Re: Joining FoRK?

Kragen Sitaker (kragen@pobox.com)
Wed, 4 Aug 1999 11:30:25 -0400 (EDT)

Amy writes:
> Mostly, I just don't want my sexuality - or my gender - to matter.
> I don't want to be heterosexual, or gay, or bi, since each label has
> so much baggage. I didn't mean to imply that I don't have sexual
> desires or interests. In the same way, it's not that I wish I were
> male instead of female, but I wish I could just say "none of the above"
> because the socially defined roles for the sexes - especially when
> played to the extreme - are just so grotesque. It's hard (for me) to
> imagine that anyone enjoys playing these extreme roles but evidently
> many people do. Why? I'd be perfectly happy if gender were as
> significant as hair or eye color. Does anyy of this make sense?

Absolutely. Amen, brother! (I have to admit, though, I have some
pretty strong gender prejudices. I'm a lot more comfortable hugging
women than men, for example, and I think I tend to challenge men more
and interrupt women more in conversation. But I repent!)

In high school, I was kicked out of the New Mexico Supercomputing
Challenge because, on the entry form, I entered my race as 'human' (and
my SSN as 'noyfb', but that's not relevant to this conversation).

I can't believe the hooraw Cindy's use of 'hir' has caused. I should
see if I can get an electronic copy of Douglas Hofstadter's whe/ble
essay (which is about the generic use of 'man', but could certainly
apply to gender-specific pronouns) and post it in response. :)

-- 
<kragen@pobox.com>       Kragen Sitaker     <http://www.pobox.com/~kragen/>
Tue Aug 03 1999
96 days until the Internet stock bubble bursts on Monday, 1999-11-08.
<URL:http://www.pobox.com/~kragen/bubble.html>