The world is grown so bad

That wrens make prey

Where eagles dare not perch.

— Shakespeare, Richard III, 1, 3

The world is indeed a topsy-turvy place, and has been so from man started to walk upright. It always has been, and always will be. This has been said for millennia, where strange, odd, bizarre things occur, making onlookers shake their collective heads in disbelief if not shock and wonderment.

But never in the annals of human history have stranger things happened, as what’s happening now. True, the French did say, ‘The more things change the more they remain the same’, and this may be true in many instances. But what’s happening now is really stretching the boundaries of plausibility.

Sure, we’ve always had heterosexuals, homosexuals, lesbians, cross dressers, transgenders, hermaphrodites and even asexuals, virgins forever. But what I discovered recently was a new spin on gender permutations. Enter the non-binary.

I always thought that the term binary was in reference to numbers, as in mathematics. A binary number is a number expressed in the base — 2 numeral system or binary numeral system, which has only two symbols, typically ‘0’ and ‘1’ Say what? Lost me for a moment there, as I never was very good at math. But binary numbers are what’s used in computer programming… 0101010101. So where am I going with this matrix?

Stay with me, it’ll all add up. The term non-binary refers to a person who is neither male nor female, not masculine or feminine, not he or she. As Jamaicans say, “They are neither fish nor fowl.”

The non-binary, we’ll see what that’s all about right after these responses to my take on ‘Dressed for sex’.

Hi Tony,

Women who dress for sex do so to attract attention, as you stated. However, there are women who dress with absolutely no underwear under those sexy dresses. This makes for easy access and fast sexual encounters. Women have all the tools at their disposal to attract the opposite sex, and men have very little other than good looks and money. All I want to know is, when is the next carnival?

Carlton

Hey Tony,

Take it off, take it all off. Those words have been uttered by men for centuries, as they entice women to shed their garments. But some women don’t even have to hear those words, as their garments leave very little to the imagination. It makes you wonder sometimes, why they even bother to wear anything at all. They dress for sex and beyond. And yet they feign modesty by constantly tugging down the hems of the short miniskirts. Even those who haven’t got it, flaunt it.

Arlene

Now, I don’t want anyone to think that I’m using the word ‘fish’ in the pejorative sense. I’m merely using it in the context of our Jamaican vernacular where someone states that something is neither fish nor fowl, it’s neither one thing nor the other, neither here nor there, not rum or whisky, not wool or cotton, but falls somewhere in-between.

I hope you catch my drift. Say, for example, someone asks you to taste a meal and you can’t discern exactly what it is, you may be confused. It looks like chicken, tastes like mutton, feels like beef. What is it? As you chew and taste, the typical response would be, “Man, I can’t make out what it is; it’s neither fish nor fowl.”

Truly an anomaly of nature, and neither fish nor fowl, the platypus is an Australian animal that has fur like a mammal, webbed feet, a bill like a duck, lives in water and lays eggs. But that’s nature.

So now that I’ve cleared that up, let me get to the crux of the whole thing. It is written in the Bible that God made man, and when He saw that man was lonely, He made woman. Simple huh? Not at all. Even if you’re an atheist, the fact remains, men and women were the original genders.

Well, there are spin-offs, for that original man and woman came up with permutations that maybe surprised even the Almighty. Men wanted to become women, women wanted to become men, and now men and women want to be classed as neither.

Enter the non-binary, which is a totally new one to me. As defined, the non-binary is a category for gender identities that are not exclusively masculine or feminine. They are neither male nor female, men nor women.

British singer Sam Smith declared that he is non-binary, and was quoted as saying, “I feel like a woman sometimes.” There are others, and many non-binary people do not identify as either male or female. They use the pronouns they or them instead of he or she.

Isn’t that what Jamaicans refer to as “shim” — neither she nor him? Is that different? Are transgenders non-binary, and are non-binaries transgenders? Some transgenders are non- binary, but not all non-binaries are transgenders.

Some transgenders really desire to be the opposite sex and wish to be referred to as she if they switched from male to female, or he if it’s the other way around. But non-binaries are neither gender and want no such pronoun affixed to them. “Don’t call me he, don’t call me she, just call me by my name.”

This was brought to my attention while watching the premier of a new US television programme, and I couldn’t discern whether the star was a man or a woman. Then I saw the interview that explained the situation.

The actor was slim with close-cropped hair, wore unisex clothes and displayed no gender. I could not tell. Was it a tomboy type of girl, or was it an effeminate type of man? Was it a he, a she, or non-binary? Well, I learnt something new, a new gender, which is really no gender at all, the non-binary.

I know that we live in a world of various sexualities, and everyone embraces their way of life, clinging to their gender, whatever it may be. But where does the non-binary stand? Many choose to be so when they become adults, although some harboured the feeling from they were children.

“I knew I was different until the age of 21. I’ve already existed between the two genders,” said one non-binary in an interview. It can be so complicated, for gay men date other gay men, lesbians date other lesbians, but non-binaries have no gender, so who do they date? If you have no gender, who are you attracted to?

I can understand cross- dressers, transgenders and such, but I’m still flummoxed by the non-binary. Pretty soon if their numbers grow, the world will become a gender neutral place. No longer will we have male and female bathrooms, or his and hers clothes.

Application forms will no longer have boxes to be ticked male or female, and there will no longer be brides and grooms. Now there are many cases of babies being born and the sex is not readily defined. They have both male and female genitals and the doctor and parents decide which sex the child should exist as.

It’s called ambiguous genitalia, and it’s more prevalent than you think. But again, in those cases a definite choice is made. “Male or female, what will it be?” Sometimes the male gender is chosen and the child grows up with female tendencies and becomes confused. Maybe you’ve heard the statement, “I’m a woman trapped in a man’s body.”

Famous Olympian decathlete Bruce Jenner is one such example. He shed his masculine persona and is now known as Caitlyn Jenner — a woman. Many consider getting sex change operations to complete the process. But at least they made a choice, picked a side, rode the horse of their liking.

The non-binary though, is caught in some sort of gender neutrality, trapped in no man’s or no woman’s land, and feel so strongly about it that they don’t even want to be referred to as he or she.

How will this impact on sports? Will there be a special category for the non-binary? Where would South African runner Caster Semanya fit in? Is she male, female or non-binary? And what about emergency evacuations priorities such as ‘women and children first?’

So as mankind evolves or devolves, we have men, women, transgenders, homosexuals, lesbians, and now the non-binary, neither fish nor fowl. Pick a side, join a line, declare yourself, for as Bob Dylan sang:

Come mothers and fathers

Throughout the land

And don’t critcise what you can’t understand

Your sons and your daughters

Are beyond your command

Your old road is rapidly agin’

Please get out of the new one

If you can’t lend your hand

For the times they are a changin’

So what are you, fish or fowl?

More time.

seido1yard@gmail.com

Footnote: Karate has been around in Jamaica for a very long time and has had many successes. Teams have travelled the world as far as Africa, Europe, Japan, Vietnam other Asian countries, and South America, with great success. The latest is Jamaica’s qualification for the Pan American Games to be held in Lima, Peru in August of this year. This is a huge achievement for karate, and to competitor Jessica Cargill who created history. Many thanks must be given to the Jamaica Olympic Association for having the faith and for providing the financial backing for karate to achieve this milestone. The path to the Olympics is a reality. Alton Brown and Jessica are poised to take off.