I think people also need to understand we live in a post European colonial world.
To Europeans gender meant everything.
It was the way they passed down land.
It was important for kings to have male heirs. Women were basically property.
However prior to colonialism many different societies had gender variants.
The once sacred Hijra of india
The also once sacred two spirit people of native Americans.
Many Asian cultures have many forms of gender variants
And some African cultures had these as well.
This is not a new topic.
Gender in western society has become so strict that many people are rebelling against it.
Even amongst Europeans and early Americans gender expression was wildly different.
The culture went from men wearing wigs and heels to men being looked down upon if they do those things.
This is why gender and sex are not the same.
Sex=body and gender is society expectations of said body.
Societies expectations of bodies changed pretty drastically throughout history.
As a culture we have slowly been moving away from strict colonial standardsâŚ
Female bodies can work
Male bodies can take care of the home
Labor isnât as physical as it used to be
And with intellect becoming the way to put food on the table, the strict roles for the sexes no longer matter.
Being gay wasnât a choice for me and it certainly wasnât a choice for the millions of gay people around the world who will mostly tell you they didnât chose it.
There are gay people in countries that will kill you for being gay.
You also donât have any proof that itâs not natural⌠genetic or not.
I do have proof because I am.
Gay people, trans people, have existed for forever itâs a repeating pattern not just in humans but in many species of animal.
I just want to be respected and treated like a human in all the same ways you are.
Not being gay myself and actually being conservative leaning towards libertarian (yes voted for Trump) I donât see it as a life style choice . I see it more like what I have A.D.D. where it is more a case of how the person is wired .
Eh, letâs back up a bit. I was a bit blinded by my own bias and overstated my case. Gender and sex are indeed synonyms in popular usage. 100% conceded there.
However, to interject that into a discussion that is predicated on using specific definitions of those terms is still being willingly provocative, regardless. It adds nothing to the discussion other than to be willingly dismissive of the reasons that this distinction is made. There is no constructive reason to throw a cherrypicked dictionary definition at the discussion, particularly when you know full well which usages of these terms are being used in the context of the discussion.
No reason to use the past tense, here. At least as far as the local Anishinaabe culture goes, this is still a revered status, even in current modern times.
I think when people argue semantics first before engaging with the topic at hand, their intention was never to take part of a discussion but rather veer it off its tracks.
I mean they could of answered the OP with the similar tenacity and structure but they opted to pick on semantics instead.
Anyhow, back on topic. I love Artherealâs take on the western world generally seeing gender through a post european colonial world. It makes total sense, I remember clearly after travelling throughout Asia how different certain cultures will perceive gender, sex and ârestrictionsâ to both.
A classic example is Thailand, actually, my Thai friends mentioned to me recently how it is one of the rare countries that has been mostly untouched by âmodernâ (see- european) colonialism. It is also a country known for being extremely open about gender in general.
As someone that fits somewhat the similar âgroupâ of cis white male as yourself, I feel like having these discussions to broaden our understanding but mostly deconstruct âsystemsâ in our brains (built on North american societal norms) is super important.
I used to think terms like gender-fluidity were silly, until I met and talked to someone who identified as such. I am priviledged in a way because I get to interact with the queer community more than most due to hobbies I have. So I get to learn more and faster than say those who have 0 interactions.
The challenge I think going forward, is making it so that we donât necessarily need to have an interaction with a âqueerâ person to understand that they are just like us, but having that being evident from the get go (as a kid). Dracthyr being queer-coded the right way is a huge step in meeting that challenge (kids can play wow, young teenagers play wow). It truly is a fascinating topic.
Yep, tying it right back into the topic at hand: the goal is normalization. Itâs not that I think that queer identity shouldnât come to the forefront - itâs that it shouldnât be notable when it does. And we can only reach that point if this mode of thinking is integral to the very design of the game itself. Not flagrantly promoted - simply present.
Definitely! And you donât even need to look all that far back into history or culture hop to get examples. Cigarettes come to mind immediately. These were gendered not too long ago. Men smoke cigars, cigarettes were for women. Then the Western world was plunged into war. Cigars werenât all that portable or hygienic when youâre down in the trenches. But these men still wanted to smoke. Cigarettes, even as something incredibly feminine at the time, were the solution. And they almost immediately lost that feminine gendering. In fact, it swung in the other direction - cigarettes became an âunladylikeâ indulgence.
Even baby clothing and gender-coded colours have varied wildly in relatively recent history. There are so many examples of how fluid the concept of gender is, and thatâs why various branches of academia use the term to differentiate these concepts from base biology (which itself if being recognized as a spectrum in recent years).
And none of this is political. Itâs academic. And as much as anti-intellectualists try to conflate the two, they arenât the same thing.
I only read your intro.
It doesnât matter what you look like, or from where you hail. Blizz might hire based on looks, preferences and plumbing, but gamers donât care. Youâre a male orc shaman as far as it matters.
Secondly, Iâd hardly say tying a new class exclusively to a non-binary androgynous skink race is âdoing it rightâ.
I think that anyone who has played this game long enough to have dealt with the âGMâs girlfriendâ knows that this isnât true. It should be true. In an ideal world, it would be true. But in an inherently social game, your strata in society does affect you. Sometimes in unnoticeable ways, unless you put some deliberate thought into it.
I realize that corporate western society and its shills is trying to eradicate people who look like you, and maybe this post is you tiptoeing around that for acceptance.
Iâd hardly say tying a new class exclusively to a non-binary androgynous skink race is âdoing it rightâ.
I wasnt responding to your point, which OP addressed anyways, I was merely pointing out the futility of your input when you choose to ignore 99% of the actual discussion that already happened let alone the OP lol.
Ok, I read it all just to tell you that my sound points still stand.
IRL race/plumbing donât matter.
Tying a new class exclusively to a non-binary race is not âdoing it rightâ.
Way to negate the existence of the working class. In my country there are millions of old style workers. Iâd bet that in the US they are dozens of million.
About half of the working class has always been women, who have been and still are mercilessly exploited, like men⌠and, sadly, in some countries, children of every gender.
Your post seems based on two assumptions:
There is no working class any more, or it is negligible.
Now that the working class has been dealt away with, women can work, âat lastâ.
At least as far as the local Anishinaabe culture goes, this is still a revered status, even in current modern times.
