Speaking as a person (he, him, his) who grew up during a period of history when men were men and women were women, I have found the current discussions about non-binary gender to be wonderfully confounding.
I enjoy having my assumptions challenged. From a distance, by people I will never meet.
Actually, that’s not exactly true. I mean, the part about “women were women” when I was growing up. I had the definite sense, even back then, that certain women were not entirely satisfied with their overall situation. Yes, they had already won the right to vote, and they were now able to open a bank account without their husband’s permission. But we were hearing some pretty radical ideas, even then. Equal pay for equal work, for one. Women started showing up on TV as news commentators. In corporate board rooms, as CEOs. As commissioned officers, in the Army.
And yet, they still wanted to wear high heels, and color their hair.
But recently, it’s become pretty clear that women are no longer women, and men are no longer men, at least among Generation Z. We don’t really know what they are, exactly.
In a March 2016 article by Shepherd Laughlin on WundermanThompson.com, “Gen Z goes beyond gender binaries in new Innovation Group data”, I came across this striking photo:
Mr. Laughlin wrote:
56% of US Gen Zers know someone who uses gender-neutral pronouns, according to the new study…
Fifty-six percent of 13-to-20-year-olds said that they knew someone who went by gender neutral pronouns such as “they,” “them,” or “ze,” compared to 43 percent of people aged 28 to 34 years old. Over a third of Gen Z respondents also strongly agreed that gender did not define a person as much as it used to…
This 2016 survey of young Americans, known in the marketing business as “Generation Z”, found that these kids are considerably more open-minded and permissive than their older ‘Millennial’ counterparts when it comes to issues of gender and sexuality. The study found that only 48 percent of Gen Zs identify as exclusively heterosexual, compared to 65 percent of millennials aged 21 to 34.
This was five years ago… so Gen Z is now 18 to 25 years old. Old enough to start thinking about marriage, if there were still such a thing.
All of this gender neutral talk can easily strike a more mature person, like myself, as simply a newfangled trend… something fashionable, among the young and foolish. A passing fad.
But what it it’s not a fad?
What if it’s… divine?
A long time ago — about 4,000 years ago, give or take a millennium — the people living in what is today called ‘India’ had not only figured out this whole non-binary thing, but were even worshiping a God who had figured it out as well.
Even though this was a long time ago… in a foreign country where no one spoke English… they already had the clear sense that, generally speaking, people tend to sort themselves into ‘male’ and female’ categories… but not in all cases. (This was before democracy was invented, so women didn’t need to worry about having the right to vote.)
They also understood that, generally speaking, the Gods appeared to be either male and female, but not in all cases.
The people living then in the Indus River basin didn’t have a lot of lifestyle options. Basically, you could be a farmer or a religious ascetic. But they had an amazing selection of choices, when it came to Gods. Modern scholars have an ongoing debate as to whether the number of Gods was 330 million or 33 million, or some lesser number — some of the Gods had multiple aliases, and disguises, which may have led to confusion about the actual number. But at any rate, there were a lot of Gods, as Amazon.com has feebly attempted to document.
But the head guy was Shiva — and I use the term ‘guy’ with considerable trepidation, because from what I can tell by his/her/their picture (and also, readings in the Rig Veda) Shiva did not identify as exclusively heterosexual. Nor as exclusively male or female.
A cobra snake around his/her/their neck, along with strings of amethyst beads? Earrings? Lipstick? Is that his/her/their real hair color, or does he/she/they have a talented hairdresser?
Shiva rides around on a bull/cow, Nandi, who also likes to dress up.
When you’re ancient God like Shiva, you have a lot of options, and a mere mortal like myself is certainly not going to presume to question your gender choice.
In fact, I’m not even going to question the kids in Gen Z who are now using gender neutral pronouns. Who knows, maybe they are just reviving a 4,000-year-old tradition?
Underrated writer Louis Cannon grew up in the vast American West, although his ex-wife, given the slightest opportunity, will deny that he ever grew up at all.