You Can’t Erase Gender, but You Can Sure Try

Remember when I said we should expect to see more efforts to erase the distinction between men and women? Take a look at these excerpts from a handout titled “12 Easy Steps on the Way to Gender Inclusiveness,” compiled by Gender Spectrum and given to Lincoln (Nebraska) Public Schools staff (“not meant as rules staff had to follow, but as suggestions for how teachers can make students feel comfortable”):

1. Avoid asking kids to line up as boys or girls or separating them by gender. Instead, use things like "odd and even birth date," or "Which would you choose: skateboards or bikes/milk or juice/dogs or cats/summer or winter/talking or listening.” Invite students to come up with choices themselves. Consider using tools like the "appointment schedule" to form pairs or groups. Always ask yourself, "Will this configuration create a gendered space?"

That alone is interesting and odd. If you’re not going to divide the class into boys and girls, why would you continue to divide the children into two separate lines? The reason they’re being divided up in the first place is that they’re different in a way that’s relevant to getting little kids to stand quietly in line—and they’re two kinds of different. Of course, the teachers could continue to artificially divide them into two lines by irrelevant categories, but it’s not going to accomplish the good that dividing them by gender—the relevant category—used to accomplish. You don’t avoid cooties by separating kids according to their preference for summer or winter, so what’s the point? It’s odd to me that the people who came up with these suggestions didn’t just recommend teachers stop dividing the children into separate lines. (They probably will eventually, but one step at a time.)

This is exactly the kind of inconsistent thinking being expressed by many same-sex marriage advocates (with, I predict, the same eventual outcome of dropping the number two). They’re insisting we ought to hold on to two-person marriage while at the same time removing the reason for defining it as two people in the first place. When “male” and “female” are deemed irrelevant, the number two is no longer in play. At that point, if you insist on “two,” you’re just prolonging a meaningless habit, and how long will that last?

2. Don't use phrases such as “boys & girls,” “you guys,” “ladies and gentlemen," and similarly gendered expressions to get kids’ attention. Instead say things like “calling all readers,” or “hey campers” or “could all of the athletes come here." Create classroom names and then ask all of the “purple penguins” to meet at the rug.

A lot is being made of this “purple penguins” designation in the media, but in fairness, the guidelines are not asking teachers to call kids “purple penguins,” they’re asking teachers to divide the classroom into groups and give those groups special names. “Purple penguins” is just one example of a name they could use, and using it would be no different from dividing students into groups and referring to them as “Bruins” and “Trojans.” It’s only the fact that the group names are supposed to be used as a way to avoid “boys and girls” that turns this into craziness. 

4. Have visual images reinforcing gender inclusion: pictures of people who don't fit gender norms, signs that ”strike out" sayings like “All Boys...” or ”All Girls...” or “All Genders Welcome” door hangers. 

5. When you find it necessary to reference gender, say “Boy, girl, both or neither.” When asked why, use this as a teachable moment. Emphasize to students that your classroom recognizes and celebrates the gender diversity of all students.

6. Point out and inquire when you hear others referencing gender in a binary manner. Ask things like, “Hmmm. That is interesting. Can you say more about that?” or “What makes you say that? I think of it a little differently.” Provide counter-narratives that challenge students to think more expansively about their notions of gender.

There has to be a better way to show compassion to the few children who suffer from gender confusion that doesn’t involve destroying a healthy understanding for all the children of the reality that the world is divided into boys and girls who are different from each other. It’s also hard for me to believe that little kids will go along with this. They’re still quite aware of who the boys are and who the girls are, and they tend to care.

You can read more about this situation in the Lincoln Journal Star. Here’s an extraordinary quote at the end of the article:

“Our purpose is to educate all kids," [Student Services Director Russ] Uhing said. "We do not push a political agenda, we don’t push a religious preference on people, or a sexual preference on people. That’s not what our role is.

It sounds like Uhing is making the common mistake of thinking the worldview he’s promoting is neutral just because he doesn’t attach a political or religious label to it. But of course, there is no neutral view. He is promoting an aspect of a particular worldview. Erasing the distinction between boys and girls is anything but neutral. It teaches children what to think about the meaning of male and female—the most basic aspect of ourselves, telling them that gender is meaningless, something we create for ourselves and use however we like, not something given to us for a purpose we ought to submit to. This understanding of gender has numerous cultural, philosophical, theological, and yes, even political implications. Whether he realizes it or not, the view Uhing is advocating does play a part in advancing a particular political agenda, which is precisely why I predicted we would see more of it.

