Gender Not Fluid: “more like a gas,” claim researchers

While heads cooled following the Gender-neutral Bathroom Debate and the ultimate approval of the bathroom, LUC students overlooked a recent study conducted by the LUC Research Team’s Diversity Division.

“It’s a strange coincidence that right when these conversations about gender neutral bathrooms surfaced is when we were finishing our research,” the head researcher told us; “We think it's probably not related, because if it weren't for LUC News, no one would know about our research… but it’s still noteworthy.” the head Researcher Kotoran Tinja claimed.

Gender, long thought to be binary, has recently been increasingly referred to as fluid. This is to mean that it can shift and/or rest along a spectrum of gender stretching from man to woman. This fluidity implies that gender is liquid, and that is the troubling assumption this LUC research unit started from.

“Gender is everywhere—clothing stores, kids toys and public bathrooms—you can’t escape it even if you want to. Just like a gas. When you let one rip, it's inevitably gonna be felt.”

After an awkward silence, Tinja coughed and moved on.

“Have you tried not being exposed to air recently? Yeah, it just doesn’t work. Liquids, on the other hand, can easily be avoided. Labelling gender as fluid, rather than as gaseous, undermines its importance.”

The paper, to be published in the spring issue of Gender Galore, argues not only that the metaphor of gender being fluid is incorrect, but that it is also extremely harmful. This is because fluids have mostly negative connotations. For some, fluid conjures up images of water, and pleasant tangy juices. But for 95.3% of people who were interviewed by the researchers, the term actually referred to bathrooms, and yes, those types of fluids. Another 83% stated that they don’t want to think about fluids at all. Therefore, when gender is linked to fluids, people are reluctant to spend time considering the gendered nature of our society and other people’s experiences. The paper concludes that framing gender as a gas would lead to much more open-minded discussions on the topic. Here’s to a new approach to gender!

Stick to LUC News for more on the following topics: Gender, Deans, Watermelons, and Stress.

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