To the Editor:
I am just writing a short note in response to Ben Rifkin's column in Friday's "D," (inappropriately) titled, "Transcending Gender."
I approached the column with a sense of hopefulness that issues of transcending gender stereotyping would be addressed. Currently, such thinking mires us in strict and uniquely American binaries. Unyielding roles for women and men manifest themselves in eating disorders, over-excercising, binge drinking-- often done to fit a prescripted mold or to prove a point. Gender stereotypes are pervasive and often quite harmful to individuals. I hope that we at Dartmouth might see that "transcending gender" will benefit many of us and that this is an eventual social imperative.
I don't mean to prove here that I don't have a sense of humor; I understand the play in Mr. Rifkin's column. I just think it's important that your readership note that gender relations can be ameliorated by more than public or commodified sex. Gender is important, yes, and so is sex, but the realities of truly improved gender relations lie not in more hormonally-induced intercourse, but in deliberate, sensitive introspection.
