Friends of Middle Circle gather once a month for a philosophy night to explore a question or topic pertinent in our lives today. Last month's question: What is gender?
Perhaps some of you have checked out the new PBS News Hour Brief but Spectacular Series; but for those not familiar, iO Tillett Wright was recently highlighted (see video below). iO who has spent the last six years photographing people who identify anywhere on the LGBT spectrum. iO's goal is to capture 10,000 unique faces. Regarding motivation for the project iO says,
If you look into the eyes of a person that you discriminate against or you think is so different than you that they deserve less rights than you, it becomes almost impossible to deny their humanity. The complicated part of that is, I'm not trying to say we are all the same. What I'm trying to say is, we are all completely different, and that's the beauty of it.
To view some of the 8447 faces and learn more about Oi's Self Evident Project click here.
If you're interested in doing some of your own pondering or conversing, here are some of the questions recently explored at Middle Circle's Philosophy Night.
- What is gender?
- What's the difference between gender and sex?
- What do you think about having multi-gender bathrooms? What about genderless bathrooms?
- How has and/or does your spirituality or faith impact(ed) your perspective on gender and sexuality?
- When we imagine a better world for future generations, how would we speak and engage in gender and sexuality?
- How does gender influence communication styles?
- How does gender play a role in your day-to-day life?
We also recommend two podcasts on the topic of gender that dig deeper into the subject:
- On Being's Gender and the Syntax of Being: Identity and Transition
- Freakonomics Radio's What are Gender Barriers Made Of?