Ashley McGuire - Sex Scandal: The Drive to Abolish Male and Female

Copyright 2017 Ashley McGuire

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First e-book edition 2017: ISBN 978-1-62157-610-5

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For Brian

Table of Contents

CONTENTS

S ex has become scandalous.

I dont mean the sex youre thinking ofthe thing that men needle each other about in the locker room, that women talk about in hushed tones over glasses of wine, that men and women have been fighting over and laughing about since the dawn of humanity. That kind of sex has always been a little bit scandalous, and it still is, even in todays anything-goes world.

Im talking about sex as it demarcates male and female, the basic biological and physiological differences that tell us with scientific certainty whether a human being is a man or woman, and all that that entails.

That right there has become a matter of national scandal.

Somehow, it has become a violation of the accepted code of conduct to suggest that men and women are different, and to act accordingly.

The very word sex in the sense of basic biological difference is no longer used in everyday life; its been replaced by gender, which itself has been rendered practically meaningless. The scientific and medical communities still have clear definitions of sex and gender. Society denies them almost entirely.

LIVING IN DENIAL

Indeed, we live in a world of sexual denial. We are increasingly trying to treat men and women as if they were exactly the same. And then were surprised by the growing sexual confusion.

Take romance, for example. Women lament its demise, and men hardly know how to be affectionate toward a woman, or even treat her with respect, without finding themselves in danger of sexism or chauvinism. Men cant win. If they dont hold a door, pull out a chair, or pay for dinner, theyre jerks; if they do, theyre patronizing. Women are just as confused. They say they want real romance, but theyre content to move in with a guy, do his laundry, and cook his meals for little more in return than the chance of Valentines Day tickets to see Fifty Shades of Grey.

You may have noticed the whitewashing of sexual difference in one small way or another. But if you look closely, you will see strands of sex-denial everywhere.

Maybe a toy or activity disappeared from your childs school for gender equity reasons. Maybe your high school son was elected to Homecoming Court, only to be crowned as a unisex Royal, because calling him Homecoming King would be offensive. Maybe a battle is brewing in your school district about whether high school boys should be allowed access to the girls locker room.

Maybe youre a college student who is majoring in gender studiesand just got invited by the cute guy who lives on your floor and showers in your bathroom to a Secretaries and Bosses party at the frat down the street. Or maybe youve graduated and are on the dating sceneor rather, wishing you knew where exactly that scene is, and why casual sex seems to be the price of admission to any meaningful contact with the opposite sex. Or maybe youre with your girlfriends at a nail salon, reading magazines and wondering how it came to be that a man who won a gold medal at the Olympics as a decathlete is complaining that choosing clothes is the hardest part about being a woman or why everyone suddenly seems to agree that women should be drafted into the military and sent into combat.

Maybe you are a professional who was recently required to undergo workplace training where you were taught that gender is fluid and a meaningless label. You had to spend five hours discussing male and female characteristics that make up the supposedly socially constructed gender binarywhich you cant help thinking has a lot to do with biology. Or maybe you are an employer terrified by the prospect of being slapped with a $200,000 fine if you refer to an employee by the wrong pronoun. In some cases, it seems, sexual difference still does matter.

Feeling confused? I dont blame you.

It seems like you woke up one day and suddenly it was normal for kindergartens to ban Legos as sexist, for high school boys to shower in the girls locker room, and for America to send the mothers of toddlers to defend us from our enemies. But the reality is that the denial of sexual differences has been unfolding before us for decades.

THE BATTLE OF THE SEXES

On September 20, 1973, tens of thousands of people crammed into the Houston Astrodome in the scorching afternoon heat. About 90 million more sat in front of their televisions in eager anticipation. Everyone was dying to watch what had been dubbed the Battle of the Sexes.

Bobby Riggs, one of the greatest tennis stars in history, had challenged female tennis star Billie Jean King to a match for show. Riggs, who made no effort to hide his sexist disdain for women in sports, had been taunting King, who had collected ten singles titles before turning thirty, for some time. Riggs was constantly provoking King and other rising female tennis stars with misogynistic jeers like the best way to handle women is to keep them pregnant and barefoot, or women belong in the bedroom and kitchen, in that order, and Women play about 25 percent as good as men, so they should get about 25 percent of the money men get.

One woman had already taken Riggss bait. Margaret Cook, then the highest-ranked woman in tennis, agreed to play him for a cash prize of $10,000. In what became known as the Mothers Day Massacre, Riggs walloped her 6-2, 6-1. Making things worse, Cook told reporters afterward that she was outmatched. We girls dont play like that, she said.

But Riggs wasnt satisfied; he wanted to beat Billie Jean King, whom he called a womens libber leader. He challenged her repeatedly, saying, Ill play her on clay, grass, wood, cement, marble or roller skates. We got to keep this sex thing going. Im a woman specialist now.

To everyones shock, King finally agreed to an exhibition match with a $100,000 purse. Before a combined live and TV audience of nearly 100 million, at the time the biggest audience for any tennis match in history, King entered the arena dressed like Cleopatra and carried by men in togas, while Riggs was wheeled in by half-naked women labeled Bobbys bosom buddies. King gifted Riggs with a baby pig, and Riggs gave King a giant Sugar Daddy lollipop,