4.12.2008

Postgenderism: Beyond the Gender Binary

That's the title of a new essay from George Dvorsky and James Hughes available at Dvorsky's blog SentientDevelopments. Dvorsky is a prominent transhumanist and co-founder of the Toronto chapter of the World Transhumanist Association. Dvorsky coined the term "postgenderism" and wrote the original wikipedia entry, which has now been merged with "transgenderism".

From the abstract:
Postgenderists argue that gender is an arbitrary and unnecessary limitation on human potential, and foresee the elimination of involuntary biological and psychological gendering in the human species through the application of neurotechnology, biotechnology and reproductive technologies. Postgenderists contend that dyadic gender roles and sexual dimorphisms are generally to the detriment of individuals and society. Assisted reproduction will make it possible for individuals of any sex to reproduce in any combinations they choose, with or without “mothers” and “fathers,” and artificial wombs will make biological wombs unnecessary for reproduction.
The Transhumanist movement is very well organized and dedicated to putting transhumanist principles into practice. There are over fifty chapters around the world, and many affiliates, such as the Immortality Institute, Better Humans, and the Mormon Transhumanist Association, which is notable for being the only religious affiliate or chapter, the others being expressly atheistic.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi John.

. . . couple quick comments:

1) Most Transhumanist organizations are not expressly atheistic, although most individual Transhumanists are non-religious or atheistic.

2) Although I'm a Transhumanist (a Mormon Transhumanist) I disagree with Dvorsky's relatively negative perspective toward gender. It is no more accurate to cast gender as a limitation than it would be to cast it as an empowerment.

John Howard said...

Hi Lincoln, thanks for stopping by. I think Dvorsky sees being stuck as one gender as a limitation, not gender in itself, at least as far as embodying a gender and taking on all of the colorful fun aspects if one chooses to. In otherwords, I don't think he wants an androgynous society, or maybe he does, I don't know.

Point taken on atheism and H+ organizations. Dvorsky claims to be Buddhist, but again, I don't know what that means in terms of atheism or religiousness. Is it still accurate to say that the MTA is the only expressly religious transhumanist organization that we know of?

Anonymous said...

Funny that in all this wizzbang hyperbole concerning "gender" the whole topic of Sexual ORIENTATION seems to be completely left out of the conversation! How about we just erase HETEROsexuality from the human gene pool. That, in and of itself, would basically CURE human society of a GREAT many social ills! Agree? Disagree? MH.

John Howard said...

MH, orientation isn't really relevant to my efforts, I'm trying to stop GE no matter what the orientation is whoever might want to use it. But as far as transgenderism goes, how does it relate to orientation? Would you as a gay man be attracted to a trans man, or would you consider him a woman? It's a pretty hot topic among lesbians, many of whom are hostile to MtF lesbians and FtMs too. It just goes to show how irrelevant both "gender" and "orientation" are, the only thing that's relevant is the most-likely -to-conceive-as-sex, and whether or not we allow people to conceive with someone of the other most-likely-to-conceive-as sex.

Anonymous said...

Sexual Orientation and Gender are what?!? Irrelevant to you Mr Howard??? Oh, I see. Then how come after this procedure(SSP) has been bandying around for the past 4 to 5 years and only after the jesu freakos lost the marriage ban battle in MA, are you all of a sudden sooooo concerned about halting SSP?!? Ya know Howie baby your actions are so laughably predictable they can be calculated right down to the final maneuver! It's always amusing watching you right wing whacks knockin' yer heads against the proverbial brick wall! LOL! You can't halt evolution Mr. Howard. No matter how hard you try, SSP WILL BECOME A REALITY! Once EBI's become the norm and "traditional" childbirth becomes a thing of history, then and only then can world peace be truly established. Why resist John? World peace aint so bad of a concept ya know. Peace. MH.

Anonymous said...

hey Frankenhippy

whats it like in the fantasy world you live iin again?

Dragons and elves and such and unicorns and centaurs