QOTD: sex/gender
Gwyneth Jones (author of Life):
Sexual difference, like genetic difference, is individual: society blurs it out. We are all of us sexual mosaics to some degree or other, not just psychologically, but cell by cell. You perhaps have male liver cells, dear reader, while other scraps of your system are female. It’s a switch, not a dial, on every scale. The problems between men and women are not biological, they are moral. As gender roles come under closer observation, and sex-science uncovers the mindbendingly nitpicky details, this becomes more obvious, but it was always true: which is why many heterosexuals, such as myself (it’s not a crime, you know) have managed to get along, and love each other, even lifelong; even in the chinks of the most repressive social systems. It’s a question of gentleness: decent behaviour, fairplay and respect, not who does the cooking and who does the washing up.