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What significance would gender identity have in a perfectly egalitarian world?

Discussion in 'Gender Identity and Expression' started by LadyCoraline, Apr 4, 2016.

  1. LadyCoraline

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    If people didn't treat you differently based on your gender identity - if society abandoned its gender-based preconceptions and expectations and simply treated people as individuals - would your gender identity still be important to you? Would you want to live in such a society, or is your gender role and others' perception of you a key part of your gender identity?

    (Explanation: I'm still new to this way of thinking about gender, and am trying to put my feelings about my own gender into context. Does feeling happiest when one's gender is treated as immaterial imply agender?)
     
  2. OutofZCloset

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    I believe if there was absolutely no stigmintation the world would look a lot different. When I was little I was a Tomboy. If given the chance I would always dress like a boy. But it would bother me when someone would call me a boy or use a male pronoun. But looking back I was only bothered because I didn't want to be perceived as gay. I didn't even know Transgendered existed. But left to my own devices how would I have turned out? As I got older I made an effort to look more girly until the point that it became apart of me. Then I got married to a man and dressed more to society's norm. I was also in a professional career where I also had to dress the part. All of those restictions and expectations chipped away at the Tomboy to the point that it became a faint memory. When I left my husband when I was 26 and met my lesbian wife I was able to relax more. But society 's pressure obviously took its toll and even though I could have dressed however I wanted I simply dont. The Tomboy is gone. Society won. As I brush out my long hair and take off my makeup I wonder what would have been.

    ---------- Post added 4th Apr 2016 at 09:18 PM ----------

     
    #2 OutofZCloset, Apr 4, 2016
    Last edited: Apr 4, 2016
  3. Mihael

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    Yes, it would still be important. I'd love to live in such a society. Gender is something that occurs among animals too, just like sexual orientation, so there would still be gender and it would still matter somehow, although would not impact anything negatively. I would still fall somewhere in that situation, probably in the same place. I already have a quite egalitarian and liberal environment, and gender matters to me, because it impacts normal, day-to-day interactions with people.

    It depends what gender being immaterial means to you. It may very well imply you're in the middly of the spectrum or outside it, like agender, gender neutral, andorgyne. But if "gender immaterial" sets you more towards one way or the other, then you must look at what it is.
     
  4. Matto_Corvo

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    Its always hard for me to answer questions like these simply because I don't know.
    I think gender would still be important to some people. For me, my transitioning has little to do with how I wish others to see me. Its more about how I wish to see myself. When I look in that mirror I want to see what society says a man looks like.
     
  5. darkcomesoon

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    I'd love to live in a society like that. The social concept of gender could be abolished, and the only form of transness that would be left would be people who need to physically transition. It makes it easier for people who need physical transition (there would be less stigma attached) and would mostly eliminate social dysphoria (other than dysphoria in the form of not wanting other people to see the body parts you're uncomfortable with).

    I don't think gender identity as we think of it now would still be a viable concept, but yes, my gender would still be important to me because I would still have physical dysphoria. It would no longer matter to me whether people were gendering me, which would reduce my dysphoria I'm sure, but I would still be uncomfortable with my body and might still need to transition.