I am writing in regard to your piece entitled "The State of Masculinity," which appeared in the Nov. 11 issue of The Spectrum.
The problem is not that men are worthless, or that they are cast as such by some feminists. The problem is the continued idea that physical sex determines gender identity, at least in the case of men. Women are free to wear pants, but a man in a skirt is still looked upon as strange at best. Men are still shackled to a gender role, which some women are also seeking to enter. There is now a "women's space", but no longer a corresponding "men's space", with the possible exception of The Man Show.
However, the loss of a distinct "men's space" does not imply that men themselves are no longer needed. Someone needs to be in the kitchen. Someone needs to be there to hold or be held from time to time. Speaking as a hopeless romantic, love is better than the alternative. Not everyone can do everything and still find time to be happy with it.
I therefore propose that the categories of "masculine" and "feminine" be abolished entirely. After all, they're based on the premise that men are masculine and women are feminine, a premise that feminists and transsexuals everywhere challenge. In fact, physical sex itself is not dichotomous. Approximately 1 in 2000 babies are inter-sexual, and the American Pediatric Association approves of the practice of surgically reconstructing these children's genitals to fit the mythical binary system.
The only way to "fix" the state of masculinity today is to remove the category entirely. This would let traditional "butch" men continue to be "butch" and give those of us in the middle the freedom to be as femme as we want, and let everybody live together in one united "human space."
Photo: Meredith Forrest Kulwicki
