don't have segregated bathrooms....it should be up to the customer not the government.
Welcome to steem, and I applaud the great sensible perspective that you exhibit, the world needs more people like you and thank you for posting this here!
I need to take some time to read the rest of this slowly, but so far I like what I see. I've written a lot about this subject, you might want to swing by my blog later. I'm following you!
https://steemit.com/gender/@tommycordero/when-was-the-last-time-you-got-your-sexual-chromosomes-checked