Yesterday in the library on campus I saw a young man sitting
by himself in an upholstered chair knitting what looked like a scarf. My immediate reaction was negative and
judgmental with thoughts tumbling through my mind like “What’s he doing knitting!”
My next thought was more observational as I pondered the
cultural conditioning and personal prejudice behind my knee-jerk response.
In an article I read recently the author challenged her
readers to imagine a world where gender didn’t exist. Not that there would be humans without
biological distinctions relative to gender, but rather that the male/female
designations would have no intrinsic meanings or cultural expectations attached
to the words. There would just be
“people.” Period. No classification beyond that.
It surprised me how difficult it was to create a mental
picture of a gender-free society. If gender
provides the framework for our self-identity then who would we be without
it?
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