Comments

[Sam Harper]

This reminds me of a poem by William Brightly Rands (also set to music by Natalie Merchant, pbuh).

TOPSYTURVEY-WORLD

If the butterfly courted the bee,
And the owl the porcupine;
If churches were built in the sea,
And three times one was nine;
If the pony rode his master,
If the buttercups ate the cows,
If the cat had the dire disaster
To be worried by the mouse;
If mama sold the baby
To a gypsy for half a crown;
If a gentleman was a lady,—
The world would be Upside-Down!
If any or all of these wonders
Should ever come about,
I should not consider them blunders,
For I should be Inside-Out!

[liljenborg]

And we will see more of this kind of thing, because, as we allow these people, oh so confused about the nature, function, and meaning of sexuality to confuse five and six-year-old children about what it means to be a boy or a girl, how much more confused will those children be when they hit puberty and begin feeling the pull of adult hormones. At least, I hope they are confused, because otherwise they're intentionally seeking to induce their own perverted view of human sexuality onto young kids.

I'm already confused myself about the whole thing. They seem to view any kind of difference as something that leads to division, exclusion, and some sort of discrimination. But their solution is to multiply the differences from two biological sexes into a multiplicity of culturally determined genders. Dividing people into even more groups will get rid of the differences that they believe people discriminate against? And given that a number of their "gender" categories they've invented or defined from people with serious psychological and anatomical defects directly conflict with the biological differences natural to the human organism, it will only increase the cultural conflicts and problems between people given how central sexuality, marriage, and family are to human beings.

[John Moore]

I'll bet they also don't want girls to wear pink and boys to wear blue. And they don't want to give girls the dolls and boys the toy trucks. They don't want the boys to run races while the girls stand on the sidelines and cheer. They might even suggest that a girl can be class president, or that a boy can be the leader of the knitting club. What's the world coming to?? When they hit puberty, those kids won't know who they're supposed to love and who they're supposed to be grossed out about. They'll be totally confused, because kids always need adults to teach them these things, right?

[liljenborg]

The issue is NOT that educators are being instructed to not reinforce cultural and sexist stereotypes (boys wear blue/girls wear pink, girls can't be class president). The issues is that educators are being instructed to reinforce the denial that there are any differences between boy and girls, indeed to deny that the categories "boys" and "girls" even exist. Of course, these "experts" assert that all differences between the sexes are cultural and sexist stereotypes (denying any biological or inherent psychological differences).

Boys and girls are not androgynous tabula rasa. They are completely aware of the obvious differences, both anatomical and behavioral between them. When those differences are constantly shoved into the background or denied, they (especially the boys) will be more confused about what it means to be male or female. It becomes a self fulfilling prophecy: confuse young boys and girls about sexual differences, both biological and cultural, and adolescent young men and women will be more confused about their own sexual identities, more insecure about their own sexuality, and thus more likely to buy the lies (that is to say, identify with the artificial, contrived multiplicity of genders) foisted upon us by these "experts".

[Andrew W]

John: The reason athletic events are sex-segregated is so that at least some of the girls can meaningfully compete rather than just stand on the sidelines. The error margins on sex as a predictor of athletic ability are tiny. The error margins of sex on a predictor of procreative role are essentially zero (obviously). Why is it so incredible to think that sex may also predict (or advise) other (e.g. social) distinctions?

[John Moore]

I agree that sex differences are more than just cultural, so that's one point we have in common.

I didn't mean to suggest that sports should be mixed with boys and girls competing against each other. But there should be sports for girls too. "Cheering" isn't really a sport.

[Andrew W]

Then I'm not sure I understand where you're coming from. Here in Australia, most sports have "mens" and "womens" competitions, although many are non-segregated through primary school except at the elite levels. Teen and adult sports are usually segregated at all levels (except mixed competitions).

Elite men's sport tends to get more publicity than elite women's sport, but I believe that is directly and indirectly because it operates at a higher standard, and thus a greater draw. And also because men *tend* to be more interested in elite sport which gives a greater potential following to the mens comps. (And I say this as someone who follows a popular international sport in which Australia is currently top 2 in the world in both mens and womens comps and yet gets very little local press time, nor are its players "professional" unless they can build a support business on the back of their playing, so I'm aware of the very big gulf in presence between a 1st tier and 2nd tier sport).