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 So since Tuesday's class, what I have been thinking about a lot is the question that Paul Grobstein finished his lecture with: why do we have categories of sex/gender?

As we talked about in class, the categories of gender/sex were established way before science (as we know it) existed. We talked about male/female pronouns in languages and the bible as examples. Not being very knowledgeable in linguistics or the bible, I can't really say why these "stories" were created, but I have a feeling that it had a lot to do with order.

Being the (somewhat) perfectionist that I am, I like to have things in their place- with each pen in a pencil case and marker with the right cap, so I get why society wants to create these categories. I feel like without categories there would be this sense of chaos as if people would no longer know how to interact with each other. Things as simple as bathroom signs would get really complicated. I remember once over the summer, I went to use the bathroom and it was co-ed. Not only was I somewhat shocked to see men wandering around the bathroom, but I also felt a bit uncomfortable. We have become so accustomed to these sex/gender binaries that imagining a world without them is pretty hard to do. I think as a society we have this tendency to want to account for our differences- to know why we are the way we are and how we relate to each other. Sex/Gender binaries are a way of accounting for differences by saying, "Despite differences in our appearance personality, etc. we are all bonded together by the fact that we are all women/men." 

In an utopian world, obviously sex/gender binaries wouldn't exist. While establishing a sense of order, they also create social/gender norms that are exclusionary. They tell us that we need to act, dress, behave a certain way...to be "masculine" or "feminine". And if you try to go against these norms, you will always be the outsider, separated from the rest of society. At this point, I feel like it would be incredibly difficult to change these binaries, especially when discussing topics of gender and sexuality can still be viewed as taboo. I do feel like we are definitely taking a step in the right direction by asking questions such as Paul Grobstein's that make us problematize the very foundation of society's structures.