By Sasha Moedt (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: May 23, 2012
Try to define yourself without using gender. Imagine a place that was open to a much broader range of gender identities, where children weren’t as strictly socialized to be wholly male or female, and where simple characteristics weren’t labeled as masculine or feminine. It’s a freedom of identity that’s hard to comprehend.
Argentina has recently taken a step closer to these freedoms with a new law that gives citizens the right to change their legal and physical gender without having to undergo medical, psychiatric, or judicial procedures. It’s a right that I’ve never thought about, one that we are far from having: gender self-determination.
Now in Argentina, the choice to become a gender different then the one you were born biologically will be covered by public and private health care. Argentineans will not have to be approved by a judge, diagnosed by a psychiatrist, or touched by a doctor to change genders. The barriers have been taken away.
Having a valid ID, a legal identity that matches you own, is crucial. It opens up the door to so many other rights, removing barriers in health care, employment, and education. The choice to change gender in Argentina will be seen as rational, not a disorder, which is revolutionary compared to countries like Canada.
Gender plays a huge role in defining one’s identity in our society. Being able to choose your gender is central to finding your own identity. But imagine if gender, and all the connotations and expectations that went with it were a moot point in a person’s identity. Wouldn’t defining yourself be much easier?
It is exciting to think about the next steps Argentina might be taking. I think eliminating gender completely might be a further step to consider. A person might change from M to F on their driver’s license, but what does it mean to be female? It is a specific socialized role that half the population must conform to. This person will still be trapped in societal expectations.
We are assigned a gender at birth, yet basic biology teaches us it’s not always female chromosomes, XX, male chromosomes, XY. There are people with hormone disorders, people with different chromosomes such as XXY, or with a single X, people born with both genitalia, people born psychologically aware that they are in the body of the “wrong” or opposite sex. Chromosomal make-up isn’t neatly separated. Nothing is.
So take away gender, take away the expectations and the conformity, and I think these beautiful, individual people will start showing themselves. Our population will become genuine, comfortable and unique.
I don’t believe men and women have different minds. This kitschy idea that men are from Mars, women from Venus is complete bullshit. We behave differently because we are socialized from so early on to be that particular way (male or female), consciously or not from those who raise us. Even physically, the only difference between men and women is that women can have babies. Besides reproduction, there are no characteristics that only men or only women have. Some men even grow breasts. Women can be extremely muscular. When it comes down to it, the physical and emotional differences aren’t much but a whole lot of learned socialization.
If we cultivate our own sexuality, our own individuality, I think we will save ourselves a lot of emotional trauma. No wonder we have identity crises left right and centre; we’ve been forced into this role that we just don’t fit, emotionally or physically. Humanity is forced into this dichotomy: man or woman – nothing else, nothing in between the lines. These roles are clearly laid out in front of us, and we’ve never thought we had a choice to be something else; we’ve never been free.
Argentina’s legal steps to granting people identity rights is a bold and commendable move, a step forward in human rights that every country in the world has yet to follow. Hopefully we will look to this new law as something to follow, and continue further towards freedom from the oppression that the socialization of gender imposes.
