A (Gender) Pirate's Life for Me

Oh dear, you know the way to this girl's heart don't you? Oh wait; girl is a label I wouldn't carry anymore in this gender free world we're envisioning. Oh the possibilities! Oh the way my mind boggles over them! Oh, do we estimate when this all might take place? Because I can freeze myself and wait for it...

There are many components of culture. Some of the most pervasive enculturation vehicles are the family, the community (the state), religion, and language. If the world was to be one where gender differences had been "eliminated" then each of the above cultural factors (and many more) would have to be completely rewritten. How would that change the world? How would that affect the ways in which we occupy this space everyday? Let's see if we can find out.

We'll start with the family unit. If this is a world where gender differences are completely irrelevant, then the notion of a hetero- or homo- sexual household would no longer exist. If we are all just human, then no distinctions between hetero- bi- or homo- sexual individuals could be drawn. I think most people in this new society would be bisexual, or more accurately (as bi still implies that there are two genders) people would simply be sexual. Whether you were attracted to Mary, Sue, Bob, or Tim wouldn't matter from a gender standpoint.

Also, from birth forward, there would no longer be pink on girls and blue on boys. Because the two distinctions wouldn't exist! Children would be dressed in any color that their parents wished and no one would wonder whether the child was male or female. Because it would be irrelevant! Children's toys would no longer be split into the girl's aisles, the gender neutral aisles, and the boy's aisles. They would be divided by something more mundane like color or toy type.

This is not to say that there would no longer be rag dolls or baseball bats, it just means that neither would have a preconceived notion of belonging to Sally or Jim. Sally and Jim can have both toys, and many more besides. Jim can get his nails done with Sally before they both head off to play football. And neither will be considered weird in this new reality. They will simply have been given the freedom to be whatever it is that they are.

There would not be brothers or sisters, one would have siblings. All sexes could do the dinner dishes and all sexes can take out the trash. And all sexes can expect to receive the same education. No more will Home Economics be the domain of 9^th grade girls. Wood shop will be open to all who can safely use a saw. Math will no longer be geared toward the male sex and there will no longer be the assumption that girls will not be as able to perform as well in science as the boys do. There will be education (schools being another major enculturation vehicle) with no gender lines drawn. Women will be as prevalent in PhD programs and Medical schools as men. Or should I say, all people will be represented in all occupations and no one will be able to think that they are not suitable for certain employment based on their gender.

Think of most of the world's major religions. The clergy was almost exclusively male from 5000 years ago (with the decline of Goddess religions) to today. But not so in this new society. Clergy will be made up of people, no gender attached. God or Goddess will not matter. There will simply be one "Supreme Being" without a gender based name.

And that leads us to the language portion of cultural factors. All language would be gender inclusive, or more accurately, all language would be inclusive. Without gender labels, we will no longer assume certain things about Tom and certain things about Gary. We'll only know that they are people, just like the rest of us.

This may seem a bit extreme, but consider this for a moment. If gender differences really didn't matter in this reality, why would we ever include a gender divisive term like he or she in our vocabulary? We wouldn't. We may have language that marks class or race or regions, but never would gender be the thing that we first thought about someone. We can't place Pat in a gender group, even with our language, because no gender group would exist.

And just how would this change the ways in which we walk through the world on a day to day basis? In ways that not even I can imagine yet. No more asking if a baby is a boy or girl. No more worrying about Becca getting hurt because she's a tomboy. What would it be like to walk through the world and not be afraid that someone will attack you because of your gender or sexual preference? I think it would be wonderful.

And I hope that I'm around to see it. How much does cryogenics cost these days?