Mater II (2017) Pia Imbar
Hemispheres Toward a Clearer Orthodox Understanding of Gender by Presbytera KATHERINE BAKER
S
exuality has become increasingly politicized in the last decade in America. It has become popular to think of gender not in a binary way but as a spectrum with as many as 50 or more possibilities, each fading into the next. In some academic and social justice circles, the word “binary� has become synonymous with what is limiting, simplistic, and worthy of being dismissed
with an eye roll. Whatever spectrum we feel we need to express sexuality in these times, the binary notion should not be thrown out altogether. Perhaps there is an alternative, and useful, way of thinking about this issue. If we think of sexuality in terms of two hemispheres, it will protect the binary aspect while still accounting for the idiosyncrasies and exceptions in each sex that so trouble the modern soul.
