Binary Gender Privilege Checklist

[Nero]

Came across this Binary Gender Privilege Checklist and thought it was interesting. Opinions? Do you agree with the points presented? Want to add your own points?

Binary Gender Privilege Checklist

by Ryles » Fri Sep 17, 2010 5:28 pm

You can reasonably expect that:

* words to describe your gender not only exist in every natural language, but are commonplace
* characters with your gender commonly appear in fiction as more than just a joke, and are often mentioned in serious non-fiction
* everyone is aware that people of your gender exist and have met people with your gender
* words exist to describe your sexuality and to describe people attracted to those of your gender, and most people have heard those words
* there is a way to pass as your gender, and roles/clothing/actions associated with that gender that you can use if you wish to be read correctly
* people will not have to "get used" to using your pronouns, as they use them for people on a daily basis, and will not tell you that your pronouns are "too hard" or treat them as some sort of novelty
* no one will say that humans can not have your gender, or treat the words and pronouns you use to describe your gender as an insult
* you can expect to find safe spaces for people of your gender
* in gender-based safe spaces, it is obvious if people of your gender are welcomed/allowed or not (from the One With No Name)
* it will be obvious which bathrooms, locker rooms, and facilities to try on clothes people of your gender are allowed to use (from the One With No Name)
* you will not have a hard time finding a partner who has heard of your gender, much less one who understands and accepts your gender and pronouns
* you will not have to educate people about what your gender is to have any hope of having that gender respected, because they have grown up around people who have that gender
* when you see a gender therapist, zie has dealt with people of your gender and will treat you with respect
* if your body is not "normal" for your gender, surgeries exist to help fix it and you won't be denied them due to your gender
* you do not have to create an entirely new legal sex to be legally acknowledged as your gender
* if parents raise a child as your gender, people will not consider this abuse
* people do not think it's okay to tell people of your gender that asking your child to respect your gender and pronouns is wrong because no one has heard of your gender
* from a young age, you are aware that people with your gender actually exist and will not have to go looking for or invent definitions that fit you. -(from AlextheSane)
* Your gender is not considered a mental illness in and of itself (Liam)
* Your behaviour (good or bad) is not taken to be representative of all people of your gender because most people have met many people of your gender (Liam)
* Telling someone your gender is unlikely to result in them asking you what your genitals look like or asking you whether or not you were "born that way" (Hann)
* Forms that ask for gender show your gender (Liam)
* Representations of civlised cultures and not just so-called primitive cultures show people of your gender (Liam)
* Your gender is not taken to indicate your religious, philosophical or political beliefs (Liam)
* It is clear whether or not you can legally be married to your partner (Liam)

[Ave]

agree mostly, but being a binary gender trans person is worlds away from a cis person so I think it's pretty useless to coin it in terms of "privilege".

[suzifrommd]

There are three billion people in the world who are comfortable socializing with people of your gender.

There are three billion people who are attracted to people of your gender.

[aleon515]

Might have missed this one: There is a common "term of respect for people of your gender".


--Jay J
Not sure if or how non-binary I am at this point, but went thru this this year. I think it's a problem for people who are "in the middle" due to transition too.

[ativan]

There are characteristics that can be applied to genders.
When you stop thinking of them as being on a line or spectrum, and instead think of these characteristics as points scattered about in three dimensions, you come closer to a visualisation of gender.
Think about all the different points or characterisations that there are. There are more.

Now think about how the points you use are connected and how you connect them.
Someone else could pick the same points, yet connect them in a different fashion.
It's the points and the way we connect them that define our individual genders.
One way of connecting certain points is male, another female. Really nothing special in that.
Seems like a lot of people pick similar points and connect them in a similar fashion.
Those would be what has become known as the binary groupings, or just binaries.

They are just a couple of ways of combining points in a particular way.
They are not the ends of anything, despite what they may think and tell you.
Does a line with ends really seem that logical? Or does different ways of combining seem logical?

There are how many different points and ways to combine them?
I don't know, and neither does anyone else.
Some may have a better idea than others, but that doesn't make them correct.
We all get to use any of these points, in any fashion.
Do we have a say in this? A choice? Seems we don't.
But we do get to share an awful lot of the same points, and we recognize this.

But there are those who think their combination is better, and have privileges that go along with that.
Those would be bigots. We still share many of the same points.
They just believe that because there are more of them that are the same, that they get to be better.
And have Privilege's.

Just understanding that we share so many different points or characteristics should be enough to be able to do away with these privilege's.
You would think that it should be that way. That's who we are.
Just people who share a lot of the same things.

That list just perpetuates the binary myth of a line or spectrum that everything else is somehow in between.
Truth is, is that binary is just something in the middle of a lot of other genders.
One is not any better than another, regardless of how many people choose to call themselves something.

Stop believing in this view of a spectrum. You're better than that.
We all are.

Ativan

[foosnark]

Agreed, Ativan.  Gender as a spectrum is still falling to the idea that masculine and feminine are fixed points, and even adds the additional fallacy that you can compare any two people to figure out who is *more* feminine or masculine.

"Privilege" I think is an overused concept, so often accusatory.  Rather than listing all the things privileged people take for granted, pointing out a few of them -- with anecdotes, not generalities -- tends to get peoples' compassion to kick in if it's going to at all.