• GTTRPNK
    55
    There has been a lot of controversy on this topic the past several years and I'm curious what everyone thinks. Is there some embedded societal need for gender labeling? Have we outgrown this concept altogether? Would we be better without it?
    1. Is Gender Distinction Important? (5 votes)
        Not At All
        20%
        Absolutely
        20%
        To A Certain Extent
        60%
  • TheMadFool
    13.8k
    As people, with time, become more intellectual the body will be slowly relegated to simply being a vessel for the mind. Men will still differ from women in physical terms but their importance will diminish to, what I feel is, zero.

    At the present moment, women are probably experiencing the aftereffects of millenia of discrimination, especially in education. This is changing rapidly and it won't be long before women equal, and even better, men in the intellectual arena.

    That leaves only physical differences in gender to deal with. To get to the point, men are stronger than women but this difference too will not matter once robotics advances to the point where all physical work will be done by robots, either autonomous or remote controlled.

    As for women having to carry a pregnancy in her body, medical science will probably make this risky phase in the life of women obsolete.
  • tim wood
    9.3k
    "gen·der
    /ˈjendər/
    noun
    1.
    either of the two sexes (male and female), especially when considered with reference to social and cultural differences rather than biological ones. The term is also used more broadly to denote a range of identities that do not correspond to established ideas of male and female."

    Depends on which "gender" you mean.
  • zookeeper
    73
    If humans have an intrinsic need to categorize, then gender might have been a really simple and convenient way to categorize others (and oneself), seeing how it more or less split the population in half and was straightforwardly based on physical characteristics.

    I don't see any particular need for social genders as such; social roles might be useful, but they don't need to be genders.
  • Pinprick
    950
    For law enforcement it’s important to know who you’re looking for; a man or a woman. Also, perhaps gender discrimination would be more difficult to identify without gender distinction. For example, a business owner can choose to not hire people with female characteristics, but without the term “female” it would be hard to identify a specific group that he is discriminating against.
  • Outlander
    2.1k
    All I know is my wife can leave me and take my kids, half my lifes work, and any remaining dignity essentially. I do the same, yeah. Nada. It's pretty equal here dude. Depends where you're at I guess.

    My view of gender roles is coincided with typical features, not consistant. The man is usually bigger so he does most of the hard work, the woman is usually more 'compassionate' so tends to the children.

    Women are the fairer sex so yeah are usually weaker. Which means they should be protected or at least respected. In a man no one likes a crybaby so he should be able to tough out a considerable amount more, physically and mentally.
  • jgill
    3.9k
    It makes a difference in athletics. Title IX assumes equal but different, and argues against transgender participation.

    Otherwise, I don't think it's that important.
  • prothero
    429
    I don't know, tough topic.
    For the most part maybe we should let individuals self identify their gender identity.
    Unfortunately that does not work for sports, reproduction or public communal showers.
    Biologically most are anatomically male or female with the exception of hermaphrodites and other experiments of nature.
    Psychologically there is a great deal of gender identity fluidity and variety.
    There are circumstances where biology dictates and others where psychology should dictate.
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