Utopia?

A few summers ago I took a gender communications class.  One day we had a guest speaker from the UIC Gender and Sexuality Center.  The first thing she had us do was go around the room and introduce ourselves and say what gender specific pronouns (he, she, etc.) we chose to be identifies by.  From what I have seen on television and and documentaries, I know that there are many, many people that for what ever reason don't identify with either gender or sex but this was the first time that I had personally been asked to state what I identify as.  It was initially and odd experience but very eye opening at the same time.  This guest speaker also taught us about different classifications of sex and gender other than the binary as well as different pronouns to use.

It's interesting reading Judith Butler's article about this. She describes this Utopia in which there is no binary code system for gender and sex and everyone is seen as an individual.  We talked in our class about whether this was actually possible someday and I really don't think it is.  No matter how we look at it, gender and sex is something that identifies people whether they are children, adults, or seniors.  What I find even more interesting is that there are definitely people that don't fit within the black and white classifications of gender and sex and so there have been different classifications used to help define them. There has even been a new pronoun created, ze, to help identify the people who don't fit into the male/female or man/woman categories.  But even so, they are just creating new categories that are expanding on this binary system.  These aren't things that are getting much attention, especially in the media, today but the word is slowly being spread.  I think over time, and with much more attention by the media, that there could be the creation of more universally accepted gender and sex classifications.  However, at the end of the day everyone seems to need to identify with something.  In the past we have seen it important to identify with a religion, social class, or movement.  But gender and sex is something that will always be there despite what is going on in the world and something everyone tries and wants to use and an identification.  So despite the desire for this Utopia, I really don't think that this is something really achievable.  

Meghan O.