Difference Feminism: Its Threats to Non-binary People

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What is Difference Feminism?

Difference Feminism or gynocentric feminism is a theory that seeks to find equality in understanding the innate differences between male and female. This in turn is the opposite of sameness or humanist feminism, which theorizes that male and females should be treated as the same in order for there to be equality in society. There are many approaches to the difference theory of feminism, and many feminists have different takes on what it is and ought to be. Carol Gilligan is well known for her take on difference feminism. Her theory involves what she calls the "Ethics of Justice" and "Ethics of Care". Her theory believes that men and women have a different view on morals. The ethics of justice is more masculine and is directed towards men only. She believes that men's morality deals with arguing with the rules and principles of life. While the ethics of care is more feminine and directed towards females. Females moral dilemmas, under the ethics of care, deals with sustaining relationships and care. Then there are more radical ideas of difference feminism, Iris Young shows a great example of this. She recognizes the subordination and oppression of women over the years and blames majority of it on toxic masculinity. She even goes as far as saying that things of masculine values exalt threats to human life.

What is Non-binary and cis gender?

Non-binary is a term for someone who doesn't classify themselves as a "man" or "woman", or "male" or "female". Some people may have a blended gender that incorporates traits and elements of both male and female. Some may have their gender and identity change over time, and some may not even have any elements of a male or female, or don't have a gender at all. The term "non-binary" is an umbrella term that has many other genders and identities that fall beneath it. This is a way people identify themselves. Keep in mind that gender and sex are two completely different terms. Sex refers to your genitals and gonads you are born with, while gender is how one identifies themselves regardless of what their sex is. Cis-gender on the other hand, can be described as identifying oneself with the sex you were assigned at birth. For example: If you were assigned a female at birth (your sex) and you identify yourself as a female (your gender), then you are considered cis-gender. It is the same the other way around as well.

Would Difference Feminism be successful in our modern society?

While difference feminism theories do tend to make more sense than other feminist theories, it wouldn't be quite ideal in our modern day society. Difference feminists have romanticized the concepts of femininity and masculinity and forces us to chose one or the other. This is extremely oppressive for non-binary people. Difference feminism doesn't really have a place for the in-between. Not only is it oppressive for non-binary people, but it is also very oppressive towards cis-gendered people as well. If we think back to what Carol Gilligan's theory of the ethics of care and justice, this is just placing women back into their oppressive traditional roles as it insinuates that women's morality only consists of being nurturers. Not only this, but non-binary people don't even fall into either of these categories, because they express a combination of the elements of male and females. Majority of difference feminists don't account for non-binary people at all. The following reasons are predictions of implications that would possibly happen if we were to implement difference feminism in actual society:

1. As stated before, non-binary people are a mixture of male and female elements, in a difference feminist society they would not be able to do so. Difference feminists believe that we have more differences than just our biological makeup and are basically divided between masculine and feminine traits. The issue with this is that it infers that women are suppose to act feminine, and men are suppose to act masculine. This is a huge problem, and is exclusive to so many people. In todays society, many women display masculine traits, and men display femininity. If we were to implement a difference feminist ideology in our society, there would be no place for these people and they would be forced to comply with their assigned femininity and masculinity that was given at birth.
2. What happens when non-binary people enter the workforce? This is something difference feminism can't account for. Since femininity and masculinity is something that is romanticized in difference feminism theories, it would force women to work certain jobs that accentuate their femininity, and males to work jobs to bring out their masculinity. For example; men would work the typical CEO, lawyer, and doctor positions, while women will only be subjected to classical feminine jobs such as secretary, or teacher. This alone is very oppressive, but what about those who are non-binary? Would they have to transcend and identify as their assigned sex at birth? And then work in a filed that displays the assigned traits? This is where difference feminism has a hard time sounding less oppressive. Implementing this would make everyone lose their own autonomy.
3. How will non-binary people be able to participate in sports? In our society today this is already a struggle. Non-binary people do have a choice in many different sporting leagues, however, it’s a huge problem in the media and even lawsuits are filed against the teams that allow non-binary people a choice of being on the men’s or women’s team. If a difference feminism ideology were to be applied in real life society this would be even more of a struggle for non-binary people. They would either be forced to participate on the team which portrays the sex they were born with, or maybe they won’t be able to participate at all! Maybe even cis gendered people will have a hard time when it comes to sports as well, especially women. Depending on what ideology of difference feminism is applied, some may even consider sports to be masculine and not allow women to participate because it will dismantle their feminine traits.

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