#underwent multiplicative growth probably lmao | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

whetstonefires · 1 year ago

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when i was a kid i made up a society where they tracked birth sex for reproductive reasons but it didn't particularly determine adult gender, because that was tied to your job--like at some point they got so attached to gender roles that they decided the performance of a role determined the gender. (which historically has been the case quite often, just not to this extent lol.)

it was in the context of a badly written short story where an anthropologist had just straight up failed to grasp that this was how it worked for a humorously long time.

If somebody pitched me traditional gender roles for the first time they would have me in the first half not going to lie.

Oh, in a complex society with a massive amount of required knowledge and responsibilities, two people traditionally partner together so that the knowledge and responsibilities can be divided between them? Awesome!

Wait what do you mean the responsibilities are assigned at birth.

WHAT DO YOU MEAN ONE HALF HAS FEWER CIVIL RIGHTS.

#i don't think i really knew trans people were a thing at the time #or had even heard of like gay marriage #this was just me processing gender as social construct in like the sixth grade #i put another layer on it where your work focus determined your gender #but whether you were able/willing to do it from the home determined your role in your marriage as husband or wife #and these did not always match the gender because the rules had been codified when their economy #was much less complex #so like weaving was women's work but if you did it in a commercial workshop and were married that made you a/the husband #and if you got a home loom after the kids came along wife now #one issue was if you became disabled or had another life change and had to switch vocations to something with the other gender coding #you had to swap your gender presentation also or people would get weird about it and among other things undervalue your work #because you were Doing It Wrong if you had the wrong literal hat on #also obviously the amount of pressure your parents put on you to select the career and gender they thought best #underwent multiplicative growth probably lmao #the fact that the whole family were basically fulltime farmers in the majority of families throughout history #was not relevant to my worldbuilding at age eleven

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