A few days ago I found myself in a medical walk-in clinic, perusing the latest issue of a women’s fashion magazine while I waited to see the doctor. (Thankfully, doctors’ waiting rooms are no longer the repositories of stale news magazines and nothing else.) Although I consider myself fairly up-to-date when it comes to fashion trends, I was taken aback by what I saw on the pages of the magazine. I saw men–at least I assumed they were male models–dressed in ruffled bodices and high heels. There were ‘man-spreading’ girls–I believe they were women–sporting suits and ties and clunky boots. I literally could not tell who was male or who was female by the clothes they were wearing or by their body shapes or facial features or hairstyles or their postures. And that was the point. This issue of the magazine had nothing to do with the latest styles in women’s clothing; this was all about gender identity.
There is a movement afoot to do away with the male-female binary. Until recently, biological sex and gender were regarded as the same thing and the terms were used interchangeably. Before the time of ultrasounds, new parents waited to hear those all-important words from the doctor or midwife. who would say one of two things after examining the newborn’s genitalia, “it’s a boy” or “you have a girl.” The child would then be raised as either a boy or girl and eventually become an adult man or woman.
Social activists and certain ‘experts’ now claim that biological sex and gender are not the same: sex refers solely to biological characteristics, e.g., genitalia and hormone levels, while gender has to do with an individual’s internal, personal sense of being male or female. A problem arises when an individual’s perception of themselves as male or female does not line up with their actual ”plumbing’: a condition formerly classed as the psychological disorder, gender dysphoria. Today we use the adjective ‘transgender’ to describe such individuals–represented by the T in LGBTQ. From 0.25% to 1% of the population in Canada and the US is believed to be transgender.
Once gender was separated from biological sex and came to be based on personal feelings, new categories appeared. Some individuals identify now as neither male nor female but as non-binary (NB), meaning that they locate themselves outside the male-female dichotomy. Others describe themselves as ‘gender fluid’ meaning that they sometimes identify as male, on other occasions as female–their gender can vary at random, or alter with changing circumstances. Some label themselves neutrois, meaning neither male nor female, but neutral. There’s even an new adjective to describe those whose biological sex and sense of personal gender align (like the vast majority of the human race): we are ‘cisgender’.
The idea that there are more than two genders is being promoted by no less an organization than the Associated Press (AP). In their 2017 stylebook–the writing and editing resource for newsrooms–the AP directs news writers to avoid using the words “both,” “either,” or “opposite” when talking about gender, to reject any reference that would imply there are only two genders. That news writers are following this latest edict was confirmed for me recently when I heard a news presenter refer to “all genders.”
Astonishingly, assigning a gender at birth based on biology is now viewed by some as a violation of a child’s human rights. A Canadian woman who identifies as non-binary and transgender wants to keep her newborn’s gender off the child’s birth certificate. ‘They’ want to avoid placing “restrictions on the child that come with the boy box and the girl box.”
Are there really more than two genders, as the social activists claim? Science says “no.” A female has 46 chromosomes, which includes two Xs. A male has 46 chromosomes, including an X and Y. It is this Y chromosome which is dominant and carries the signal for the embryo to grow testes. Maleness or femaleness is embedded in the very DNA of individuals and remains unaltered by surgery or hormone therapy. An individual may decide he or she is non-binary, but his or her DNA would say otherwise. Interestingly–but not at all surprising to me–science supports the biblical and traditional view of gender.
We have barely begun to see the consequences of making gender a matter of personal feeling! An male inmate in a Canadian prison who now identifies as female has won the right to be transferred to a women’s prison, thanks to recent legislation passed by the Canadian government. He/she is being allowed to do this, despite not having begun sex-change surgery.
Back to the gender-bending fashion magazine in the doctor’s waiting room: It was obvious to me that the editor was ‘on board’ with the move to do away with this whole male-female notion. In retrospect: I can’t remember whether I even liked any of the clothes I saw in the magazine. But then, it wasn’t about clothing anyway. This was essentially a propaganda piece.