AskBeehaw

Bathrooms. I see single person bathrooms with gendered signs all the time. It makes no sense. Not only that, I've experienced the single gender neutral bathroom at my local university, and it is easily one of the nicest public bathrooms I've ever used. There is a common area with sinks, and each toilet gets a well-ventilated little room, with doors that lock. Not only is the gendering unnecessary, it makes bathrooms actively worse than they could be.

I mean, gender is a social construct so I'd really say that everything is unnecessarily gendered because gender itself and gender norms are not necessary.

But if that's not quite what you were looking for - then probably language. As a French man, it is my duty to trash on French so, French has gendered nouns so any object you know has a gender associated for some awful reason. Some job titles don't have female equivalent and don't even get me started on trying to speak or write in a gender neutral fashion in French, ugh! (I still do it to the best of my efforts and encourage others to try to use French in a gender neutral fashion but it is hard)

Clothes. It seems crazy to me that men (and often masc presenting enbies too for that matter) can't just wear a dress on a hot summer day without getting weird looks. Or just to feel pretty honestly. Why is something that's about both practicality and self-expression so fundamentally restricted by what genitals you were born with in the eyes of society?

Also, speaking of clothes: lingerie. I have rarely ever seen lingerie designed for men, and even the one that exists seems not nearly as carefully designed as lingerie for women. This makes me sad, it feels like society does not want them to feel pretty and sexy and it's also just unfair to everyone.

(I am focusing mostly on men / masc enbies here because I always had the experience that women wearing "men's clothes" is waaay more accepted nowadays, but feel free to correct me and chime in with your own examples if you disagree!)

Children are unnecessarily gendered! People should give them the opportunity to explorer their own relationship with gender without being assigned one.

Bikes! I'm thinking about getting a new bike in the next several months, and a step-through bike seems to have some features in practicality that I value compared to a step-over bike. Not Just Bikes, ironically, has a pretty good video talking about Dutch step-through bikes that introduced me to the concept and advantages of a step-through. It might be on topic to mention that Not Just Bikes gives mention to one of the Dutch names for this kind of bike: "omafiets", or Grandma Bicycle.

I'd suppose it's getting better, but I still encounter a fair chunk of people who see a step-over bike as a men's bike and a step-through as a women's bike. And I'll think C'mon, that's a fair chunk of potential storage space you could have over the rear wheel if you put a rack on top. I've tried making it work before with my step-over bike, but in my experience, that space becomes much less meaningful when you have to swing a leg over and end up knocking your shin on something as you get on.

I'd love to see bikes just sold by their step type more often. Give all of them a wide color palette, keep the labeling at Step-Over or Step-Through, and let people ride what they wanna ride. I'm making progress with changing minds, but it's taking a fair chunk of time to reach Pops at least, bless his heart 😒.

Not Just Bikes gave an iconic point: step-over/men's bikes are the only kind you can hit your nuts on.

Edit: Proofreading: “one of the names,” not the name.

Alcohol is a pretty big one.

There's the whole "drinking stuff that tastes like trash is manly and 'puts some hair on your chest'" stereotype but bro, I'll take a Seagrams Calypso Colada over something like a beer any day of the week. I want to enjoy the things I'm putting in my body.

Humans IMO. Is there actually a widespread benefit to forcibly upholding the gender roles? I can tell you about 100 cons. Let people be what they want. It shouldn't be forced upon others. It's easier to just not bother.

The French language :)

the same products. in an interesting inversion of the already well-documented pink tax, my father in law walks around with a packet of disposable wet wipes called "dude wipes" in his pocket. they're the exact same as the baby wipes that my partner uses, but they're in a black package with 'manly' lettering on it and they cost twice as much. he had never shown interest in this product, which has been available his entire life, before it validated his gender. after it validated his gender, he valued it at twice what the non-validating version sells for.

There is more to genedered events than meets the eye. On the surface, it can seem like trying to separate based on ability or potential ability that may seem unnecessary. I don't follow golf so I can't compare the best men's and women's golfers myself. However Chess is also has men's and women's leagues, and doesn't need to separate on any physical differences between men and women. When it comes to events like Chess, US Chess started a Girl's league to help draw and maintain girls playing the game to great success.

Having a separate women's league can make sure that women see there is an oppotuntiy to play and lower that bar to joining, potentially reduce toxicity from a still otherwise male dominated event (this analysis has a gender breakdown for the India Chess Federation), and make sure that women win some of the prize money available incentivising players to play. However there are some like International Master Sam Shankland that believe that it would be better if there was just one league for everyone to compete in, incentivising everyone to improve to the highest level. There are some concerns about a skill gap between men and women, however there are statistical analysis showing that can be explained by having two vastly different sizes of groups being represented and ranked.

The entirety of the French language.

Ships. Why in the world is maritime equipment always refered to as "she/her"?!

If it were possible to turn off the patriarchy and all its sequela, I’d say everything.

However, in a world with ubiquitous oppression of women, it is essential for non-men to have exclusive places of refuge.

It’s kind of a catch-22 though because gender segregation helps keep the notion of meaningful gender difference alive.

Isn't there a general consesus in sports that testosterone makes a big difference?

I believe that is the common reasoning behind the separate leagues in any sports.

Even if it is completely skill-based, might as well keep it separate for good measure. At least no one will argue the outcome of a match with something as silly as "gender-bias."

Me.

Soaps! I guess some men like to smell like timber and rocks or whatever but I'll take a fruity scent all day every day.

Uhh, most things?

Trying to think where it might not be unnecessary, and can only think of three.

1. Seeking out a particular gender for mutual support, therapy or medical care if one has had difficult experiences surrounding gender & sex. I don't know that this is fully healthy, but to date barely any humans have ever had access to the sort of idealised therapeutic environment where working through that safely is viable, so everyone is trying to get through as best they can.

2. Within some sports the differences conferred by sex are dramatic enough that it does not seem unreasonable to have competitive divisions on that basis, though I feel a more finely-grained approach would be more appropriate for a great many reasons not limited to sex & gender. Many sporting bodies do permit girls & women to compete against boys & men, but female athletes seek out their own divisions in order to succeed.

3. Sometimes useful as a short-hand in conversation. Hard to argue that it is necessary however, and it may be that if society were to be in recovery for long enough, that this utility would ebb away.

Emotion.

Chess is a bit weird in this regard.