to be gendered, or not to be gendered?

Though neither of these blogs are relatively new I thought it would be fitting to mention them here, as they both seem to have a lot of promise. Every Woman is a Goddess and Everyday Avatar both offer a celebration and critique of what it is to be a modern woman and man (respectively), an addressing of gender roles that often go unnoticed in our culture and times. Gender is a big issue, we all have one (or at least one), and culture has too many customs and stereotypes for what that should mean. And beyond that we each have our own take on the subject, because we live in an age where everything is up for debate and personal rediscovery, including the roles we choose to play. Just ask a tranny or cross-gendered being, and they will tell you that the definitions of "male" and "female" are too confined and oversimplified to let them express themselves as they feel. (and where's the transgendered site in the blogosphere?) Many of my friends are androgyn, post-gender, etc, or if they do identify as male or female it is certainly not in any of the traditional ways those roles are picked up and played out. I usually identify as male, but not in the stereotypes of either macho man or weakling, chauvinist or nice guy. There are too many shades in between, and none of them really seem to fit my own personal approach to gender. Maybe I don't even want to approach gender (as it creates yet another devide between humans, like race and class), or just don't think about it enough for it to be an issue.

Either way it's good to see at least a few people willing to address this rationaly. I've seen too many groups go about it all wrong. I remember back to my punk days, when the local anarchist collective would meet and talk for hours on end about sexual abuse and gender roles in our community, which would usually just end up in an enraged round of fingerpointing and name calling. The womyn' group would meet and form witch hunts to oust any guy they suspected of showing any sign of stereotypical male behaviour which might lead them to treat womyn poorly, and the men's group would meet and sit around apologizing to each other for having penises that could lead them to do evil things. Really, how ridiculous; I stopped going after a few meetings, finding the whole thing just a bit too sad and laughable for my tastes. But that's anarchists for you. Currently I live in a community where most of the people are open and honest enough about their feelings and intentions that this kind of thing isn't necessary, and when people do meet to talk about gender it is to talk of how those roles get played out in our lives and in culture, to try and figure out just a little bit more what it means to be gendered.