I was reading a book on social life of the upper-middle class and new rich of the American 1920s and realized so many things we now do proudly were considered socially taboo back then. This was especially the case for clothing, makeup, women in certain public spaces, etc. What do you think will be different in the 2120s? Or maybe even the next 50 years?
This is just a personal opinion but I suspect the trend is not linear. There will be a surge in acceptance and then possibly a calm in popularity. Social pressures aside, I feel there may be some portion of the world that is bi/pan but not in numbers so large that it would be a huge shift in current status quos. We’re also at a time when mental health is seeing an identity crisis and we’re trying to label every quirk. Gender identity almost seems like part of a shotgun approach to try and fix other issues.
I do not want to sound like I’m downplaying the importance of sexual orientation and gender identity, but there’s just so much going on socially with how fast we’re moving as a culture with the Internet that it’s hard to predict what is real and what is trendy.
Of course I could be entirely wrong.
I think it’s similar to what happened when left handedness was destigmatized. Suddenly, there was a sharp increase in the number of people saying they were lefties. It wasn’t that more people were becoming lefties. It was that more people felt free to be who they really were.
A trans person 100 years ago couldn’t really come out as trans. If they did, they’d likely face a violent response. So they lived their life in suffering - maybe not even knowing why they felt so different from everyone else and thinking that there was something wrong with them.
As being trans is destigmatized (and hopefully the anti-trans stuff recently is short lived), more and more people will “come out” as trans. It’s not that the actual number of trans people is increasing, but that trans people don’t feel like they have to hide who they are. Eventually, like lefties, the rate will level out and stabilize.
A hundred years from now, people will be referencing trans people instead of lefties when talking about the next marginalized group that’s being destigmatized.
In a more general sense, this is leaving out people who want to try something different or people who are confused. They may or may not be bi/gay/trans or whatever, but the mental health damage is from being pigeonholed. Everyone should be able to try a few things without repercussions.
I don’t know if this is still true, but it seemed like a few years ago it was considered ok for women to “experiment”, but I don’t think it ever was for guys. They should all be able to figure things out without worrying about labels or face social pressure to be one thing or another
I feel like there is relevant xkcd for all these comments