flexibeast.space - gemlog - 2024-11-07
Gender abolitionism makes me so angry
‘Abolitionism’ can refer to a number of things[a]. Amongst them is ‘gender abolitionism’, encapsulated in (nominally ‘progressive’ / ‘liberatory’) slogans such as “Abolish genders!” and “No genders” - and it disturbs, distresses and angers me.
i'm 100% in favour of working towards abolishing compulsory gender roles and compulsory gender presentations, a long-term project which dates back to the beginnings of modern feminism. i'm also 100% in favour of abolishing compulsory gender: no-one should be expected to have a sense of gender, or required to identify with a specific gender label.
But as someone who has spent literally decades fighting to have their personal sense of their own gender acknowledged, recognised and accepted - and who continues to have to do so - it upsets me greatly to have people advocate somehow abolishing a part of my very sense of self (particularly if they claim to be “on my side”).
Gender abolitionism seems to come from people who don't, or can't, acknowledge that ‘gender’ can refer to several different things, as i've noted many times before:
[T]he word ‘gender’ is often used in a way that conflates several things ... : ‘sense of gender’, ‘gender identity’, ‘gender presentation’ and ‘gender roles’.
-- “On the word ‘gender’ and the phrase ‘gender is a social construct’”
i learned to make these distinctions the hard way, after many many years of thinking about / discussing / arguing about gender, and realising that people were often talking at cross-purposes as a result of not making these distinctions - and this in turn typically resulted in far more heat than light.
“Abolish gender!” is ridiculous even as some sort of ambit claim. As i noted in one of the entries on my “Short thoughts” page; i feel it's ridiculous to
seemingly think that ‘abolishing’ gender (however that will be achieved) will somehow stop people noticing human dimorphism[.]
But hey, maybe these gender abolitionists feel that people like me are merely an acceptable collateral loss in their simplistic and dogmatic war.
“i am an acceptable collateral loss”
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[a] For example, ‘prison abolitionism’, ‘slavery abolitionism’, ‘prostitution abolitionism’, ‘capital punishment abolitionism’, ‘abortion abolitionism’, and a number of others:
Wikipedia: ‘Abolitionism (disambiguation)’
This is why it's important to be specific about which ‘abolitionism’ you're discussing whenever you're addressing the general public.