Is there a role for postgenderism and androgyny in our contemporary and future societies?

Social scientists have long argued that our psychological gender — entrenched in the dichotomy of masculine/feminine, nature/nurture and good/evil — confines, cripples and condemns us to certain pre-conceived roles in society. This is especially true for women, who are casually termed as ‘the weaker sex’, as well as those who fall outside the diktat of man/woman. Despite the privileges this bestows on males, they are also suppressed in many ways. This begs the question: wouldn’t it be helpful if we, humans of the 21st century, found a way to redefine and rewrite our genders to liberate ourselves and future generations from the dogma of these confines?

The concepts of postgenderism and gender fluidity seem like interesting leads in this regard. They are by no means new ideas — the feminist gender studies journal Urania suggested abolition of binary genders as early as 1916 (1) — and advocate either eliminating or moving beyond gendered identities so that an individual in society is ‘not reduced to a gender role but is simply an agent of humanity who is to be defined (if at all) by one’s actions’ (2).

Postgenderists hope for a future where humans won’t necessarily associate their biological identity with their expressions of gender, rejecting the so-called sex/gender binary (3). They will start questioning the myth of ‘male’ and ‘female’ brains, thus challenging sexist narratives (4). With info- and bio-tech revolutions already underway, it won’t be long before artificial wombs will be created. Hence enabling societies to rely less on women to reproduce and raise children (5), which could be a real game-changer in terms of the division of responsibility and labour.

However, as things stand today, the contemporary world seems to view identities outside of the binary with unease. Although progress has been made in the understanding and acceptance of one’s sexual orientation in Western societies, gender identities and expressions that can be independent of sexuality — non-binary, agender, bi-gendered, genderqueer etc — are still very much fringe ideas. So much so, that the UK government recently rejected calls to recognise non-binary as a gender category, citing ‘complex practical consequences’ (6).

So, the question is, can we find ways to break away from our ‘involuntary psychological gendering’ and change our mindsets and behaviour to reach beyond our gender? Would this help build a fairer society? Or has the infotech revolution already propelled us into various gender-neutral roles that we perform without giving much thought to it?

One way to investigate this is by examining the levels of our ‘psychological androgyny’ — a personality trait associated with both men and women, combining toughness and gentleness, assertiveness and nurturing behaviour, as called for by a given situation. Gender scientists and psychologists from around the world have been designing experiments to analyse this trait in urban and rural settings. One of them, American psychologist Sandra L Bem, created a questionnaire called Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI) that has over time gained popularity in measuring androgyny relative to personality.

By collecting answers to 60 simple questions on the BSRI scale, social scientists can tell how masculine, feminine or androgynous a person is regardless of their assigned gender. Equipped with this tool, they can start studying the personalties of contemporary urbanised individuals, who are increasingly disconnected with traditional roles and families, to see if they might be more androgynous and ‘postgendered’ as compared to people living in rural communities.

Experiments such as these might have the potential to redefine our perceptions of identity and gender normativity in societies. Perhaps we have already entered the era of postgenderism without even realising it? It is a polarising thought, but one that is worthy of investigation.

Bibliography

1. Urania was a feminist gender studies journal, published between 1916 and 1940.
2. Postgenderism: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postgenderism
3. Judith Butler (1990). Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity.
4. Gina Rippon (2019). The Gendered Brain. The new neuroscience that shatters the myth of the female brain. Bodley Head.
5. Shulamith Firestone (1970). The Dialectic of Sex. The Case for Feminist Revolution.
6. https://www.refinery29.com/en-gb/non-binary-gender-identity-petition
7. https://www.britannica.com/topic/androgyny