To start and explain by position for this debate I am going to relay some useful and relevant definitions.
Gender - the male sex or the female sex, especially when considered with reference to social and cultural differences rather than biological ones, or one of a range of other
identities that do not correspond to established ideas of male and female.
Sex - either of the two main categories (male and female) into which humans and most other living things are divided on the basis of their reproductive functions.
Discrimination - the
unjust or
prejudicial treatment of different categories of people.
Argument:
As societies embrace modern technology and move toward a more egalitarian mindset, traditional gender roles are losing relevance. They perpetuate unnecessary labels, division, and discrimination, which hinder the progress towards a more inclusive and harmonious future.
1. Sex specific jobs are irrelevant in today's society
Advancements in technology have reshaped our societies and economies, transforming the nature of work and human interaction. Furthermore, physical strength and historical gender-specific skills are no longer prerequisites for success in many fields.
2. Gender labels impose unnecessary labels on people that become the foundation for prejudice.
Gender classification imposes arbitrary labels on individuals, reinforcing societal expectations and norms. Gender is a spectrum, and trying to put a label on everything makes things confusing, leading to misunderstanding and discrimination. Here is a list of all the current gender identities: male, female, transgender, gender neutral, non-binary, agender, pangender, genderqueer, two-spirit, third gender, and all, none or a combination of these. These labels are extremely confusing, especially for the many people who were raised on a 2 gender system. Confusion often leads to a biological response of fear and discomposure.
Knowledge, fear of the unknown, opinion, and the pandemic
Joshua N Raub
"Contemporary emotion theories place checks for unknowns at the earliest stage of emotion processing (
i.e., low-level neural substrates), underscore pervasive influences thereafter (
e.g., conceptual cortical areas;
Mulligan and Scherer, 2012,
Scherer, 2009,
Scherer, 2013), and implicate aggregate responses to unknowns as defining affective dispositions (
Scherer & Brosch, 2009)."
So if complicated gender labels can lead to a state of discomposure, they can also lead to discrimination. Fear is one of the driving factors in prejudice, so therefore, complicated gender roles lead to discrimination.
Possible counterarguments:
Some may compare a genderless world to the problematic concept of a colorless (raceless) world. Furthermore, pretending that race doesn't exist would be ideal in a perfect world but it doesn't erase the problems minorities face and in fact exacerbates them by ignoring them. While it is true that the notion of a colorless world is problematic, the principles don't apply to the hypothetical genderless world. Race and gender are both social constructs, but race is significantly more based in visible attributes. Unlike gender identity, race is less malleable and more readily apparent to others. People are typically categorized into racial groups based on visible attributes, whereas gender identity is comprised of a mixture of how someone looks, how they act, and how they feel. To put it simply, someone can't discriminate against your gender if they don't know what it is.
Overall, gender is outdated and useless concept in today's world. Gender roles are nugatory and getting rid of gender doesn't encourage discrimination, but rather helps combat it.
The simplest solution is having dating sites be sorted by sex. If gender doesn't exist than transgenders wouldn't be thing.
Genders should be filter options on more dating sites. I (and presumably many like me), only wish to pursue cis-gendered members of the opposite sex, and it's annoying to see trans people listed as if they are exactly the same, when they obviously do not appeal to certain desires.