Our culture has arrived at a transgender moment.
“The end of gender is near,” says Robin Givens, the Washington Post fashion critic.
Menswear designers are on a mission to eradicate it. Some are going full bore, wielding lace shirts and floppy, grandma blouses like cultural grenades. Others are taking a stealth approach, quietly chiseling away the boundaries between masculinity and femininity through non-traditional retail, models and silhouettes.
And a Post advice columnist answers a question about when to use the transgender title “Mx.” Some are saying that we should just use it for everyone. But don’t use it for Caitlyn Jenner, who is a woman.
From Steven Petrow, Civilities: Is it time to include ‘Mx.’ in the mix with ‘Ms.’ and ‘Mr.’? – The Washington Post:
Just as “Ms.” came to be a marital-status-neutral alternative to “Miss” or “Mrs.” in the 1970s, its gender-neutral cousin Mx. is now being used by some to represent those who don’t want to be identified by gender, including transgender individuals. Although Mx. would seem to be rooted in what Time magazine calls our current “transgender tipping point,” its origins go back to a time long before Caitlyn Jenner and “Orange Is the New Black” actress Laverne Cox — to 1977. That year, it was used in an American magazine, Single Parent, reports Jonathan Dent, an OED editor.
Puzzled about who wants to use Mx.? Performance artist Mx. Justin Vivian Bond, an early adopter, e-mailed me this week to say, “I prefer Mx. because I’m transgender and don’t identify as either male or female. . . . I use Mx. because that says exactly what I am — a mix of all genders.” . . .
Okay, so what are the rules when it comes to Mx.? It’s still too early for consensus.
“I think Mx. should be adopted as the standard form of address for everyone,” says Shannon Gilreath, a professor at Wake Forest University and a nationally recognized expert on sexual minorities, “because the real promise of the transgender movement was not the freedom to figure out ways to become more fully male or fully female, but rather freedom from gender entirely. Loosening the gender grip on language is a step in that direction.”. . .
If people want to be addressed as “Mx. Bond” or “Mx. Tobia,” then that’s how I would refer to them. That’s called respect. If pull-down menus on Web sites and intake forms continue to require titles such as Mr. and Ms., then it’s time to include Mx. in the mix. As one reader of mine on Facebook put it: “If I have to choose a title [when filling out online forms], I prefer to choose one that is as neutral — gender, marriage status, and education level — as possible — thus Mx.”
As for me, please call me “Steven Petrow,” as I see few circumstances to use honorifics in this day and age. But because I identify as male, I do check “Mr.” on all those forms. Similarly, Caitlyn Jenner is a woman; please call her “Ms. Jenner” unless she says, “Call me Cait.”
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