Is Chris gender neutral? -

[Fuzzy Wuzzy]

I was doing a college paper and searched some articles about gender roles in Sweden. I read stuff about gender neutrality in Sweden where boys and girls act naturally of the gender role choice. I also saw Swedish Toys R Us catalogs where a girl is holding a toy gun and a boy grooming a doll. So I was wondering if Chris is gender neutral since he does both stereotypical typical boy and girl things? To me, I think he shifted from masculine to feminine no matter how hard he tries to STAY STRAIGHT. Or maybe he became more effeminate ever since making "friends" with gal-pals. What do you think?

 

[ChurchOfGodBear]

Men and women should be able to pursue their interests, whatever they may be. There's nothing wrong with a boy who has nurturing instincts or a girl who wants to practice shooting. However, evolution has hard-wired our brains, by gender, to like certain things. Boys will naturally seek activities that tap their instincts to hunt and seek, while girls will seek activities that tap their instincts to communicate and build relationships. There's nothing wrong with a child defying convention, but we should acknowledge that nature did give its initial push.

So I don't think there's a "shift" going on. What you're seeing is a mostly straight guy with the occasional confusing sexual feeling, and an inability to process that confusion constructively. Combine that with a COMPLETE LACK of understanding about social conventions, and you have Chris.

 

[KatsuKitty]

There's really no scientifically recognized concept of "gender neutral", that is, having no gender identity at all or whatever it is they claim. That's mainly something radical activists invented on the spot to sound like hipsters. (I'm looking square at the lolcows who flip their shit when I won't call them "ze".) Sweden is really treading highly experimental and borderline fad territory that probably won't survive the decade.

However, speaking in psychological terms, Chris is almost assuredly a gender non-conforming male as his behavior is obviously indicative of such. I mean this has been a recurring theme his entire life.

 

[CatParty]

chris just wants to be different. to stand out. there is no gender label for what he is or does. the tomgirlism might as well just be his medallion or attraction sign. he's lazy but in the back of his mind he also must know the cross dressing isn't helping, which is why he is half assing it.

 

[Kosher Dill]

All joking aside, he's just a straight man who happens to be a total weirdo.

 

[UltraSonichu]

I don't think Chris has developed far enough to really have much of a sense of gender identity, in the same way that his sexual maturity is kind of stunted. He doesn't have much sense of himself as a man and JERKS have consistently let him down, but the girls at school were nice to him, so he doesn't see anything wrong with wearing their clothes or playing with their toys. I don't know whether you'd call him gender neutral though. I think he has just been cossetted in a bubble for so long that he doesn't really care about things like gender identity. If the only person you really socialised with was your doting mother, what incentive would you have to obey any sort of social norms?

 

[QI 541]

Yes. We should start referring to Chris as an "it".

 

[CatParty]

Yes. We should start referring to Chris as an "it".

you haven't?

 

[NobleGreyHorse]

Yes. We should start referring to Chris as an "it".

It has to be said: Hi A-Log!

Until society agrees on one set of gender-neutral pronouns (if you don't like the Spivak pronouns, for example, then whatever -- but it does absolutely no harm to respect someone's preference for the singular "they"; it's not like the US has an Unconventional Pronoun Tax, although Mississippi or Texas would probably try to implement one), then "it" is deliberately dehumanizing. I know it's gross and deeply uncomfortable to admit that Chris is part of humanity, but unfortunately, he is. He may be the part that's meant to show us how screwed up a diet of nothing but pop-culture makes us. Or he may be just another fat weirdo. But he's not quite a pet budgie. Yet. Until Marvin tells us otherwise. And every other standard disclaimer.

 

[ChurchOfGodBear]

Until society agrees on one set of gender-neutral pronouns (if you don't like the Spivak pronouns, for example, then whatever -- but it does absolutely no harm to respect someone's preference for the singular "they"; it's not like the US has an Unconventional Pronoun Tax, although Mississippi or Texas would probably try to implement one), then "it" is deliberately dehumanizing.

