Al: What is the purpose?

My thoughts on this statement: "If sex, gender, and sexuality are constructs our society has made up, and we perpetuate in daily life, what purpose do they continue to serve?"

First, I don't buy the sweeping premise of the if statement. It is way too extreme. Yes, Char did give us a number of examples that mistakes sometimes are made by professionals (doctors and maybe other healthcare providers) in determing the sex (male or female) of the new born baby and thus potentially leading to wrong surgical operations being done to intervene. but I am not ready to accept that in the United States that this is statistically signifant problem, say compared to the number of people dying of cancer, heart attacks, etc. Furthermore, I would been astounded if parents do not have the final word to approve such a procedure. In short, I do not subscribe to the extreme view that society has the last word on sex, gender and sexuality which the premise suggests.

And what and who is this society. The statement would imply that it is They and not us or not me. It's they that set the rules ... the constructs. It's they who decide. It absolves personal responsibilities.

Our country, imperfect as it is, is a democracy. Society is made up of us. And there is every hope and evidence that are we are open to dialog, debate and arguments. I am fond of watching CPAN where callers representing different perspectives call in and sometimes they really utter some very extreme view points. I admire the moderator's demeanor to remain neutral to hear everyone no matter what their tone might be. It's throught more and more this kind of open dialog that socieity itself will evolve and will become more tolarant, more enlightened.

I guess what I saying is that I don't agree with the sweeping premise that society or they or whatever make up these constructs. It implies we are robots and we live in a autocratic country, which we are not.

In addition I also reject the notion that we have to automatically perpectuate societal rules. That implies we have no choice. My own journey is to live deliberately and not live under indoctrinations or beliefs either self-imposed, from experts, religions or cultures that on closer examinations violate the golden rule: "Treat others as we would like to be treated."

However, the constructs I would follow is nature (not society). If you let nature operate and evolve and not impose rules on them it will seek a higher ground and enlightend state.

So, while labels (sex, sexuality, gender and what are expected by society) are not very useful but our physical nature which is part of nature and does serve a purpose and the most basic purpose is reproduction and continuation of life but I also accept not everyone in our species is needed to participate in the reproduction of life.

Everything under the sun has its place and purpose under heaven. Our job is to let it be naturally. Sometimes the irony is that we have to speak up in order to let nature be.