the more i try to explain gender to cis people the more i understand plato’s allegory of a cave
plato: the shadows are like a surface level understanding and coming out of the cave and seeing the actual objects is what being a philosopher is like
me: this is stupid and pretentious
cis person: girl is when pink and flower and boy is when blue and guns
me: oh no theyre still in the cave
FUCK.
Ahh, Plato. A surefire way to make me reblog.
At first, the philosopher is fixed in place, unable to even turn his head, trapped in the rigid structures of the beliefs and ideas of his society. Even of his fellow man he sees only the shadow, the outline.
Then something happens and his bonds loosen, he is able to turn his head and see the other prisoners, the priests carrying the items, the fire that casts the shadow. And he sees it for the puppet show it is.
Some people cannot handle this, they choose to reject the nuance and the depth of the real world and instead retreat to the simple, easy shadows of curated pseudo-reality.
Of course, many never even get as far as turning their heads, of looking sideways at the world and questioning what they’re taught. but the philosopher, he breaks free of his bonds, rises to his feet, and explores the cave.driven by curiosity and a need to understand, He meets the priests. He examines the fire, he tests the objects.
Some who get this far choose to join the priesthood, to use their rudimentary understanding to become a part of the puppet show and control what others see.
But the philosopher sees that the fire itself is but a manmade construction. A flawed and pale reflection of something greater, so he searches for a way out of the cave. And on the surface he sees the sun.
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Comparing this to the exploration/presentation of gender, from my position as only a poor philosopher myself
So many people never see beyond the surface presentation. The pink and the flowers, as OP said. They are locked into that rigid understanding our society raises us with, albeit perhaps a little more flexible than in decades past. They never even question it.
Some of us stop to question our own identities, and perhaps we see flaws. Ways in which we don’t line up with ’the way things are’ and so we try to conform, suppress the ways in which we think we fall short of the expectations placed upon us. I know I’ve run afoul of that many times. Even now that I’ve begun transitioning, I’m still trying to conform, just to a different set of standards.
Some people though, they push back against the social construction. They rebel against the strictly delineated gender roles and in so doing, change them. Of course there are those who instead seek to change them back, to constrict instead of expand. These are the priests, deciding what shadows should be cast on the wall. Controlling what the prisoners see.
What it means to see the sun, I do not yet know. But I can speculate. Gender is a construct. An inexpertly crafted set of rules and conventions assembled by group consensus; What it means to be masculine or feminine. What makes a person attractive. What their proper place and role should be. And I’ve seen these things shift and change even in my own lifetime, almost unnoticed.
And I’ve met people who have revelled against the very core concept. Who dress and act and present entirely for their own comfort and happiness, and not for the benefit of society’s judgement. I aspire to that.