“How many genders are there?” Mr. Witt asked before turning and staring deadpan at the camera. Some people laughed and walked away. Most, knowing the camera was rolling, engaged.“As many as you want?” a recent Ph.D. student responded, a little confused to be confronted with this question.
So I really wonder what his reaction would be if you replied to Will Witt:
“Well, here in the U.S. most people take on one of two gender identities, but as you surely know there are small minorities that share gender identities that have historically been subject to violence, and have been marginalized and discriminated against. It is a blessing that our society is increasingly open rather than intolerant regarding these gender identities. Also, I am sure Will you know that many other societies around the world also have minority gendered subgroups that sometimes are quite different from ours. Will, you may also know that what you probably proudly label “the western tradition” is filled with prominent people who were uncomfortable with extreme binary gender representations and were comfortable with fluidity. Lastly, Will, as you know, for almost 150 years one of the mainstream gender identities of the U.S. was deemed, by members of the other gender identity, as being unworthy of the basic right that was supposedly one of the founding principles of the country, the right to vote. So when you ask your question, Will, maybe you should seek some truth, rather than a mocking laugh?”
First of my Christmas sci-fi books to be finished was Excession, by Iain Banks. Enjoyable but unlike others I found the exchanges between ship-minds to not be very interesting. They seem modeled entirely on message board banter of computer programmers. What is so interesting about that? Several plot lines seemed to never be tied up, several characters really had little to contribute. The Affront paradox never really gets resolved: can an author pose a major philosophical problem like that and then just pretend that it goes away? So the novel raises lots of interesting questions and has many great scenes and some good characters and complications. But for sci-fi fans only, I suppose.
