Gender fluidity discussions seem to be all the rage right now- and the amount of rage they can cause is deeply disturbing. New terms like LGBTQI+ and hot topics like toilet allocations get everyone very hot and bothered. And not in a fun way.
Many of us find this topic both confusing and confronting.
In truth, however, the expansion of sexual expression now is no different to the sexual expression expressed in every new generation. The labels may change and evolve, the goal posts shift, the demands may seem broader, but is actually all the same argument decade after decade after decade, and it meets the same fierce resistance and gnashing of teeth until we progress forward, and the howling stops.
A reminder.
In the 1910s-1920s, women who wore trousers were considered beyond the pale! Some were arrested. Did they think they were men? Were they all lesbians trying to break down social norms? Homosexuality was illegal, although we all knew it existed, especially among the boys, but even so! This could not stand!!
Then there was the fuss about bathing suits and women. More arrests and more outrage at the sluts and harlots bringing blatant sexual promiscuity to a decent and solid society.
In the 30s and 40s, when men were at war, women worked ‘as men’ in jobs outside the home. Short hair, trousers and jeans, nothing wrong with that now, was there? The economy needed them.
The children of the sixties openly slept around, demanded the right to choose partners without marital commitment, there were pills to stop babies, and bras were burned and once again the smelling salts were called for.
Then the seventies brought androgyny, was David Bowie trying to be a man, a woman, sexless? Why were all of these mucho guys wearing spandex? Everyone was on the pill, bras were seen as optional. Surely society would fall apart?
Now Romantic 80’s put the same men in feathers and the girls in braless tank tops, gays were openly out and about, where would it all end?? By the nineties, gays were in public office being openly themselves, bi-sexuality was openly spoken about, women raised children alone, Mardi Gra was no longer just a Halloween holiday. Surely Y2K would wipe the Earth clean?
In the 2010s, homosexual partnerships were starting to be legally recognised, sex shops openly sold all manner of toys for play, porn wasn’t hidden away in the shed or under the bed, bi-sexuality or tri-sexuality (yes, yes, try-anything-once) was in the open. Smelling salts were still required by those for whom other people’s sexually habits had become an obsession, and when transgenderism became openly discussed on the morning TV shows by the 2020s, the time had come for some more pushing of the boundaries and another truck load of fuss from the oldies…but…
…this is what we do, we humans. We evolve. And we do that by forcing change upon the ‘normal and accepted’ practices. Some change doesn’t stick, a lot does, and it ALWAYS upsets the status quo.
The horror expressed over gender neutral toilets is, in fact, the same horror expressed over women wearing trousers.
Those two changes in the way were perceive sexuality took almost exactly 100 years.
The changes are not fast, they are not always comfortable, you may not agree with them, but by the time they are commonplace and though of as de rigour, you may well be dead. So relax. It’s just another sexual revolution.
If you don’t know what all the letters mean, and you think the whole thing is rubbish, you can learn more here https://www.vanderbilt.edu/lgbtqi/resources/definitions where you will learn, as we did, that there are 58 genders.
You can also look here https://wildflowersex.com, which is a great sex toy shop that also provides sex-ed about all things sex and gender related.
