Excellent exemplars

Oksana Grishina

Yesterday, I shared a photo on Facebook depicting a female body builder in a striking pose, along with the caption “Strong is the new skinny.” This elicited many positive responses, but also provoked some criticism. A friend complained that a female body builder was a poor example to be setting for young girls.

A few week ago, I wrote about realism versus idealism in depictions of women, wherein I discussed the diversity of depictions of women throughout human history, and objected to the argument that it would be beneficial to replace ideal depictions of femininity with average ones. If you haven’t already done so, I encourage you to take a moment and read it. It’ll give you some background into my thinking.

I’d now like to elaborate on the conflict between holding up examples of excellence as ideals to be followed, and respecting individuals whether or not they come close to meeting these ideals.

People should be valued regardless of how they look, how clever they are, or what talents they possess. It’s also right however to honor excellence—both in the qualities that people are born with, and the ones they acquire through practice, study, hard work, and determination.

Many feel strongly that earned excellence is more worthy of praise than innate excellence. It’s hard to find fault with the idea that people should be rewarded for hard work and devotion; but all gifts—both natural gifts and those won through diligence—contribute to the richness and beauty of the world.

Elizabeth Warren

The best examples of excellence arise when a person with natural gifts takes full advantage of them, and through dedication and hard work develops them to their full potential. Professional athletes, virtuoso musicians, erudite writers, and ingenious engineers all contribute greatly to the intellectual, artistic, scientific, and financial wealth of the world.

Unfortunately, it often happens that people fortunate by birth do not seize the opportunity. Instead of developing their gifts, they choose to squander them, resting comfortably on their laurels, and doing only the minimum necessary to get by. This is a shame! Through laziness, they rob themselves and the world of the erstwhile fruits of their true potential.

Carol Greider

There is a natural tension between valuing excellence, and valuing every person. I am sure that some people find it intimidating or discouraging that the standards (of beauty, intelligence, wit, or skill) seem unattainably high. This is not cause however to lower the standards—to set the bar lower to a level that more people can achieve. On the contrary: standards of excellence are not meant to be met by everyone! Each person should instead be encouraged to do his or her best, not accept limits imposed on him or her by others, and to live up to his or her own true potential.

But let’s get back to the original photo that raised this issue. I don’t think any single image of femininity should be held up as the one true example every girl should follow. It would be silly to pigeonhole all girls into a single destiny. Some girls will want to follow the example of a talented musician. Others will find more appeal in following a gifted scientist or a well-spoken public official. Young girls should be presented with many different images and stories of exemplary women who have achieved excellence in many different walks of life. Girls should listen to their hearts, choose their own examples to follow, and aim high. When it comes to physical appearance and health, focussing on strength rather than merely skinniness is a positive development!

Forced sterilization for transgender Swedes?

A friend brought to my attention the fact that in Sweden, to change one’s gender under the law, a person must submit to sterilization, forever forgoing the possibility of having children.

At first I didn’t see the logic behind such a law; a moment’s reflection, however, made it clear why some people want to force this terrible choice on transgender citizens.

The existence of gay, bisexual, intersex, and transgender people threatens the idea of a simple binary division of humanity into two genders. One can understand why this idea makes some people uncomfortable. People may aspire to be open-minded and not prejudicial; but in reality, people like the comfort of knowing at a glance what to expect from someone. People expect different behavior from men and women, for example. I imagine many women would feel uncomfortable sharing a toilet, shower, or dressing room with a person with fully functional testicles, regardless of the gender with which that person identifies. Testosterone affects attitudes, desires, and behaviors; so this reluctance is understandable. People who don’t fit into society’s predefined categories are scary to many because they challenge long-held and cherished assumptions. To grant rights to another, one must often be willing to give up some of one’s own rights.

Gender identity and ID cards

An article in The Local describes an effort underway in Sweden to offer alternate identity cards to those considering sex-reassignment surgery. The thinking is that those who self-identify as a gender other than their biological gender will be able to present themselves as the person they want to be.

I find this topic fascinating, because it challenges some of our most basic assumptions about what it means to be male or female. People ought to be able to be whoever they want. However, we must also recognize that the presence of people in society who don’t fit into our neat little categories poses some problems.

People like to be able to make assumptions about others. These assumptions save time and offer the illusory comfort that we live in a stable and predictable world. Sometimes though it becomes clear that certain time-honored assumptions are outdated and must be discarded, even at the expense of eliminating this source of comfort and challenging people to abandon their long-held prejudices. Most people today would agree that it is wrong to make assumptions about a person based on the color of her skin. However, it took a long and difficult struggle to get to this point. Along the way, many people were made to feel very uncomfortable, precisely because their assumptions were challenged.

Any time you challenge people’s basic assumptions, you’re going to make them uncomfortable.

One of the most basic assumptions people like to be able to make is that there are only two genders, and that it’s easy to tell who is a man and who is a woman. The presence of transgender people challenges this assumption.

I’ll give one specific example. Imagine a person who is biologically male, but prefers to identify as a woman. Should this person be allowed to share the same public facilities (toilets, changing rooms, etc) as other women? I dare say some erstwhile open minded women might find their open-mindedness challenged upon encountering this situation in real life. And what would be a solution to the problem that would be fair to everyone? I suppose one might suggest that separate facilities for men and women could be outlawed and that the state could enforce unisex facilities. That would eliminate the need to categorize oneself at all, and would be consistent with the trend toward blurring of the boundaries between the sexes. But although fair, that solution too would upset a great number of people, most notably women who like to feel safe in the assumption that their facilities are free of men.

Which assumptions are sacred, and which must be challenged? That’s not an easy question to answer.