I've started an e-petition calling for the UK government to legally recognize a third gender. Thanks for looking!
MORE THAN 2 GENDERS - THE PETITION
petitions.pm.gov.uk/Transgender/
Ah, you’ve found my petition for a third gender! Maybe you’re laughing at the very idea. Maybe you’re not. Don’t stop laughing - it’s good for you but please wait, whoever you are. If you make that decision to read on I would really appreciate it because…
The idea of a third gender is not as ridiculous as it may at first seem. Not every single individual on this planet has ever, or is ever going to fit exclusively into those rigidly defined constructs known as masculine and feminine. Wanna hear me out? (Oh, you look good with a smile on your faceJ)
For starters there is hard, solid evidence to support the realization that there are more than two genders. Not least of this is the reality that individuals born as physically intersex have been scientific, medically known fact since the beginning of time
Similarly, in more recent years, following post-mortem examinations, (morbidity alert…!) researchers claim to have discovered actual physical differences in the hypothalamus area of the brains of transsexual individuals. Furthermore, it has also been noted that the relative length of index fingers in comparison to other fingers on the hand, are similar on the hands of male-to-female transgendered people as they are on those of non-transgendered females.
Intrigued? Still laughing? Well, they laughed when women said they wanted the vote. The stupidity and destructiveness of sexism are well known. However, what about genderism?
Okay, I’m fully aware that popular opinion is insistent that there are only two genders - male and female. Nevertheless, unlike biological sex, gender is an artificial, ‘man-made’ creation. Notions of appropriate masculinity and femininity are constructed by sexist, male dominated societies.
UK law, including the 1975 Sex Discrimination Act, only legislates for males and females who are equal, but different - as the legend underneath the EOC’s pink and blue logo so confidently proclaims. A transgendered person is only afforded protection under UK law if s/he is about to undergo, is undergoing, or has undergone gender reassignment surgery (a ‘sex-change’ in UK tabloid-speak). Society places an obligation upon such individuals to become a member of one of the two legally legitimized genders (ie. male or female). Otherwise, it somehow considers you’re not being genuine and assumes every moral right to order you to return to your suffocating gender straightjacket.
I see a problem here. Not every transgendered person, or person with gender dysphoria, has gender reassignment surgery. Some transgendered people aren’t able to have such a challenging series of operations because their personal health is unlikely to stand up to such physical punishment. Other transpeople simply don’t want gender reassignment surgery and probably even more folks just can’t bring themselves to decide. Surely indecisiveness is understandable considering how big an irreversible step physical gender reassignment is? Yet all-importantly, this doesn’t alter the fact that such gender ‘non-corrected’ individuals won’t suffer from being forced to conform to a gender identity that is alien to them. And this won’t alter the fact that there are people who consider themselves neither male nor female.
In our ‘ladies and gents’ society there is no space for a third gender. Sure, even something as fundamental and taken for granted as using a public lavatory becomes a deeply problematic, nay-threatening concept. Recently, Police were summoned to apprehend former Big Brother contestant, Sam Brodie for using the Ladies. Yet if Sam Brodie uses the Gents would Sam be risking a beating…or worse?
School authorities and employers are allowed to force individuals to conform to rigid gendered dress codes (what puritanical misery…short hair for males, females can‘t wear trousers, males can‘t wear skirts). Job application forms routinely ask the applicant to state a male or female gender, whilst, at the same time, claiming that the job candidate’s gender is unimportant. Airport security divides people into two lines - male and female (so transgendered people aren‘t allowed to fly?) And predictably, the government’s controversy-ridden proposed ID card scheme will only have a two- gender option. Yet hardly anyone in gender world debates that issue, do they?
Gender expression is probably one of the last areas in which the powerful are free without sanction to exercise absolutist control over the ‘weak’. Genderocracy wields all-pervasive power. When it comes to gender the message is ‘conform or die!’
Third gendered loos, tick boxes on forms, airport security queues and space between the dress codes, love and understanding. Is this asking for too much?
Or am I being a drama queen? Suffice to say, the list of difficulties and downright insurmountable obstacles a person living betwixt two genders is likely to encounter are endless. Yet there are people like this. There are people like us. It ain’t much fun being marginalized.
This is why I think that the UK government should officially and legally recognize a third gender. Hopefully then, through bravely setting an example, other governments will follow suit. It would mean a lot less suicides and generally make the world a happier place. One can but hope.
Another thing; not every society has had only two genders. Why not research these two-plus gender societies and consider just why current established thought seemingly considers their position on gender diversity inferior to ours?
Still think I’m ridiculous? Lol out there in webland? If wisdom dictates that male and female are the only two genders, then considering each and every single person on this planet who ever lived is nevertheless deemed to be an individual, I can’t resist contending that this gender bi-polarity displays an appalling lack of imagination on the part of gendered kind.
Then again, maybe the people who stumble upon my petition are going to prove me wrong by adding their signatures to it. On the other hand, maybe you’re signing it because you are transgendered? Or even frivolous? Never mind, at least I cheered someone up. Who says a petition can’t do that?
