Jonathan Sims (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
intheeyeofthebeholding) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fandomhigh2024-09-16 02:00 pm
intheeyeofthebeholding) wrote in fandomhigh2024-09-16 02:00 pm
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Sex and Sexuality, Monday 3rd period
"Right." Jon nodded to everyone (not Hannibal). "Last week we discussed gender and sexuality being a nebulous thing, so naturally this week we'll try to nail it down a bit. As much as that's possible."
"As limiting as labels can be, it can also be useful to have them to refer to," Hannibal said. "Particularly in these topics, it can be validating to have words to use to describe yourself. You needn't feel bound by any of them, of course, or you may change your mind over time or from day to day."
"We discussed gender being a social construct," Jon said. "In modern American - and British, and many other Western countries - tradition, there have been two genders for decades: male and female. Ideally, men were meant to be the ones in control, the ones earning money - although that's largely a capitalist myth; women not in the higher echelons of society have long worked for a living, but that's the story told, anyway - the heads of households, the ones going to war. Women were meant to be subservient, the ones in charge of the household, the ones raising children."
"And those children were similarly gender-delineated," Hannibal said. "Boys were meant to play with trucks, building equipment, weapons. Girls were meant to play with dolls."
"Gender essentialism is a poison administered young," Jon said darkly.
Hannibal chuckled. "On that we can agree. In any event, more recently, people have begun to rebel against it. Women have taken on more jobs and engaged in higher education in much greater numbers, and have begun to take charge. Men have begun to take on more caring roles."
"Some of them," Jon scoffed. "It's a harder sell to get men to change when the patriarchy directly benefits them."
Hannibal sighed. "As you say. In addition to challenging the existing gender roles, people have also begun challenging the existing genders; we will leave that for another week, as it deserves more proper care. For now, let us discuss the gender construct as you understand it and where you feel you fit into it."
"And what we can do to break it down," Jon finished.
"As limiting as labels can be, it can also be useful to have them to refer to," Hannibal said. "Particularly in these topics, it can be validating to have words to use to describe yourself. You needn't feel bound by any of them, of course, or you may change your mind over time or from day to day."
"We discussed gender being a social construct," Jon said. "In modern American - and British, and many other Western countries - tradition, there have been two genders for decades: male and female. Ideally, men were meant to be the ones in control, the ones earning money - although that's largely a capitalist myth; women not in the higher echelons of society have long worked for a living, but that's the story told, anyway - the heads of households, the ones going to war. Women were meant to be subservient, the ones in charge of the household, the ones raising children."
"And those children were similarly gender-delineated," Hannibal said. "Boys were meant to play with trucks, building equipment, weapons. Girls were meant to play with dolls."
"Gender essentialism is a poison administered young," Jon said darkly.
Hannibal chuckled. "On that we can agree. In any event, more recently, people have begun to rebel against it. Women have taken on more jobs and engaged in higher education in much greater numbers, and have begun to take charge. Men have begun to take on more caring roles."
"Some of them," Jon scoffed. "It's a harder sell to get men to change when the patriarchy directly benefits them."
Hannibal sighed. "As you say. In addition to challenging the existing gender roles, people have also begun challenging the existing genders; we will leave that for another week, as it deserves more proper care. For now, let us discuss the gender construct as you understand it and where you feel you fit into it."
"And what we can do to break it down," Jon finished.
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Though Arden wasn't sure she knew how to destroy the concept of gender.
"Um. Until I was about seven, I was in a bunch of different foster homes, and most of them were 'good, church-going families.' Progressive in some ways, but they could be socially conservative. So I probably absorbed a bunch of gender role stuff from them during those formative years. But, uh, anyone who thought my legal guardian was going to be subservient or maternal would be in for a real f--freakin' shock."
Elves were matriarchal, actually; presided over by Queens. And weres didn't give a fuck about gender, an alpha was an alpha. Same with vampires. What mattered was power, followed by influence, and everything else flowed down from there.
"I think I do a lot of traditionally femme-coded things? But I don't do it to, like, reify my gender or anything. But women's spheres were - traditionally - the home, right? While men did stuff outside of it? So, like...I guess it's more, I was shaped by the way I grew up to be more...homebound, I guess, and that happens to overlap with my gender and the expectations of society, but it would be true even if I were a guy or the roles were swapped. Like, I don't feel like I'm not femme, but I'd guess my gender expression aligns to house-stuff, but it's opening up more as I stay in Fandom."
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She looked around the class for a moment and decided just to throw it all into the wind.
"My sister, mother, aunt, and I can't access my family's money back home because we're women, our accountant left as soon as he was given the opportunity to do so," and she didn't blame Arthur one bit for that, although she wished she'd have had the business savvy back then to have him do something with their accounts before he did, "the man whose name the accounts are under is currently stuck as a wolf and the only other male relative left in our family is in no condition to handle that sort of thing. So we're essentially squatting in an abandoned house in the woods until we can get something else sorted out. And the real kicker to all of this is that it's my grandmother who made us all our money in the first place."
So, yeah, she was kind of feeling a little bit of that good old fashioned patriarchal sexism in action right now. The logistics of their situation would have been a headache even in this modern society, let alone dealing with it in the '60s from an alternate future dimension.
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