Does gender offend you?

Posted by davidmcnab 9 years, 6 months ago to Culture
102 comments | Share | Best of... | Flag

In recent years, I've been seeing gender coming under sustained attack, of relentlessly increasing intensity.

People are now arguing that the very concept of male and female gender is restrictive, oppressive, discriminatory, and needing to be done away with.

The new PC-fashionable derogatory term is "genderist" (or "gender binary"), which is being hurled around with similar viciousness to the terms "racist" and "sexist" in the 1960s-80s.

I am happy and grateful to be male, and my wife is happy and grateful to be female. But we're starting to see an era in which we will be increasingly marginalised and ridiculed for honouring our natures.

It kinda shocked me the other day to see a female Facebook friend on social media, whining about the existence of separate "Boys' toys" and "Girls' toys" aisles in department stores. And another friend is saying she wants to tour around eastern Europe "as a man".

Meanwhile, some jurisdictions are now allowing births to be registered without gender.

How do folks here feel about gender? Personally, I do see some links between those attacking gender, and those attacking ownership and economic self-determination.

What are your thoughts?


All Comments


Previous comments...   You are currently on page 3.
  • Posted by JohnConnor352 9 years, 6 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I see that I was mistaken in my understanding, and I guess there is not a one-word way to describe your reaction. Thanks for clearing that up.
    In my defense somewhat, though, the "you" was more of the plural meaning, directed at many of the commenters thus far.
    Reply | Permalink  
  • Posted by 9 years, 6 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Talking of body dysphoria, that's where we get into the REALLY weird cases, where people demand amputations of perfectly healthy limbs to make their bodies "feel right" to them.

    Or worse, this recent case of a woman who felt it would be more "natural" to be blind, and convinced her psychologist to pour drain cleaner into her eyes: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/art...
    Reply | Permalink  
  • Posted by Zenphamy 9 years, 6 months ago in reply to this comment.
    It's like any other form of body dysphoria. It's a mental condition (except for the rare case of hermaprodites) Do we think having one's arm, even sight removed is something that is a proper treatment?
    Reply | Permalink  
  • Posted by Zenphamy 9 years, 6 months ago
    The word gender, until sometime in the 60's only referred to language. A thoroughly discredited psychologist, the originator of sex reassignment surgery as a part of a psychological/surgery treatment, began using the word to describe what he thought was the mental image of one's own sex. A pair of twin boy's, one of which who's penis was severely damaged in a surgery accident during circumcision, somehow this psychologist got into the case and talked everyone into doing sex reassignment surgery, psychological treatment, and hormone treatment--then wrote the case up as the primary example of what to do with patients that suffered from delusions of being in the wrong body. The word gender was mis-appropriated to replace 'sexual' in order to attempt lessening the connection with male homosexuals that sought the surgery.

    The truth of the results and the life of the boy came out from the family sometime in the 80's and further research confirmed that the psychologist had falsified much of his study and that the boy's life was hell. The entire study and the psychologist was completely discredited. But by that time, others had picked up the banner.

    Most main line mental health professionals believe that sex dysphoria, similar to body part dysphoria (in which a part of the body such as a leg, arm, etc is alien and hated), is a mental problem, while transgenders believe they're trapped in the wrong body.

    So yes, the use of gender to describe human sex offends me. It is nothing more than political correctness taken to extremes and is gobbledygook talk.
    Reply | Permalink  
  • Posted by Mamaemma 9 years, 6 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Excellent point, blackswan. I couldn't figure out what I wanted to say here, and you did it for me. Thanks!
    Reply | Permalink  
  • Posted by blackswan 9 years, 6 months ago in reply to this comment.
    NATURE decides your gender, not someone else. If your genes are xx, you're female. If your genes are xy, you're male. Wishing otherwise is an attempt to fake reality. You can do it if you like, but don't demand that I agree or care.
    Reply | Permalink  
  • Posted by Mamaemma 9 years, 6 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Once a person denies reality, they don't know what to stand for. Remember the guard at the State Science Institute who would rather be shot by Dagny than make a decision?
    Reply | Permalink  
  • Posted by $ blarman 9 years, 6 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Those facts aren't changed at all, however - they are merely masked. One may color their hair as if to appear to others as a blonde when in fact they are brunette, but it does not change the fact that they are brunette. One may wear colored contacts to make their eyes appear to others to be purple, but it does not change the fact that they are hazel.

