Identity should be fluid – not another box to tick
One of the first things I was taught on the gender studies master’s course I did six or so years ago was that gender is constructed; it is a matter of socialisation, not a matter of anything so fixed as biology.
Unsurprisingly “biological determinism”, which says that women are such and such a way because they are women; men likewise, is the first enemy of any student of gender.
The days when such concepts were the domain of lofty university courses only are well and truly over – highfalutin theories of gender have become commonplace in everything from “fourth wave” digital feminism to battles over trans-friendly loos.
But, as more people become gender warriors, politicised over questions of sexual identity in particular, a paradox has emerged. For at the same time as such people are busy insisting that gender is fluid rather than determined and fixed, they seem to be getting ever more agitated over labelling. Far from being something private, personal, subjective, as you’d expect, the High-flown feminist politics are all well and good, but sometimes you just need a trio of kick-ass Hollywood hotties to whup some butt on screen. Cue a Charlie’s Angels Ange reboot which, if rumours are true, will be even more bootylicious than the 2003 romp starring Cameron Diaz, Lucy Liu and Drew Barrymore, which I loved.
Word on the street is that the stars of the update of what began as a television series that aired between 1976 and 1981 will include Kristen Stewart, my ultimate girl crush (from her days in the Twilight series), Naomi Scott, who triumphed as Pink Ranger in the Power Rangers Rang movie in 2017, and possibly Black Panther’s Lupita Nyong’o as well.
To top it all off, Elizabeth Banks of Pitch Pit Perfect 3 fame is set to direct and star as Bosley, the traditionally male handler who mediates between the girls and Charlie.
I’m all for serious feminism. But there’s nothing quite like good old-fashioned girl power to rouse the spirits. You go, girls. vanguard of new gender politics want the mysteries of gender not only dispelled, but rubber stamped.
Last week saw a classic example of this ironic move towards gender fixity. In what was hailed as a breakthrough, Austria – following the German high court last November – ruled that authorities must allow people to enter their gender as something other than male and female in official records.
I have no problem with a third box under “gender”. But why does it matter so much? I can’t help but feel that the seemingly desperate desire for the state to embrace the gender identities of those who reject “male” and “female”, signals a depressing turn away from self-determining spirit.
Identify however you want, I say, but demanding the state provides you with a box to tick seems rigid and dogmatic rather than free and fluid.