The Recent Evolution of Gender

To the left is the Transgender pride flag. Transgender is a recent development in the... non-heterosexual community, you could say. It used to be gays and lesbians, then bisexuals, and now transgender.

But Transgender is the most complicated of all the non-heterosexual labels. Besides defying one of the most basic human principles--that your sex and your gender are the same-- Transgender also has many 'identities' within its big blanketing term. Let's look at a few:

So, you have your basic Transgender. Transgender has to do with gender identity. If you were born as a male, but feel inside as if you are a female, you are Transgender. Transgender people sometimes choose to physically alter their sex in order to match their true gender. Usually, this is referred to as Transexual.

Then, you have your Bi-Gender. Basically, when one switches between genders often. One day they're exclusively masculine, the next they're utterly feminine.

And after that there's a whole slew of terms for those above, beyond, between and outside of gender. Genderqueer, Pangender, Androgyne, Third Gender. All these terms have complicated definitions, often overlapping with other labels.

There's also a brand-new term: Cisgender. You know what that means? It means... i resist the urge to use the word 'normal'. It means you aren't transgender. It means you align yourself with the gender of the sex you were born with. Did I miss something? Did we need a term for this?

Is it just me, or is this getting way too complicated? Before we had BOY and GIRL. Maybe BUTCH and FEMME, within Boy and Girl. Transgendered was a big step. And now there's a million little gender labels. What does it all MEAN?

It means gender is more important. It means we are evolving, moving past our clearly drawn lines, our perfect roles. The way I see it, gender has always been an essential part of our lives, but as we drew towards the 20th century, it became more than that. Through the emerge of women's rights, gender was suddenly something to take pride in. It was something that truly mattered, and that even if society said it had to act one way, well by golly it could go in a whole 'nother direction if it felt like it! And as time went on, people began to stretch the limitations of gender. They tore down the walls that confined them and did their best to run free. And as that became alright, and as it became common, so did our re-thinking of gender itself.

I'm anxious to see how gender will evolve over the next decade. When you fill out a form, how many boxes will there be under 'Sex'? Will they change the wording to gender? How many people will emerge as Third/Pan/Bi-gendered? And how will the world react to them? I wonder sometimes how accepting we can be. This idea, the basic idea of having something beyond male and female is completely out of this world. How long before the boxes on a form read out "Male, Female, Other"? How long before we craft new pro-nouns to accommadate them?

Is this the next big movement? I sure as heck wouldn't be surprised.

(sorry about the bullets, it was the only way i could get the post to work)