There are 58 different genders and I don’t like one.
By: Rebecca Fury
Tags: Feminism, Gender Identity, Gender Roles, Star Wars, Gender Equality

There are 58 genders and I dont like one.

In the 90s there was a forgettable song by Bruce Springsteen with a memorable name; ’57 channels and nothing on’. The song encapsulated the ennui at heart of the American Dream. You can everything but really you ultimately have nothing. It is this paradox that exists at the heart of materialism and the illusion of choice within capitalism. It is this paradox which exists within gender ideology.

We now have have one more gender than there were television channels in that song. A parody, or modern reworking of ’57 channels and nothing on’ could easily be ’58 genders and I don’t like one’. The gender choices available are much like the channels in Springsteens song. They are a metaphor for the false illusion of choice.

The mindless culture that Springsteen critiques in ’57 pointless channels’ is the same one that has produced ’58 genders’. The channels, like the genders are a product of a materialist culture that celebrates quantity over quality.

The genders, like the channels seem to provide a dazzling array of choice but ultimately what appear from a distance as sparkles announcing some exotic potential are really just 58 nails, in the coffin, of authentic culture.

This is the paradox of diversity. In demanding everyone submits to its meaningless mantra it demands everyone becomes the same. This isn’t diversity. This is conformity self identifying as diversity.

This term ‘Diversity’ is just the disgusting apologetic belch of late capitalism making an apparant concession to the stirrings of humanity to maintain its survival.

These 58 genders are not liberation they are an apologetic belch from the stinking belly of the greedy insatiable capitalist machine. A monster that, having had its jollys digesting the authentic cultural and biological diversity of the world is now belching up this synthetic concept of corporate diversity by way of ‘an apology’

Don’t fall for it.

It doesnt mean it.

It’s a trap.

Capitalism has destroyed and monetised diversity through its colonial rampages. It has brought the planet to the brink of destruction and decimated true diversity through its insatiable greed and now capitalism has a new product. Belched up from the gurgling gut and the rotten belly of the beast comes corporate diversity, inclusivity and, in another stinking belch, the gender spectrum.

This is another problem with the capitalist narrative. It claims to promote freedom but really it is a false freedom. it is just the freedom to consume. Whether it is brands of toothpaste, television channels or gender identities. You are free to choose as long as that choice is from the choices presented to you, which is no choice at all. It is an illusion of choice.

Gender ideology is end game capitalism. It is the commodification of the desire for authentic identity. It is the commodification of the liberation from the tyranny of gender norms. It is the grand finale in that last act of colonial violence. The colonisation of the individual.

It is the commodification of a battle that has been fought by feminists and their allies for the last century. The battle against the tyranny of gender norms and the liberation of both woman and men from its oppressive grip.

It is ideological capture. It is the commodification of that final blow for freedom.

Those 58 genders. They aren’t liberation from gender norms, they are just creating more. They are what happens when that final blow for liberation liberation refracts through the prism of capitalism. When that death blow that was meant to destroy gender norms ends up creating 58 more.

It’s like something out of a horror film. The act of striking the beast has caused it to multiply and now there are more monsters everywhere that have to be killed in some cunning way before the story can end and the victors can count their losses and limp their way towards their happy ending.

The struggle between authentic liberation and gender norms can be seen, in cinematic terms reflected in the battle between Aniken Skywalker and Obi Wan Kenobi in ‘Revenge of the Sith’.

‘Gender’ is Aniken Skywalker and Obi Wan is ‘Feminism’. The two battle and Obi Wan is victorious but mistakenly shows mercy to Aniken leaving him badly wounded but alive. As a result Aniken is rescued by the forces of Empire and rebirthed as Darth Vader — ‘Gender ideology’. To be put into service for the nefarious ends of the dying empire.

As a result of this emotional weakness on the part of Obi Wan, the Jedi (Feminism) and The Jedi formally known as Aniken Skywalker; Darth Vader (Gender ideology) continue their battle through the rest of the episodes to see who will control of the universe…

58 genders. (And I don’t like one)