There was a small news story yesterday that caught my attention. It was a proposal by the Secretary of the Navy to no longer call the midshipmen at the Naval Academy, midshipmen. No alternative names were given. The only statement given was that he felt it was time for the term to become more gender neutral. He didn't mention changing the name of man hole covers, or the man in the moon, but can that be far behind ? The story continued with interviews with people on the street. I will say they gave equal time to those that supported that change and those with common sense. One young lady in particular stuck me as especially misguided. She was obviously trying to sound intelligent in front of the television camera as she made this statement, " Yes, they should change it because we do not live in a binary society anymore, some people identify as gender neutral. " Sounds impressive doesn't it ? Problem is it is totally wrong. I'll explain.
First off I am a firm believer in tradition. They have been called midshipman since the inception of the academy. The are called midshipman because of the part of the ship they were stationed. They were not below decks nor were they on the quarterdeck, they were amidships. But setting that part aside let's examine this idea that we do not live in a " binary " society. Binary means two. I have a news flash for that young lady we have two genders in the world, boys and girls ! The manner in which they choose to identify themselves is of no consequence, they are either, or. Regardless of personal identification or any so called " gender reassignment " they are one or the other. In fact, that is the reason they get " reassigned " to be the other gender. Two is the key here.
If that isn't enough evidence allow me to present this idea. Wouldn't you say our society today is dominated by computers and computer technology ? I don't think that can be denied. All computers operate on what system ? The binary system ! Isn't that amazing. In a computer it is a series of zeroes and ones that makes the code work. You could look at it as switches being turned on and off. It is either right or wrong ! Man, may become confused and arrive at wrong answers but not computers. That is because of that simple premise, right and wrong. You couldn't use a system with a third response without the results then becoming arbitrary. This time four is four, but next time it could be five, or ten or whatever !
Does it make a difference what name we call someone ? As long as that name isn't disparaging however, I can't see the problem. Midshipman, postman, fireman and others are not disparaging terms but descriptive of the job the person does. If you tell me that is your occupation I'm fairly certain I can determine if you are a male or female. Even if I can't should that make a difference ? Does the use of the " man " suffix indicate the gender of the person ? No, not unless you are somehow fixated on that. Guess what, they even had girl cowboys ! Imagine that. Shouldn't this concept of gender neutrality be well, neutral ? That is to say, not making a big fuss over it. I think we are all well aware that in society today a woman can do any job that a man can, there are no restrictions. Just recently that does include combat ! Now that is gender neutrality.
Bottom line is, we live in and require a binary system. There is right and wrong. Everything else is arbitrary. The largest impediment to man is the realization of what is right and wrong. Seems like that choice is arbitrary as well. Well, I think we all know what it is but it proves to be inconvenient in commerce and personal satisfaction. In another word, morality. Binary, 0 or 1 ? It is quite simple really, don't complicate things. Is being neutral making progress ? Is that what we should be striving toward ? Neutrality ? Or is it denial ?
First off I am a firm believer in tradition. They have been called midshipman since the inception of the academy. The are called midshipman because of the part of the ship they were stationed. They were not below decks nor were they on the quarterdeck, they were amidships. But setting that part aside let's examine this idea that we do not live in a " binary " society. Binary means two. I have a news flash for that young lady we have two genders in the world, boys and girls ! The manner in which they choose to identify themselves is of no consequence, they are either, or. Regardless of personal identification or any so called " gender reassignment " they are one or the other. In fact, that is the reason they get " reassigned " to be the other gender. Two is the key here.
If that isn't enough evidence allow me to present this idea. Wouldn't you say our society today is dominated by computers and computer technology ? I don't think that can be denied. All computers operate on what system ? The binary system ! Isn't that amazing. In a computer it is a series of zeroes and ones that makes the code work. You could look at it as switches being turned on and off. It is either right or wrong ! Man, may become confused and arrive at wrong answers but not computers. That is because of that simple premise, right and wrong. You couldn't use a system with a third response without the results then becoming arbitrary. This time four is four, but next time it could be five, or ten or whatever !
Does it make a difference what name we call someone ? As long as that name isn't disparaging however, I can't see the problem. Midshipman, postman, fireman and others are not disparaging terms but descriptive of the job the person does. If you tell me that is your occupation I'm fairly certain I can determine if you are a male or female. Even if I can't should that make a difference ? Does the use of the " man " suffix indicate the gender of the person ? No, not unless you are somehow fixated on that. Guess what, they even had girl cowboys ! Imagine that. Shouldn't this concept of gender neutrality be well, neutral ? That is to say, not making a big fuss over it. I think we are all well aware that in society today a woman can do any job that a man can, there are no restrictions. Just recently that does include combat ! Now that is gender neutrality.
Bottom line is, we live in and require a binary system. There is right and wrong. Everything else is arbitrary. The largest impediment to man is the realization of what is right and wrong. Seems like that choice is arbitrary as well. Well, I think we all know what it is but it proves to be inconvenient in commerce and personal satisfaction. In another word, morality. Binary, 0 or 1 ? It is quite simple really, don't complicate things. Is being neutral making progress ? Is that what we should be striving toward ? Neutrality ? Or is it denial ?
No comments:
Post a Comment