Previous Rights Movements have been Key in Shaping the Work of Post-Genderists
Movements are a type of group actions that are geared to bringing people together to draw attention to an injustice or inequality and then change the oppressive element in a given society.
The second half of the 20th century was marked by numerous rights movements. Beginning with the Black Civil Rights Movement in the 1960’s and ending with the Post-Gender Movement in the 1990’s, minority groups sought not just equal protection under the law, but the right to create their own identities. Each movement borrowed elements from its predecessor and contributed to the rise of its successor.
The Civil Rights movement fought to protect the rights and economic opportunities of blacks as citizens of the USA. In addition it sought to humanize the way Americans saw Blacks. Women within the Civil Rights Movement, and later Black Power Movement, were treated as inferiors. So, when the Black Power Movement expelled whites from its ranks many of the women expelled went on to form the Feminist Movement.
The Feminist Movement stressed control over one’s own body, the independence of women from men and the questioning gender roles acted as a catalyst for the Gay and Lesbian movement.
The Gay and Lesbian Movement questioned sex roles and challenged the norm of sex for the sake of reproduction; and sought to replace it with a norm of sex for the sake of fulfilling one’s innate sexuality and desires.
The Transsexual movement, which grew out of the Gay and Lesbian movement challenged not only norm of heterosexuality, but the valorization of the physical status of the body over a person’s gender identity as well. It demanded the right to change their body to reflect their inner gender identity.
The Intersex Movement, like the transsexual movement, sought to put control over a person’s body into the hands of that person. Additionally, it challenged the notion of the sex dichotomy. It did not advocate the adoption of a gender identity outside of the binary, but it did recognize that sex should be qualified on a continuum not in terms of a binary.
The Post-Genderists advocates the belief that both sex and gender are on a continuum and that there would be a lot less gender oppression if western society recognized this fact. At the moment, there is no official Post- Gender movement that could be compared to its predecessors. There are, however, post-genderists and academics who are working towards creating a society without any form of gender oppression.
