Gender Roles And Positive Middle Path

In most of the world, gender roles are very rigid, and conformity to them is required to an absolute.

In some of the world, gender is seen as an artificial construct, and any acknowledgement of differences between men and women is seen as sexism or even misogyny.

I have dealt with both worlds. Both worlds have influenced me, and both worlds see in me one another and are attacking me for what they see. And to both sets of attackers I say that they don't know what they are talking about. It is wrong to attack me for something that is present to a much greater extent in people from the place from which I came, and many of which features I fought – in some cases at a great cost to myself. And it is also wrong to attack me for something that I learned from the feminists when I, once again, got attacked by many feminists myself.

Both worlds are part-right and part-wrong. Men and women have a physical and emotional nature which is gendered; and men and women also have the mind and the will that both men and women have equally. Denying either denies people the right to half a life.

In matters where people are part-right and part-wrong, the correct solution is what I call the positive middle path. It is looking at what each side is right about and combining them while doing away with what's wrong in each. The first world is correct to say that there are natural differences between men and women. And the second world is correct to say that both men and women have the mind and the will and are in that aspect indeed equal.

So my solution is to take this positive middle path. It is to affirm both the physical and emotional nature, which is gendered, and the mind and the will, which are not. It is to recognize the existence of both aspects in people and look for ways in which both can be constructively fulfilled. And doing this will do far more for the well-being of both men and women than anything that either side is doing by attacking people like me.