Society doesn't agree on gender-neutral pronouns because we don't need them. The entire concept is fucking stupid. People are either male or female. If you don't like what you are, medical science will even let you flip. There's nothing unreasonable about referring to a male by a masculine pronoun, or a female by a feminine one.

 

[Tetsu Deinonychus]

Actually, a gender-neutral pronoun would be nice for when you don't know the gender of the person you're referring to.

Like "I want to see the person in charge, where is ...?" You don't want to sound like you're assuming the person in charge is specifically male or female. Saying "he or she" is kind of annoying, and saying "that person" is kind of tedious.

A gender neutral pronoun would be really good to have in that instance, just until you learn which gender pronoun applies.

 

[Long Sun]

Also there are people who may not want to flip sex but are not full comfortable with binary gender(as a different thing from sex sociologically created, personlly I'm male bodied and have no intention of changing that but have a gender identity that is not fully male, for sure somewhat of a queer gender, ps I don't mine male pronoun but question and push for those that are gender neutral ) some people don't feel that either male or female pronoun suit them. Further, in some fields( legal writing is what I know) using a gender-neutral pronoun can be useful when we just don't know.

 

[3Yikes]

Does it matter?

 

[Surtur]

Actually, a gender-neutral pronoun would be nice for when you don't know the gender of the person you're referring to.

Like "I want to see the person in charge, where is ...?" You don't want to sound like you're assuming the person in charge is specifically male or female. Saying "he or she" is kind of annoying, and saying "that person" is kind of tedious.

A gender neutral pronoun would be really good to have in that instance, just until you learn which gender pronoun applies.

You use "they" as in "I want to see the person in charge, where are they?"

 

[JarlaxleBaenre]

Chris is paradox.

 

[pickleniggo]

No, Chris is by all means an adult autistic child and that way, he's a boy. He's emotionally immature.
His more feminine traits and ideas - tomgirl excluded because it's like he's not even trying - can stem from many things. Influence from Barb, influence from his galpals and sweethearts, and possibly due to his autism. And while it's perfectly fine for a child to be a boy and like girl things or vice versa - it's not okay for Chris to parade it around in a disturbing light because he thinks it will get him SUPER-LAID or some shit.
Summed up, he's just a dullard who does what he thinks is acceptable for him to do and doesn't realize that it's not okay.

 

[Ivan Komarov]

Chris is just a male with mental problems. I also don't understand all this 'gender/race is a social construct" shit I hear recently. You are whatever your body is. Saying that you "identify" as it or that you feel differently does not change anything. Some people even go to the point of suing for not being able to use the womans restroom/locker room when they clearly have a penis.

 

[Fuzzy Wuzzy]

Some people even go to the point of suing for not being able to use the womans restroom/locker room when they clearly have a penis.

Surprised Chris hasn't done that since he was known to sue people if he didn't get what he wants. That sounds like his parents where they would sue because they, the elementary school he went to and the Boy Scouts, are "discriminating" their son for autism. Then Borb almost sued a Chinese restaurant for causing her colitis.

 

[Tetsu Deinonychus]

Actually, a gender-neutral pronoun would be nice for when you don't know the gender of the person you're referring to.

Like "I want to see the person in charge, where is ...?" You don't want to sound like you're assuming the person in charge is specifically male or female. Saying "he or she" is kind of annoying, and saying "that person" is kind of tedious.

A gender neutral pronoun would be really good to have in that instance, just until you learn which gender pronoun applies.

You use "they" as in "I want to see the person in charge, where are they?"

Yeah, that works.

 

[WWWWolf]

Society doesn't agree on gender-neutral pronouns because we don't need them. The entire concept is fucking stupid. People are either male or female. If you don't like what you are, medical science will even let you flip. There's nothing unreasonable about referring to a male by a masculine pronoun, or a female by a feminine one.

Ahem. Quite a few languages don't have gendered personal pronouns. (e.g. Finnish uses "hän" for he/she). No, it's not unreasonable to refer to people by their genders when the speakers know the genders, but there's also nothing unreasonable about just referring to them as people of indefinite gender in cases when the gender is absolutely not an issue, and in most cases it isn't.

That said, and back on topic, I don't think Chris really has genuine gender issues.