This weekly roundup thread is intended for all culture war posts. 'Culture war' is vaguely defined, but it basically means controversial issues that fall along set tribal lines. Arguments over culture war issues generate a lot of heat and little light, and few deeply entrenched people ever change their minds. This thread is for voicing opinions and analyzing the state of the discussion while trying to optimize for light over heat.
Optimistically, we think that engaging with people you disagree with is worth your time, and so is being nice! Pessimistically, there are many dynamics that can lead discussions on Culture War topics to become unproductive. There's a human tendency to divide along tribal lines, praising your ingroup and vilifying your outgroup - and if you think you find it easy to criticize your ingroup, then it may be that your outgroup is not who you think it is. Extremists with opposing positions can feed off each other, highlighting each other's worst points to justify their own angry rhetoric, which becomes in turn a new example of bad behavior for the other side to highlight.
We would like to avoid these negative dynamics. Accordingly, we ask that you do not use this thread for waging the Culture War. Examples of waging the Culture War:
-
Shaming.
-
Attempting to 'build consensus' or enforce ideological conformity.
-
Making sweeping generalizations to vilify a group you dislike.
-
Recruiting for a cause.
-
Posting links that could be summarized as 'Boo outgroup!' Basically, if your content is 'Can you believe what Those People did this week?' then you should either refrain from posting, or do some very patient work to contextualize and/or steel-man the relevant viewpoint.
In general, you should argue to understand, not to win. This thread is not territory to be claimed by one group or another; indeed, the aim is to have many different viewpoints represented here. Thus, we also ask that you follow some guidelines:
-
Speak plainly. Avoid sarcasm and mockery. When disagreeing with someone, state your objections explicitly.
-
Be as precise and charitable as you can. Don't paraphrase unflatteringly.
-
Don't imply that someone said something they did not say, even if you think it follows from what they said.
-
Write like everyone is reading and you want them to be included in the discussion.
On an ad hoc basis, the mods will try to compile a list of the best posts/comments from the previous week, posted in Quality Contribution threads and archived at /r/TheThread. You may nominate a comment for this list by clicking on 'report' at the bottom of the post and typing 'Actually a quality contribution' as the report reason.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Notes -
I think every question had an option that fulfills your view on each question, I do think that is going to be the most popular checking of boxes at the moment but that doesn't necessarily make it right. What further questions do you think you'd need to define the boarders of your belief than those listed?
Maybe I wasn't clear enough, I don't believe gender and sex are the same thing, I believe sex is biological reality and gender is like Thetan count, a thing some people believe in but I believe is entirely imaginary.
There isn't a single answer on any of your questions that I would say I agree with.
More options
Context Copy link
I had a similar reaction to the above poster. I suspect you expected the following answer to cover this view:
The issue I had with this is that it is ignoring reality. I would prefer gender to mean the same thing as sex but some people are clearly using the word differently. Given I'm not a prescriptivist a definition that doesn't match the word's use is not a good definition.
At the same time I think the concept these people are trying to convey is mostly incoherent, poorly defined, and the general concept is pointing at something that doesn't exist. This means the rest of the answers don't work either. It's like asking if Blargle is related to sex - the only right answer is to say the whole question makes no sense.
True, but they aren't using it coherently. People who use gender as different than sex vacillate between "quixotic mental state" and "fashion" and possibly a few other definitions, but they cannot and will not ever pin it down.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
For one: perhaps you can say that society has certain gender roles roles indexed to sex without actually believing that someone can truly be the opposite gender. So it would be an answer that falls somewhere between 1a and 1b.
This is basically what we're doing when we call someone a pussy or say that he "gossips like a girl". No one thinks he's a girl or that he actually has a pussy.
I think you're right that this awkwardly handles a view where gender(as role) is imposed on people on the basis of their sex.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link