In her book Gill-Peterson points out that early 20th century doctors believed gender was plastic; that is, they knew that the gender binary didn't really fit human experience well.
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that didn't really result in progressive gender politics though. the fact that they saw gender and sex as malleable meant that they thought they could push people who didn't conform into conforming.
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progressives often think that if you get the theory around gender right, the politics will follow—that is, understanding that gender isn't a binary will lead you to be queer supportive.
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but the history suggests that's not really true. solidarity and theory can interact in various ways, but the second isn't determinative of the first.
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also, her research demolishes the idea that gender fluidity is a new idea, and the conservative myth that we were all happier when we worshipped the gender binary.
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since again, researchers knew that the gender binary didn't work decades before the supposedly happy heteronormative 50s.
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anyway, Gill-Peterson's book is really fantastic, and I'd highly recommend it if you're interested in these issues at all.https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/histories-of-the-transgender-child …
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