World's First Official Genderless Person?
If you haven't already gotten it, you will soon recieve your 2010 census form. You will notice there is a question asking if you are male or female, with no other options. It's a good thing Norrie May-Welby doesn't live in the United States because May-Welby is neither. And now, it's official.
The 48 year old was born male in Scotland and moved to Australia at age 7. Twenty-one years later, May-Welby underwent a sex change but really wasn't happy living life as a woman either, according to London's Telegraph newspaper.
Which left one final alternative -- neutering.
"The concepts of man or woman don't fit me," May-Welby said. "The simplest solution is not to have any sex identification."
So the New South Wales government amended May-Welby's birth certificate to reflect "no specific sex" after doctors were not able to make a gender determination. So May-Welby is apparently the first person legally designated with no gender.
"There is no reason for still insisting that our legal identity must include a public statement about a very private matter, our sex," May-Welby wrote in a blog.
Here at OpposingViews we wonder, which public rest room will he or she (we also need a new pronoun) use?
OV Social
I wish I'd read this earlier. If any of you come back to this page, I'd love to hear an answer to ecuadmail's question. Especially in our feminist-influenced American culture (where gender roles are not particularly specific, at least in theory), how does someone decide they feel like a woman (when they are biologically male)? Couldn't you argue they just feel like a man who likes to paint his nails and wear nylons (or whatever behavior they are identifying as female?) Doesn't gender identification with the opposite sex defy all that feminism asserts: that there are inherent differences between the sexes beyond that which is merely physical?
"Grant that I may not judge a person until I have walked a mile in his moccasins"?
As it happens, I am male, and comfortable with myself as a man, physically--yet I am not comfortable with many aspects of societal sex /gender roles. I don't like sports ; I'm no good with cars and haven't even had one for 15 years now; I don't go to bars to pick up women ; I love the arts; I would have no objections to being a house -husband if it came to that (I am divorced, with no current remarriage prospects, and that's okay too); and I am very comfortable with the "softer" emotions. It wouldn't take much for me to decide I'm not comfortable identifying as either sex. So I think I can understand a bit where Mr/Ms. May-Welby (yes, it does seem we need a new set of pronouns!) comes from.
I totally agree with the need for a new pronoun! With all the words in the English language why isn't there one to identify a person without having to specify their gender? What say we don't know their gender, do we call them "it"?
"The next caller gets a free prize if he wants it, I mean if she wants it, I mean if it wants it". Argh, come on, give us a new word!!!
Times can blind us to certain truths and later generations can see that laws once thought necessary and proper in fact serve only to oppress.
They are not in wide-spread use but I definitely have to say that it's a work in progress. You should check it out, as there is a fabulous Wikipedia article on the subject.
reading all the comments on this page it seems everyone who is making the distinction between gender and sex is taking a page out of Judith Butlers, "Performative acts and Gender Constitution" Paper. And that's totally cool if that's what you believe. Existentialists hold to the "You are what you do" idea. So whether you feel like a man/ woman is irrelevant. If you perform the stereotyped acts of a man or a woman that's what you are. To put it another way they mess the theory of "loving the sinner and hating the sin" into chaos because they see the sinner as being the sin since they performed it. I've also seen references on here to the APA and how they classify disorders and what is/is not a disorder. That's an example of a discourse taking control of peoples opinions. If you claim that they were wrong in saying homosexuality was a disorder then you have to equally assume they are wrong in saying it isn't. My point being that a discourse doesn't determine reality. Reality does. Being genotypically male is USUALLY determined by the phenotypical genitalia. Same with female. Whether or not someone feels they belong to that gender is the only thing I guess I'm not able to comprehend in all this. "I don't feel like a man" "Why not? How does a man feel?" I don't see how the contrast happens? Because you don't feel like one based off what you imagine one should feel like you must be the other? (Before you rip into me as being a bigot or an idiot I'm asking sincerely here so stuff your heterophobe rhetoric that I hate transgender people or gay people because I question their opinons) Is it because one doesn't like what society says men should like? I don't like sports but I like to cook. Does that make me a woman? Does that mean I feel like a woman or does it mean that feelings are influenced and subjected to societal stereotypes and everyone deals with it? I seriously can't wrap my head around it. Anyone care to shed some light here?
do you feel like a man or a woman ?
Biologically gender can be defined through genetics, but even then the answer is not necessarily clear cut (with hermaphroditieism and such).
Gender can also be defined on a societal level, but that to does not mandate a 'clear cut' answer (look to the instances of the 'third gender' that have cropped up).
Unless we are speaking medically then why is a strict, objective definition of gender needed?
is what I'm trying to understand. If a person is comfortable with who they are, what they like to do, and who they are attracted to how/why can/do they decide that they are biologically incompatible with their genitalia? If someone born medically a male, prefers to date men, likes to cook and sew and wear dresses that's their thing. That doesn't mean they know what it feels like to be a woman any more or less than they know what it feels like to be a man because all of those feelings are subjective to the person. When someone tells you they feel like a man what feeling are they exactly referring to? Is it an innate feeling that men identify and share with each other and say "that feeling you're feeling right now is what a man feels like" ? Is that how someone knows what it feels like to be a man vs a woman?
This is a man that has had surgery, nothing can change that he is a man.
than "man" or " woman ". Both Genotype and Phenotype play vital roles. Genotype refers to exact genetic makeup. So, it's given by the writer that May-Welby was born, genotypically, male. Phenotypes are observable traits, development, hormonal influences, and behavior. Each one of these traits, behaviors, etc., can be influenced by nature or nurture. To say that "nothing can change that he is a man" is missing both Genotype and Phenotype sciences in sex determination. But... even if we forego "sex" in favor of gender, gender itself is defined specifically by phenotypical characteristics.
So, surgery can definitely change the sex of a human. More than that, neutering the genitalia of a human will render that human phenotypically genderless to observers (May-Welby's doctors ).
Beyond all of this, we might want to remember that May-Welby did not feel comfortable as a man or a woman and has chosen to physically, emotionally and by gene-mapping (geno/pheno) alterations, present and identify as "genderless". More power to this person - best wishes for a happy, joyous life.
"genderfeminism" (Hillary)believes or tries to allege that sex roles are determined and imposed by society . They have been developed by a million years of evolution . If anyone invented human sexuality, it was the chimp or bonboni, who "did this" before man even evolved.