
A little while back I ran across this short, clear summary of the reality of gender and gender norms by Theology of the Body scholar and popularizer Christoper West, entitled “A De-Gendered Society Is Bound to De-Generate.” Three things struck me about this piece. First, it explains what’s wrong with idea of gender fluidity, for the lay person, pretty clearly, in about 600 words. Second, it boggles the mind by introducing a new chart of gender symbols (click to see it full-scale) and explaining, essentially, that Facebook now offers 50 options or so for gender, plus a fill-in-the-blank if you can’t “find yourself”