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Owl's picture

hopefully this clears things up =]

First off, I am not sure what you mean by: "is there (for example) a category of "sports gender," which differs from the genders we use to divide ourselves up for the purposes of education (women's colleges, anyone)? When does the division between male and female--constructed as it may be--matter? Are there ways to make it matter less?"

Response to question posed in 3rd paragraph:

The fictionality of gender is that of the “fact” that is imposed by society: The “fact” that gender is just masculinity and femininity. Gender, however, as I have said, is not such a restricted notion as the latter implies. This is where Shields concept takes place. The notion of gender in it of itself belongs to everyone. It is how the individual presents it, that it becomes an individual creation.

Response to question posed in 4th paragraph:

As for your other question, I meant to say that individuals can choose to group together what they feel describes them in terms of gender and sex (grouping in terms of categories not people- if this makes an sense). Not that society can group people. To be clearer, what I wanted to come across is that categories are not bad if they are chosen and widened to fit individual characteristics by such individual, not by the norms of society.

Response to question posed in 5th paragraph:   

As for your last question, what would be the evidence regarding the limitations of who one can be? And as for the other counter-argument, I think that is what I was trying to convey in saying that there is no gender and sex. I meant to say that gender and sex as we know it, is non-existent.

 

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