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By Katrina Margolis
Hometown Weekly Reporter
On Tuesday, March 28, the Needham Diversity Initiative held an event titled “The Evolution of Gender.” This event, co-sponsored by The Needham Free Public Library, was one of the first of its kind. An exploration of perceptions, definitions, and evolutions of gender, the event welcomed any and all in the Needham and surrounding communities to share their ideas, learn new things, and explore a complicated and ever-changing topic.
Two Needham High School students hosted, leading the evening’s icebreaker and introducing the night’s speaker. The icebreaker was a series of questions - a mix of factual and opinion questions - that allowed the audience to understand where those sitting both next to them and across the room are coming from. Before beginning this icebreaker, Alison and Stephanie made sure to qualify the specific phrasing. “The majority of the people in our society do identify within the binary, but gender is actually a spectrum with too many genders for us to identify, so within these questions, we might be using some binary language,” they explained. “That is for a few reasons. Some issues are inherently binary, because of historical events or in the past gender wasn’t seen as a spectrum. We want to acknowledge that there are a variety of genders, and that we are using this binary language. This happens almost all the time in our everyday lives, in ways that we might not be aware of, so that’s just something to notice.”
The questions they asked included opinion questions such as, “Have you ever felt uncomfortable in clothing assigned to your gender?” and “Do you think men and women are treated equally in today’s society?” Some of the more fact-based questions included, “How many countries in the world have had a female leader?” and “What percentage of stay-at-home parents do fathers make?” Many of the more factual questions were quite eye-opening as to how far behind the United States is, considering the perception of it as a forward-thinking and innovative country.
The night’s speaker was Dr. Layli Maparyan, a professor at Wellesley College. She began with an uplifting and hopeful message regarding progress. “It’s important to remember that things like this mean that change does happen, and what we do makes a difference. When I was in high school, there never would have been an event [like this], so what we do does matter.” She then continued on to give a broad overview of some of her work, including distinguishing between sex, gender, and sexuality. “Sex relates to attributes of the body, so often it is just judged by how you look when you come out of your mother’s womb. But there are other aspects of biological sex down to the chromosomal level,” she began. “Sexuality has to do with attributes of attraction, sexual activity, anything from who people think about, who they feel emotional towards to who they actually want to have sex with. Sometimes they overlap and sometimes they don’t.”
While much of the information presented may have been previously known by the audience, it was a chance for those with different backgrounds and experiences to share their opinions and widen their worldview.
A fascinating and innovative event, the most important message it sent was an overwhelming message of hope.