    You are mistaking "facts" and reality. The reality is that one can not alter their DNA, and their DNA is what constitutes reality. If one is born with an XY, they are male - regardless of any other trait or tendency. If they are born with an XX, they are female. Can they choose to undergo surgery to appear as something different? Yes. But they are not changing the reality one iota.
    Reply | Permalink  
  • Posted by bsmith51 9 years, 6 months ago
    Robots don't have gender, or sex, and their programming is less problematic than with humans. The concept of replacing humans with robots falls perfectly in line with John Lennon's rallying song for the left, "Imagine." He only missed, Imagine there's no gender....
    Reply | Permalink  
  • Posted by blackswan 9 years, 6 months ago in reply to this comment.
    It would be better to replace "religions" with "progressive ideologies." It will be more accurate that way.
    Reply | Permalink  
  • Posted by blackswan 9 years, 6 months ago in reply to this comment.
    That's the end game. If no one stands for anything, they will fall for anything these thugs want to implement.
    Reply | Permalink  
  • Posted by fosterj717 9 years, 6 months ago
    Now that we have had over 50 years of intense "identity" and class warfare drilled into our national psyche, it is now apparent that Gramsci and his slavish followers have won (at least in the near-term).

    Creating classes and groups of people and turning one against the other because of "supposed" minority status has been the modus operandi to date.

    These idiotic concepts have been deployed with the goal of driving wedges between us. The goal without a doubt is to destroy America's greatest strength (E Pluribus Unum - Of many one). This has been the Communist/Fabian goal from the get-go. These concepts have been taught in public schools for almost 50 years now by a cadre of those who hate this country and will do anything in their power to destroy it. This is what has so ruthlessly created the left's national idiocy and the right's lack of pushback!

    Perhaps, if and when people stop and think critically again, they will realize just how much they have been played for fools (or worse)! Gender politics is only one facet of the overall problem.
    Reply | Permalink  
  • Posted by blackswan 9 years, 6 months ago
    Every time I see them attempting to redefine words, I'm reminded of Francisco's warning, "you can't fake reality in any manner whatever."
    Reply | Permalink  
  • Posted by DrZarkov99 9 years, 6 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Not sure where you got the idea I found transgendered offensive. I suppose my observation that I had an unconscious reaction I could only attribute to my brain receiving contradictory signals: the visual, which registered female, and the pheromone-related odor that registered male may have led you to that conclusion. That was a fact, regardless of my respect for the transgendered as people with a right to make their own choices. My reaction also gave me insight into why some people have such extreme reactions to transgendered folk. When the more primitive part of the brain alarms, emotions take over.

    Hermaphrodites have the most difficult time, as operations often happen early in their life that reflect parental sexual preference rather than reflecting the reality of the dominant sex. If things are left unchanged, they're subject to being treated as a freak until they can make their own decisions. Like many other disabilities, the victims deserve help and empathy.
    Reply | Permalink  
  • Posted by jimslag 9 years, 6 months ago
    I am sorry for those folks who do not find a fit in the real world. I am a male and relish that fact and my girlfriend (not p.c.) likes being a female, she is a girly girl who likes the frills and trappings of being a girl. We make be archaic but we love it and live our lives accordingly. P.C. be da**ed and LGBT the same. If you don't like what you are born, to bad.
    Reply | Permalink  
  • Posted by Herb7734 9 years, 6 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Oh Mamaemma, I bow to your well honed insight. There is no better way to control the populace than to make the obvious unreal.
    Reply | Permalink  
  • Posted by jimjamesjames 9 years, 6 months ago
    One of my horses told me yesterday that he wanted to be a mare. I pointed out that he was a gelding, had no nuts. He asked if that made him a female. I said, "More female than Bruce Jenner." He seemed satisfied......
    Reply | Permalink  
  • Posted by SamAnderson 9 years, 6 months ago in reply to this comment.
    They do in their dreams. But real life is often times hard on pigs in flight mode. And for the rest of us, if you don't like being hit by pigeon s**t, you'll really love the porcine version!
    Reply | Permalink  
  • Posted by JohnConnor352 9 years, 6 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Sex is a biological fact, not gender.
    But there are many "facts" of natural which we find perfectly acceptable to change, like hair color or birth defects. We don't scoff at the person who has surgery to fix a cleft palate, why would we treat someone who is, as they see it, born the wrong sex? One theory is that it is a difference between what a person's brain thinks their sex is and what sexual organs their body has.

    Another thing to ponder on the same topic would be someone who is born hermaphroditic. Would surgery to remove one of the organs (likely the one that is less developed) be as offensive to you as a transsexual operation? What is the difference between the two?
    Reply | Permalink  

  • Comment hidden. Undo