I only need 200 signatures before this goes before the PM. Let’s put transgender on the agenda!
petitions.pm.gov.uk/Transgender/
Ah, you’ve found my petition for a third gender! Maybe you’re laughing at the very idea. Maybe you’re not. Don’t stop laughing - it’s good for you but please wait, whoever you are. If you make that decision to read on I would really appreciate it because…
The idea of a third gender is not as ridiculous as it may at first seem. Not every single individual on this planet has ever, or is ever going to fit exclusively into those rigidly defined constructs known as masculine and feminine. Wanna hear me out? (Oh, you look good with a smile on your faceJ)
For starters there is hard, solid evidence to support the realization that there are more than two genders. Not least of this is the reality that individuals born as physically intersex have been scientific, medically known fact since the beginning of time
Similarly, in more recent years, following post-mortem examinations, (morbidity alert…!) researchers claim to have discovered actual physical differences in the hypothalamus area of the brains of transsexual individuals. Furthermore, it has also been noted that the relative length of index fingers in comparison to other fingers on the hand, are similar on the hands of male-to-female transgendered people as they are on those of non-transgendered females.
Intrigued? Still laughing? Well, they laughed when women said they wanted the vote. The stupidity and destructiveness of sexism are well known. However, what about genderism?
Okay, I’m fully aware that popular opinion is insistent that there are only two genders - male and female. Nevertheless, unlike biological sex, gender is an artificial, ‘man-made’ creation. Notions of appropriate masculinity and femininity are constructed by sexist, male dominated societies.
UK law, including the 1975 Sex Discrimination Act, only legislates for males and females who are equal, but different - as the legend underneath the EOC’s pink and blue logo so confidently proclaims. A transgendered person is only afforded protection under UK law if s/he is about to undergo, is undergoing, or has undergone gender reassignment surgery (a ‘sex-change’ in UK tabloid-speak). Society places an obligation upon such individuals to become a member of one of the two legally legitimized genders (ie. male or female). Otherwise, it somehow considers you’re not being genuine and assumes every moral right to order you to return to your suffocating gender straightjacket.
I see a problem here. Not every transgendered person, or person with gender dysphoria, has gender reassignment surgery. Some transgendered people aren’t able to have such a challenging series of operations because their personal health is unlikely to stand up to such physical punishment. Other transpeople simply don’t want gender reassignment surgery and probably even more folks just can’t bring themselves to decide. Surely indecisiveness is understandable considering how big an irreversible step physical gender reassignment is? Yet all-importantly, this doesn’t alter the fact that such gender ‘non-corrected’ individuals won’t suffer from being forced to conform to a gender identity that is alien to them. And this won’t alter the fact that there are people who consider themselves neither male nor female.
In our ‘ladies and gents’ society there is no space for a third gender. Sure, even something as fundamental and taken for granted as using a public lavatory becomes a deeply problematic, nay-threatening concept. Recently, Police were summoned to apprehend former Big Brother contestant, Sam Brodie for using the Ladies. Yet if Sam Brodie uses the Gents would Sam be risking a beating…or worse?
School authorities and employers are allowed to force individuals to conform to rigid gendered dress codes (what puritanical misery…short hair for males, females can‘t wear trousers, males can‘t wear skirts). Job application forms routinely ask the applicant to state a male or female gender, whilst, at the same time, claiming that the job candidate’s gender is unimportant. Airport security divides people into two lines - male and female (so transgendered people aren‘t allowed to fly?) And predictably, the government’s controversy-ridden proposed ID card scheme will only have a two- gender option. Yet hardly anyone in gender world debates that issue, do they?
Gender expression is probably one of the last areas in which the powerful are free without sanction to exercise absolutist control over the ‘weak’. Genderocracy wields all-pervasive power. When it comes to gender the message is ‘conform or die!’
Third gendered loos, tick boxes on forms, airport security queues and space between the dress codes, love and understanding. Is this asking for too much?
Or am I being a drama queen? Suffice to say, the list of difficulties and downright insurmountable obstacles a person living betwixt two genders is likely to encounter are endless. Yet there are people like this. There are people like us. It ain’t much fun being marginalized.
This is why I think that the UK government should officially and legally recognize a third gender. Hopefully then, through bravely setting an example, other governments will follow suit. It would mean a lot less suicides and generally make the world a happier place. One can but hope.
Another thing; not every society has had only two genders. Why not research these two-plus gender societies and consider just why current established thought seemingly considers their position on gender diversity inferior to ours?
Still think I’m ridiculous? Lol out there in webland? If wisdom dictates that male and female are the only two genders, then considering each and every single person on this planet who ever lived is nevertheless deemed to be an individual, I can’t resist contending that this gender bi-polarity displays an appalling lack of imagination on the part of gendered kind.
Then again, maybe the people who stumble upon my petition are going to prove me wrong by adding their signatures to it. On the other hand, maybe you’re signing it because you are transgendered? Or even frivolous? Never mind, at least I cheered someone up. Who says a petition can’t do that?
I only need 200 signatures before this goes before the PM. Let’s put transgender on the agenda!