While flipping through last week’s issue of the Post, the headline “Battle of the sexes” caught my eye. I was utterly astounded to find that the outdated phrase was being used sincerely in a discussion about education and sex (gender was never mentioned). I know that I speak for many of my fellow students when I say this:

Gender is fluid. The idea that “male” and “female” are opposites is socially constructed, as is the notion that each person must identify as one or the other. Furthermore, pitting the two traditional genders against each other in a metaphorical “battle” is harmful to everyone involved.

The quote that truly disappointed me came from an Oakland University graduate who works in elementary education: “Boys do learn differently. Their brains are wired differently.” Our graduates should know better, particularly those who will be working with young, impressionable students.

Boys and girls are NOT “wired differently.” That kind of vague language concerning the human body and brain has no business being published in our school newspaper because it perpetuates harmful stereotypes.

Training children to fit into whichever gender box corresponds with their anatomy – if one, in fact, does – is limiting, distracting, and only helps reify the perceived “truth” that there are only two sexes and that those two sexes are fundamentally different and therefore must be compared. When children are raised around these strict rules they do behave and learn differently from one another, but only because those behaviors have been rewarded and reinforced by the adults in their lives. “Different wiring” is a social construct – not a biological phenomenon!

I would invite those who contributed to this article to read West and Zimmerman’s 1987 article “Doing Gender,” and in the future to consider that Oakland University is a community that includes men, women, transmen, transwomen, genderqueer and non-binary students, and everyone in between. If we are meant to fight against those who do not share our gender identity instead of loving and supporting them as individuals, then consider me a draft-dodger.

G. L. Smith –