Postgenderism

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Postgenderism is a diverse social, political and cultural movement whose adherents affirm the elimination of gender in the human species through the application of advanced biotechnology and assistive reproductive technologies. Advocates of postgenderism argue that the presence of gender roles, social stratification, and cogno-physical disparities and differences are generally to the detriment of individuals and society. Given the radical potential for advanced assistive reproductive options, postgenderists believe that sexual reproduction will eventually become a thing of the past, placing the entire need for gender and gender differences into question.

Cultural Roots

Postgenderism as a cultural phenomenon has roots in feminism, masculism, along with the androgyny, metrosexual and transgender movements. However, it has been through the application of transhumanist philosophy that postgenderists have conceived of the potential for actual morphological changes to the human species and in how future humans will reproduce. In this sense, it is an offshoot of transhumanism, posthumanism, and futurism.

An important and influential work in this regard was socialist-feminist Donna Haraway's essay, "A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century," in Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature (New York; Routledge, 1991), pp.149-181. In this work, Haraway argued that women would only be freed from their biological restraints when their reproductive obligations were dispensed with. In other words, Haraway believes that women will only achieve true liberation once they become postbiological organisms, or postgendered.

Types of Postgenderism

Postgenderists are not exclusively advocates of androgyny, although most believe that a “mixing” of both masculine and feminine traits is desirable – essentially the creation of androgynous individuals who exhibit the best of what males and females have to offer in terms of physical and psychological abilities and proclivities. Just what these traits are exactly is a matter of great debate and conjecture.

Androgyny aside, some forms of radical feminism advocate the elimination of males altogether (i.e. gendercide), which can be construed as a type of postgenderism.

Future Technologies

In regards to potential assistive reproductive technologies, it is believed that reproduction can continue to happen outside of convential methods, namely intercourse and artificial insemination. Advances such as human cloning, parthenogenesis and exosomatic wombs may significantly extend the potential for human reproduction.

It is also thought that posthuman space will be more virtual than real. Individuals may consist of uploaded minds living as data patterns on supercomputers or users engaged in completely emersive virtual realities. Postgenderists contend that these types of existences are not gender-specific thus allowing individuals to morph their virtual appearances at will.

Sexuality

Postgenderists maintain that a genderless society does not imply the existence of a species disinterested in sex and sexuality. It is thought that sexual relations and interpersonal intimacy can and will exist in a postgendered future, but that those activities will take on different form.

For example, the act of sex may be "performed" in virtual reality, while one-to-one communication may be enhanced by such potentials as techlepathy. Physicality and gender-specificity as a prerequisite for sexual relations, argue postgenderists, will become less relevant with the advent and maturation of pending technologies.

For those who wish to continue engaging in physical intercourse, the possibility may exist for sexual reassignment. Surgery that allow transgendered individuals to alter their gender may also be used for those who wish to change their morphology as they see fit and not have to remain fixed to one particular gender.

The possibility also exists that some postgendered individuals will choose not engage in any kind of sexual activity whatsoever. Posthumans, or the postgendered, may be involved in different activities altogether or have a mind-space that is beyond sexuality.

External Links

Donna Haraway, "A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century," in Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature (New York; Routledge, 1991), pp.149-181.
Presenting the Cyborg's Futurist Past: An Analysis of Dziga Vertov's Kino-Eye, Joseph Christopher Schaub, Department of Comparative Literature, University of Maryland

See also

• Gender
• Gender differences
• Feminism
• Masculism
• Transhumanism

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