Clothing. Makeup. Emojis. And now legal status?
The genderless movement is firing ahead, fast and furious, while those who cleave to traditional views are considered anachronistic at best, and bigoted at worst.
In June 2016, Oregon Judge Amy Hehn granted legal gender “non-binary” status to Portland resident Jamie Shupe. But this month, Hehn went a step further, granting video game designer “Patch” the right to be genderless.
NBC News contributor Mary O'Hara proclaimed:
History was quietly made in Oregon this month when a judge granted a Portlander's request to become genderless.
Patch, a 27-year-old video game designer, is likely the first legally agender person in the United States.
Patch told O'Hara that the concept of gender had always seemed foreign. Born Patrick Abbatiello, Patch now has no legal surname. “I feel no identity or closeness with any pronouns I’ve come across,” Patch said. “What describes me is my name.”
Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, a model named Vinny Ohh has spent over $50,000 on surgeries intended to make him not only genderless, but alien in appearance. “When people ask me how I'd label myself,” Ohh told the Daily Mail, “I tell them an ‘extra-terrestrial, hot mess, self-obsessed’ it's becoming my slogan.”
The pronoun dance has become even more confusing. If Patch and Ohh are uncomfortable with “he,” “she” or “they,” what do you call these people?
But these concerns haven’t precluded liberals in business and media from cheering these and other developments in the gender sphere.
On March 20, Adobe typeface developer Paul Hunt penned a blog post about the impending addition of three gender fluid emoji to the iPhone. Mashable lifestyle correspondent Rachel Thompson rejoiced: “It’s certainly a big step in the right direction.”
“My wish is that adding more gender options in emoji will help us all to celebrate our unity and our diversity,” Hunt elaborated. “I advocate for everyone to feel comfortable using emoji men when we feel masculine, emoji women to express our feminine aspects, and gender inclusive emoji whenever we feel like celebrating our humanity regardless of gender.”
Clothing and beauty lines are equally on board. H&M, Zara, Milk Makeup and MAC have all run gender fluid lines or advertisements.
Milk’s most recent campaign – #BlurTheLines – features gender fluid models. “In terms of gender,” one mustached man declared, “I identify as he, man, him or queen.”
“He and she,” another stated, “only have as much power as you give them.”
Glamour and Refinery29 both touted the brand’s “big stride” and its inclusive use of “seven models of diverse genders and sexual orientations.”
Is there anything that will faze the left?
