Postgender

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Postgender or postgenderism (from Latin post "behind, after", and English gender "social gender") describes a socio-political concept that advocates ignoring or abolishing the state gender regulations.

Deconstructive approaches

The cyborg manifesto by the American biologist and philosopher Donna Haraway from 1985 is often seen as the basis of the postgender movement , but transhumanism , androgyny , metrosexuality , the writings of Michel Foucault and Judith Butler , poststructuralism , discourse analysis and above all also had it The queer theory and queer studies have a significant influence on the theory formation. Postgenderism was first formulated in 2008 by George Dvorsky and James Hughes, with reference to Judith Butler, Sandra Bem , Kate Bornstein , Martine Rothblatt , Leslie Feinberg and Keri Hulme .

“The postgender movement uses the deconstructivist approach by calling for the dissolution of gender categories. Likewise, the associated power structures should be given up. "

- Stephanie Reuter, 2009 : Intersexuality within heteronormative social structures using the example of the film XXY.

“Do the optimistic prognoses of the tech euphoria with their desire to transcend nature offer possibilities of ambiguous gender markings in cyberspace (gender swapping) and they leave seemingly solidified dichotomies like nature vs. Culture, human vs. Machine, reality vs. Virtuality etc. implode, so despite all the fascination, this also harbors the risk of a perpetuation of structures of rule by means of the manipulative blurring of still existing differences. "

- Walburga Hülk , Gregor Schschuhe, Tanja Schwan, 2006 : Foreword to (post) gender.

Legal measures

In 1995 Martine Rothblatt published Apartheid of Sex , a plea for the abolition of state gender determination. It states that gender norms ( gender orders ) were not based on genetics, genitals or reproduction, but exclusively on patriarchal structures that remained unchanged in modern legislation . At the same time, it demanded acceptance of human sexuality in its prism-shaped complexity. In 1996, Leslie Feinberg recalled all those gender deviants who, like Joan of Arc, ended up at the stake or how the activists of the Stonewall riots risked freedom and life - and thereby underpinned Rothblatt's demand.

One of the demands of the post- gender movement - including the Pirate Party - is to abolish the "obligation to use a gender-specific first name ".

Criticism of the postgender approach

The postgender approach, in particular, is viewed critically because it wants to remove discrimination by ignoring differences . In 2010, Antje Schrupp formulated fifteen theses on feminism and post-gender , in which she primarily problematized the problem of “setting the male norms” (thesis 1). In thesis 4 she writes:

“The emphasis on biological clichés about being a woman and being a man only became significant in the history of ideas when this hierarchization of the sexes came with the Enlightenment and its postulate of the equality of all people in difficulties with legitimation. Overcoming these gender clichés ('post-gender') therefore does not guarantee the freedom of all people and especially not the freedom of women. Post-gender thinking can also do exactly the opposite, namely the renewed assertion that women are 'unimportant'. "

In thesis 9 she complements this criticism:

“To attribute these inequalities solely to individual differences, as is attempted under the 'post-gender' term, does not only involve the risk of ignoring the formative power of conventions and social norms. Above all, it involves the risk of reintroducing the norms of the masculine through the back door, as it were. Masculinity and the 'gender neutral person' are historically one. Masculinity has never seen itself as uniform, but has always been seen as diverse. 'Uniformly' in the sense of stereotypes, only the 'others', especially women, were defined. "

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Donna Jeanne Haraway : A manifesto for Cyborgs: Science, technology, and socialist feminism in the 1980s. In: Australian Feminist Studies. Vol. 2, No. 4, 1987, pp. 1-42 (English).
  2. ^ Donna Jeanne Haraway: A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century. In: Same : Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature. New edition. Routledge, New York 1991, ISBN 978-0-415-90387-5 , pp. 149-181 (English; PDF: 11.6 MB, 309 pages on monoskop.org).
  3. ↑ George Dvorsky, James Hughes: Postgenderism: Beyond the Gender Binary. Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies, Hartford March 2008 (English; PDF: 111 kB, 18 pages on ieet.org)
  4. ↑ Stephanie Reuter: Intersexuality within heteronormative social structures using the example of the film XXY. Düsseldorf 2009, p. 17.
  5. ^ Foreword to Walburga Hülk , Gregor Schschuhe, Tanja Schwan (Ed.): (Post-) Gender. Choreographies / cuts. Bielefeld 2006, p. 7.
  6. ^ Martine Rothblatt: Apartheid of Sex: A Manifesto on the Freedom of Gender. Crown 1995, ISBN 0-517-59997-X (English).
  7. ^ Leslie Feinberg : Transgender Warriors: Making History from Joan of Arc to RuPaul. Beacon Press, 1996 (English).
  8. ^ Party program: Basic program of the Pirate Party Germany: Gender and family policy. Status: 2017, accessed on June 9, 2019.
    Note: The Pirate Party also rejects the registration of the attribute of gender by state authorities and the implementation of so-called gender reassignment operations on children, which the pirates describe as gender assignable.
  9. ↑ In Austria at least the first first name must correspond to the gender of the child: The right to a name: First name. ( Memento of May 12, 2012 in the Internet Archive ). In: Help.gv.at. January 1, 2012, accessed on June 9, 2019 (official official for Austria).
  10. ↑ a b c Antje Schrupp : Fifteen theses on feminism and post-gender. Own homepage, May 25, 2010, accessed on June 9, 2019.