58 gender options

[MagicM]

From local national newspaper The Australian:

What’s the deal with kids these days? With 58 gender categories to choose from, ­sexual and gender identity are part of the Zeitgeist.

Ask Josh Han, the queer officer with Sydney University’s Student Representative Council. “It’s about deconstructing ­societal views of what it means to be a man or a woman,” he says. “If you only have two genders, there are limited interactions. But if you have a diversity of gender identities you don’t have these closed categories. It means you can have way more than 58 gender categories.”

Among those 58 ­options, first listed on Facebook, are bigender, gender questioning, gender variant, pangender, intersex and 26 versions of trans, transgender and trans­sexual. Plain old male and ­female didn’t make the list.

But don’t think for a moment that Han is part of a fringe movement. At campuses across the country students are campaigning for gender-neutral bathrooms and official records to state chosen, not birth, names.

Kyol Blakeney, the president of Sydney University’s SRC, says these are important issues. “A lot of people who transition have a chosen name that is different to their legal name. If they go to class and their legal name is called out it can be horrifying for them.”

Ditto on the prosaic business of going to the bathroom. “For a queer person or a trans person to use a male bathroom can be a ­humiliating or dangerous exper­ience because of physical and verbal assault,” says Blakeney.

Signs of gender fluidity are everywhere. Former Kardashian clan patriarch Bruce Jenner transitioned into Caitlyn on the cover of Vanity Fair this month. A Gucci advertising campaign on The Australian’s website features gender-unspecific models. And, as revealed in today’s The Weekend Australian Magazine, children as young as six are telling their parents they no longer identify with their assigned birth gender.

It's something or another gone mad - I'm just not sure what.

[injest]

From local national newspaper The Australian:

What’s the deal with kids these days? With 58 gender categories to choose from, ­sexual and gender identity are part of the Zeitgeist.

Ask Josh Han, the queer officer with Sydney University’s Student Representative Council. “It’s about deconstructing ­societal views of what it means to be a man or a woman,” he says. “If you only have two genders, there are limited interactions. But if you have a diversity of gender identities you don’t have these closed categories. It means you can have way more than 58 gender categories.”

Among those 58 ­options, first listed on Facebook, are bigender, gender questioning, gender variant, pangender, intersex and 26 versions of trans, transgender and trans­sexual. Plain old male and ­female didn’t make the list.

But don’t think for a moment that Han is part of a fringe movement. At campuses across the country students are campaigning for gender-neutral bathrooms and official records to state chosen, not birth, names.

Kyol Blakeney, the president of Sydney University’s SRC, says these are important issues. “A lot of people who transition have a chosen name that is different to their legal name. If they go to class and their legal name is called out it can be horrifying for them.”

Ditto on the prosaic business of going to the bathroom. “For a queer person or a trans person to use a male bathroom can be a ­humiliating or dangerous exper­ience because of physical and verbal assault,” says Blakeney.

Signs of gender fluidity are everywhere. Former Kardashian clan patriarch Bruce Jenner transitioned into Caitlyn on the cover of Vanity Fair this month. A Gucci advertising campaign on The Australian’s website features gender-unspecific models. And, as revealed in today’s The Weekend Australian Magazine, children as young as six are telling their parents they no longer identify with their assigned birth gender.

It's something or another gone mad - I'm just not sure what.

one things for sure, you can't have a civilization where everyone defines their own language.

[Milo]

They might be having their fun now, but when they finally grow up and wake up they'll return to just being men and women.

[injest]

They might be having their fun now, but when they finally grow up and wake up they'll return to just being men and women.

you would hope so but Bettermost and Dave Cullen both proves you wrong..

[Milo]

you would hope so but Bettermost and Dave Cullen both proves you wrong..

I hear ya. The truth is that there is a very small number of humans that are actually transgendered, and an even smaller number who are born with ambiguous gender. The rest of them are just playing a game because they want us to agree, appreciate, and accept their choices as if it were normal. 

[MagicM]

Hundreds of years ago a Persian poet and mystic named Hafiz put the issue of gender in perspective:

Once a young woman asked me,
“How does it feel to be a man?”
And I replied,
“My dear, I am not so sure.”
Then she said,
“Well, aren’t you a man?”
And this time I replied,
“I view gender
As a beautiful animal
That people often take for a walk on a leash
And might try to enter in some odd contest
To try to win prizes.
My dear,
A better question for Hafiz
Would have been,
'How does it feel to be a heart?'
For all I know is
Love,
And I find my heart
Infinite
And
Everywhere!"

Talk about entering beautiful animals in contests to win prizes - Bruce/Caitlyn anyone?

[Milo]

Talk about entering beautiful animals in contests to win prizes - Bruce/Caitlyn anyone?

Bingo!!

[injest]

I hear ya. The truth is that there is a very small number of humans that are actually transgendered, and an even smaller number who are born with ambiguous gender. The rest of them are just playing a game because they want us to agree, appreciate, and accept their choices as if it were normal. 

and everyone wants to be *different* *unique*...which is why there are 58 options and counting.

the problem is that now the culture is embracing it to some extent: look at your discussions about sexuality at Bettermost, you are using THEIR terminology "Cis" etc. Once they control the language, they control the debate. It's the same with political correctness, if you have to watch everything you say to keep from offending someone then you are silenced, First Amendment or not. They've won.

[Milo]