Gender: a Contemporary Curiousity

Does gender matter? 

It's not a new question, but one that came freshly to mind when I read a book review in the June 4, 2020 New York Times. The piece, by Jennifer Szalai, takes a look at a recent book entitled "Surviving Autocracy" and as I perused it, I became more interested in the manner in which the piece was written than by what Szalai had to say about the book, or by what the book apparently has to say about the all-too-familiar state of American society.

The book is written by Masha Gessen, identified as an immigrant from Russia, and a gay parent who at one point confronted a Russian regime that threatened to remove children from same-sex families.

Does Gessen have a gender?  It's hard to know. The headshot accompanying the article is androgynous -- could be either a male of a female based on appearances.  But female perhaps, based on the name "Masha" -- in Russia traditionally a nickname for a woman named Maria, which, as it turns out, was Gessen's first name at birth.

But when reading Szalai's piece, what soon begins to strike one is the absence of any gender pronouns for the author.  So as Szalai quotes from or references the author, it is never "he  said" or "she said," but only "Gessen said" or, frequently, "Gessen writes."

The effect is a little like traditional Coca-Cola advertising where the name of the drink is simply repeated endlessly. One is almost gagging on the word "Gessen" by the time the article -- a third of a page spread -- is finished.

According to Wikipedia, Gessen is "non-binary" and uses they/them pronouns. But for Szalai to reference the author in that fashion would make it sound, to most readers, as if more than one person wrote the book. I've previously read articles written along those lines and they come across as not just confusing and disconcerting, but narcissistic.  It's all about me: I'm so important I can insist the meaning of the English language be changed. Plurals can be made singular if that's what happens to suit me personally and the rest of you are just have to go along with the ensuing confusion.

But that's where we are these days and I'm sure that what I've just written is about as politically incorrect as it gets.

Which brings me back to does gender matter? In this case, I suppose the answer has to be perhaps. Would one think differently about "Surviving Autocracy" if it were written by a woman, or a man as opposed to by a non-binary when Gessen's specific gripe about Russia has much to do with personal identify?