I've been thinking about what the world would be like if non-binaries were recognised and accepted.

Part of me thinks we would still have male and female and we would simply form an 'other' category, but all in all it would be much more acceptable to blur the lines. There will be people on the edges and then those that kind of float about the middle while still identifying as one sex or another. You would probably see more unisex bathrooms. The logistics of 3 seperate ones becomming too much of a burden.
I'm not entirely sure if there would be enough of us to cater commercial stuff for specificaly - I'm thinking clothing here,  even if you desired non-binary specific clothing there would probably be specialist non-binary shops where the pants are mixed in with the dresses. There would be no mens on one side womens on another.
I think religion would be forever changed with many religious figures being attributed as being non-binary as we seem to be more inclusive than exclusive.

What would happen to sports? I wonder if things would become less seperatist and more inclusive?

If anything I think everyone would be much happier than they are now.

 

With sports, I think there would still be some sort of divide, as women generally just don't have the same strength to compete with men. But maybe it wouldn't be so rigid if a woman of equal strength or a man of lesser strength wanted to compete with their equals.

Quote from: Nicky on March 02, 2009, 03:33:05 PM
I'm thinking clothing here,  even if you desired non-binary specific clothing there would probably be specialist non-binary shops where the pants are mixed in with the dresses. There would be no mens on one side womens on another.

Shopping with my wife this weekend, we were in a department with boy-cut jeans, pants suits, capris, skorts, skirts, and dresses, one- and two-piece bathing suits (and the ability to buy bottoms only). The shoe department had shoes seemingly identical to what I wear. Really, I could find lots of clothes there. She couldn't find large shirts without breast pockets; breast pockets would be OK with me. That leaves the questions of left or right buttoning, of different size systems, and of gendered dressing rooms (though I noticed a skirt on the rack in the men's fitting area).

I'm too shy to take clothes from that department to the men's fitting room (or to take my beard into the women's fitting area). Is that all that is holding back Utopia?

Feeling reactionary,
S

I imagine, Nina dear, that if people just started to just cross those lines more often we would quickly reach some sort of critical mass (I love the phrase, 'critical mass') and it would be all ok, like a big sigh. Unfortunately I also think this critical mass would also bring a critical response from those who want to keep the status quo. There would be fighting and riots and Androgynes would have to get out their chain saws and once the dust clears people would realise that a human arm is much the same whether cut off from a male or female.

In my country in most places the changing areas are not really designated female or male, but where they are located says a lot. For example, the changing rooms in a female orientated department store are intended for women. I found it hard going into them, you can feel that social preasure. But I think we need to put our courage to the sticking place and just do it otherwise nothing will change.

Personally I loathe the pressures and obligations of the "Binary World".

We should be free to be who we are, when I was young I was obsessed with the all or nothing approach which appears to be omnipresent at the moment. However getting older I'm actually getting to like and enjoy the middle ground. It appeals to me politically and to be totally honest people fancying me for what I am is a big turn on for me.

It seems that this position is disliked almost universally, by Straight people, by Lesbian and Gay people and by "HBS" people. That's not nice as it fails to understand where we're coming from. I'm considered female by all my friends who are mainly Lesbian but sometimes I feel guilty about it, I may be a woman but I accept they are different from me. It's so weird sometimes.

A couple of weeks ago I had a really beautiful girl many years my junior hit on me big time in front of my friends. She fancied me for "what" I am, not because I'm a woman or a man. It felt good and it's kind of changed the way I think, maybe I am androgynous and have been in denial all this time. Don't know, still feel female but I'm really just a mix at the end of the day.

Thanks for bringing the subject up, coming here has made me think about many things.

Quote from: Nicky on March 02, 2009, 06:51:45 PM
There would be fighting and riots and Androgynes would have to get out their chain saws and once the dust clears people would realise that a human arm is much the same whether cut off from a male or female.

Ima gonna have to sit on the sideline for this one coach. I loaned my chainsaw out this weekend against my better judgment, and of course the guy broke it 

I hear what you are saying, but to get there it would take a lot of education of the binaries to understand and begin to accept us. To them we are just some very weird "gay" people who like to dress against sociatial norms (man in a dress). Sadly, we just ain't right to them.

I do like your unisex clothing shop idea  I think such a shop, if marketed in a trendy way, would catch on in certain areas of the country. The shop could also handle makeup and makeovers. You could even make the bathrooms unisex just like some clubs do.

Maybe john lennon had it right ....

You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one

I'd Love to live in a non binary world
I might even find a mixed team sport I would enjoy any all male team would feel opressive to me I long for the day when I'm accepted enough to to wear a dress to the shops without fear of discrimination or attack

I find myself female. Period. But does that mean I must insist that everyone else must be female or male? Well, no, I don't. Not anymore anyhow.

I can see where a non-binary, non-tertiary, non-quaternary(?) world would relieve a lot of pressure on a lot of people and wouldn't keep me from trotting along just as I am either. I mean if one's not forced to be one or another or a third or twenty-seventh then how does that effect my being female?

I presume that would mean I could still wear the clothes that appeal to me, do the things I love to do and be pretty much just the same person I am anyhow, right?

I fit the binary but lose nothing of it's gone. And I don't see, anymore, a lot of upside to having it, just another box in which its easy to gather people in order to keep them penned and available for singling out or grouping out as necessary to winnow the population. Same thing is true about class, political belief, race, ethnicity, education (O, you'll run out of patience long before I run out of categories.)

IMO, the problem is people have such little self-esteem and self-actualization that we require those boxes to feel like we are somebody. Lose the boxes and lose so much else for some folk. But, it's prolly a lot like growing up or dying, aging or any of those other things we fear so badly until we do them .... O, this isn't so bad at all, is it. What was I afraid of?

Nichole 

Hmm.  I think it would be awesome to live in a world where people just didn't care.  But I suppose we'd have to be careful not to push our non binariness onto the binaries...that would make us just as bad as them.

I have imagined that world now and then.  It's just people being people.  No fear or disapproval.

if it the world is now binary.. as opposed to non binary, wouldn't making the switch to non binary only make it even more binary than before?

haha i see what u mean.. just wanted to be smart

a world where people are people and anyone can wear/act/do whatever they like and not be judged becaue everyone is equal sounds perfect but i'd line to know in a non binary world would our differences be celebrated eg. pride marches or just accepted and not spoken  of?

I think the ideal is you would not need pride marches. You don't see that many marches celebrating women or men do you?

Male Pride marches take place in Barrooms and Brothels.

Ahh, I had no idea. I don't spend as much time in such places as you do Rebis 

I've been in some miserable places in my time.

Quote from: Rebis on March 09, 2009, 02:38:37 PM
Male Pride marches take place in Barrooms and Brothels.

Harsh!

I suppose Female Pride marches would take place in tampon isles and abortion clinics. 

ooo...somebody's feeling sassy!

Quote from: Jaimey on March 09, 2009, 10:39:55 PM
I suppose Female Pride marches would take place in tampon isles and abortion clinics. 

ooo...somebody's feeling sassy!

harsher.

Quote from: aisha on March 06, 2009, 01:11:35 PM
if it the world is now binary.. as opposed to non binary, wouldn't making the switch to non binary only make it even more binary than before?

haha i see what u mean.. just wanted to be smart

Of course. If we didn't have binary, non-binary would be pretty meaningless, wouldn't it? I mean without having anything to be "non" in regards to?