# On the Genderless Age



## Mushin (Jun 4, 2010)

On the Genderless Age: Racism has been proclaimed unjust. To be subjugated solely due to the colour of one’s skin, the shape of one’s nose, the texture of one’s hair – this is a crime against one. One cannot be told they are a lesser person because they were born as the race they are. And what about elitism? To be born then deemed a nobler person because of name or wealth by heritage is no longer just either. To be told one is working class and destined for lowliness and that one can never become anything magnificently abstract – that is a crime against one. These precursors have been lifted and times are changing. We strive for the egalitarian age when all have the opportunity, all have equal rights and all are treated fairly. 
The most interesting dissolution of prejudice concerns the matter of sexism. Sexism has been ordained unfair. Just as a woman can run a bank, a man should not be laughed at for staying home full time to tend to his children. To be told what you must do because of your sex is very unfair and very stressful. Many hearts have been broken and inspirations destroyed when people are told they cannot follow their dreams because they must be the man they were born to be, or told they are just a woman and what they dream of isn’t for them. The stereotype of a man and of a woman have been broken down somewhat. Just as the stereotype of the stupid or ugly working class person, the noble and refined rich person, the criminal or promiscuous Black, the shrewd and fiscal Jew – just as all these stereotypes of a previous cruel and prejudiced culture have been broken down, the archetypal man and woman no longer exist as ideals in peoples’ minds to the extent that they once did. Many men often wear tight and ‘feminine’ clothes; many women wear a ‘masculine’ suit to work. What has happened to the certainty, the absoluteness... the _truth_ of what it is to be a man or to be a woman? Where have these old ideas gone? To say all women are mood-swinging and incapable of leadership is sexist. To say all men are boisterous, hard working warriors is sexist. In reality neither gender can ever truly live up to these ideals that existed so predominantly in the previous age. It is not that simple. People are more complex than a simple title. Times are changing in this respect. 
But what is the next stage? What follows from this? What ensues? Why stop at sexism? Why not go to the source and bring down gender? I foresee the genderless age. At birth it will be mere prejudice to be told one is a woman or told one is a man. No one wants to be told they are a lower class therefore have less rights, so why would they want to be told they are a gender that does not necessarily suit them? As the once solid and definitive aspects of what it is to be a woman and what it is to be a man slowly fade away, one begins to wonder why they are even considered to be a gender at all. What is it to be something with no defining features? Try listing what it is to be a man or be a woman! You will only succeed in feeling the guilt of your sexism when you read back what you wrote. 
As these categorisations die out one has no reason to be a gender. If a gender offers no identity then it has no purpose, for identity is what most people so strongly desire. With the death of the genders, people will create their own identities for themselves. This is made possible by science! The cosmetic surgeon is our saviour! If one wants to be a man but has been born without a phallus they can craft one from their thigh! If one wants to have large and luscious breasts, but were born with milkless pectorals then they’ll pump their chest with silicone! One will be able to have the benefits of the organs of both man and woman! Breasts with penises! Vaginas mixed with testosterone! Soft and gentle faces with broad shoulders and bulging biceps! One could be something for a week then change! Gender will turn into a fashion of the day! Magazines will have articles which describe the gender related things the celebrities are fond of! When one applies for a job there will be no gender box to tick... male or female? No one will care because they won’t be effective means to categorise people! People will live in their own ideals they have created for themselves instead of trying desperately to conform to the common ones of the past with great resentment. 
And one may ask – in a world without genders, how do we have children? Ha! This can also be solved with science! The scientific age is the genderless age! Embryos will be spawned in laboratories with tubes and artificial cultures. There will be no need for the womb. Perhaps even no need for sperm or ovules! These things will be created too! Genderless couples will line up to purchase their lab grown children who’ve had features crafted to their desires. The concepts of ‘man’ and ‘woman’ will be figments of the past! They will be contemplated just as characters in literary fiction like the aristocracy is to us today! But we are still early in this process – a progression towards the time when one won’t be constricted to the boundaries of their gender that they have been given..._ not chosen_. Is not choice, free will and right the code of the modern egalitarian age?


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## Idle Tinkerer (Jun 4, 2010)

Interesting idea, even if I don't entirely agree.

May I suggest paragraphs? That's a wall of text that starts to blur sometime after the first few lines.


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## garza (Jun 5, 2010)

Agreed. Please break this up into paragraphs.


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## Reese (Jun 6, 2010)

This is the beginning of socialism. Everyone is equal! 

You're right, perhaps no one has free will. Perhaps we are all agents of our own circumstances. Everything is relative. Man, woman, who really cares? Maybe you're right and every thought can be calculated to a single finite idea.

So you grasped on the idea of a single agent, or someone who can affect the world around them. And what? We still need to breath and keep living. What does this agent do with what they're given? You tell me.


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## garza (Jun 6, 2010)

Socialism? Maybe neo-libertarianism? I'm sorry, but each time I think I've begun to grasp where you are going I hit a snag like 'The most interesting dissolution of prejudice concerns the matter of sexism.' What do you mean? What, exactly is your thesis?      I find everything in the piece a bit out of focus. In the old days press photographers would often carry a lens smeared with a thin coating of Vaseline to hide some of the wrinkles in the faces of the Beautiful People. In reading through your piece I have the feeling that I'm looking through one of those lenses, with nothing sharply defined.       Imagine your are chatting with your neighbour across the fence in your back garden. How would you explain what you believe?       Remember precise and concise. Say exactly what you mean using the simplest and fewest words possible without losing any of that meaning. Make it clean, clear, simple, direct, and strong.


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## Reese (Jul 2, 2010)

"If a gender offers no identity then it has no purpose, for identity is what most people so strongly desire."

Oh really? Under what context does gender offer no "identity?"

And if so, what identity do people so strongly desire?

Your entire piece is disadvantageous to the "other gender." Rewrite it.


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