Response to chapters 5-8

"Do you think there is any way to balance radical feminists’ opposition to gender binarism with trans people’s hard-won right to their preferred gender expression?"

   This question is essentially asking if there is a way to balance the belief that person A is of category X, and the belief that nobody is of category X. I do not think that anybody can truly believe both of these at the same time. The question is really about whether or not category X exists, and what the requirements are for someone to fit into category X. 

    If we agree that gender is a social construct, then the answer to whether or not it exists is both yes and no. It only "exists" insofar as the members of society continue to operate in the world as if it exists. Currency is another social construct. If everyone in society decided that currency was worthless, it would cease to exist (the actual matter that makes up dollar bills would not literally phase out of reality, but the dollar, and all other currencies, would cease to be of any more worth, value, or significance than any other piece of paper). Like currency, society, at least the one we live in, generally has agreed, and still does agree, that "man" is a real category that a person can be a part of, similar to the way that "currency" is a real category that a piece of paper can be a part of. Where the similarities between gender and most other social constructs, currency included, ends is when we consider what the requirements are for something or, in the case of gender, someone to be considered a part of that social construct. An individual piece of paper is considered a part of the social constructed category of things called currency if members of society agree that the piece of paper is currency. However in the determination of whether or not an individual person belongs to the socially constructed category of "man," society does not decide. Society (at least our modern one) allows individuals to decide for themself whether or not they fall into the category of man. In this way, one's gender is not (or at least, has ceased to be) a social construction and is instead an individual construction. The same applies to the category of "woman" as well. 

    So to address my point from earlier, the requirement for being a part of category X is that one says they are a part of category X. Which begs the question: What, then, is the point of putting any significance on being a part of category X at all? Why does society still insist that individuals identify as members of one of the fake categories that we made up? Since the choice of being a man or woman is one purely of individual feeling, then there is no definition of what a man or woman is other than someone who says they are a man or woman. This makes "man" and "woman" pointless categories. Saying I am a man is like saying I am a "strinable." It is a nonsense word that has no real meaning. What it means to be a strinable is defined by each individual, and depending on what their definition is, they can decide if they are one or not. 

    I do not think that we could (or should) introduce the category of strinable into society, and have everybody agree that it is a "real" category. This is because it would lack any real meaning, and would serve no purpose. So why are we holding onto the categories of man and woman? What purpose do they serve? I have a question regarding gender for everyone reading this: Do you belong the category of man? / Do you belong to the category of woman?  Whichever one you answer please let me know why your answer is what it is.

    At this point in my life, given what I currently know about gender, the idea that we should get rid of it completely makes sense to me. However, my mind can still be changed. This genderless world does not mean that anybody has to change anything about themselves though. Individuals can still express themselves however they want. It is just that being a man or woman would not be a part of one's identity in the same way that being a strinable is currently not part of one's identity.