I’m not interested in a dialogue, and my writing here are directed to the one or two percent of the people on this website that might use this knowledge to create change (a hope that I refuse to give up on). Being controversial, and the fact that this post will challenge the usual metaphysic belief in “democracy” and “critical thinking” in Israel, or brake from what is allowed to discussed in the mainstream, this post would probably not survive for very long. People who want to read this should paste and save this statement before it disappears, Apologies for the language, spelling, and grammar.
The idea that somehow people can change gender in a highly militaristic society is obscure and uncomfortable. To suggest, out of a pure liberal ideology, that people should search for a deeper meaning in life by challenging the gender binary system is welcomed, only when asserting how that can happen, if at all.
The construction of the Jewish “nation” is all about the Israeli Masculinity as an opposition to the “feminism” and “wick” European Jew. This took even greater force when relating to the “enemy”. The Palestinian (and the Israeli left) has been traditionally feminized, and the IDF has always been an orientation to Israeli males into the world of masculinity. If power is to define a phenomena and to make the object act in desirable way, gender or more concretely, “masculinity”, is the ability of an agent to enforce his will through power (rape being a very common example of that), or in another way, the ability of the agent to benefit and reclaim power through the subjugating of someone else. Taking that definition, would mean that gender is not only fluid, but can switch with the action and power that the agent attains. Bio-womyn who participated in the (sexual) torturing of detainees in Abu-Graig (which was nothing more then pure pornography) became “male”, and the detainees, although bio-male became “female”. The same goes for Israeli bio-womyn who participates in the degradation of Palestinians through serving in the IDF. Bio-womyn who humiliate Palestinians in check-points, or participate in the torture of Palestinians, become “male” and “masculine”, and Palestinians bio-males become “female” and “masculine”.
To summarize, position in social hierarchy (among other things) is what determine gender, not biology. To negate class and national oppression when talking about gender is to negate gender itself. Most importantly, to fight against an essentialist view of humans, is to fight against the ideological fabric that protects the state of Israel ( and the same can be said about religion).
Also, to argue that we all suffer from “false consciousness” in regard to understanding gender, which affect our happiness is not necessarily true, and contradicts the fact that people are willing to participate and benefit from oppression. To illustrate this point through one example, Bio-male belonging to the dominant group in society, such as white males in America or Jewish males in Israel, benefit tremendously from the dichotomy of gender. From privileges in employment opportunities, to “special rights” in marriage and divorce, to the ability to control larger amount of the economy, which allows bio-males to objectify and commodify the “feminine”.
Sure, sometime the paradigm fails, and Israeli bio-men refuse to take part in the masculine character. Some Israeli soldiers refuse to participate in the inhuman, but very masculine, actions that their racist government requires them to do (as happened in Lebanon and Palestine). This, unfortunately, rarely happens, only proving that to smash the binary system is not just a question of consciousness, but of privilege, as well.
It’s important to notice how womyn bodies themselves are shaped and constructed by the dominant culture, making it harder, in some cases, for gender oppressed people to brake away from gender reinforcement (and again, is not just a question of consciousness. Womyn are required to paint and create their bodies according to some unnatural and unattained beauty standard, and if refused, are denied opportunities in society. Some Israeli women, who justly fight against the Israeli apartheid state, are very commonly accuse of sleeping with Arab, those giving the impression that Israeli women should only breed and engage in sexual activity with the “master race” and not degrade themselves and betray their Jewish “nation” by sleeping with Arabs (a view that received a legal enforcement through outlawing the right of married Israelis and Palestinians to live together). Or on the other hand, with the ethnic cleansing impose on the Palestinian by the apartheid state, Palestinian women are demanded to become a breeding tool in order to preserve the Palestinian nation.