ABSTRACT
The central conclusion one arrives at, on the basis of the reasoning developed above, refers to the fact that values such as equality, liberty and self-realization, values intrinsic to the contemporary notion of democracy, in order to be “materialized” as far as the gender relations system is concerned, presuppose the deconstruction of gender as we know it. In the sense of the abolition of the social connotations that constitute it, so that gender may cease to constitute a norm, which subjects try to incorporate, and become a way (one out of many) in which they (choose to) experience their life stories and their bodies. Which implies a new, non-classificatory and non-bipolar conception of sex and “sexual difference” projected onto gender, both becoming irrelevant to their identity as citizens. This is, in other words, the end to the definitive mediation of sex/gender between the subjects and their social milieu, attesting to the genuine disengagement of citizenship from gender through the deconstruction of the dichotomous logic that defines them as unequal also as citizens, affirming thus the absolute incompatibility of democracy with the existing gender order. The fact that contemporary democracies do not meet their constitutive ethicopolitical principles must not mean that we have to compromise our vision and aim for less. And as far as gender is concerned, claiming a gender equality in which the idea of gender dichotomy is inherent is indeed claiming less. But also it attests to a lack of effort to render democracy more compatible with its own assertions: “Liberty and equality for all”, the most radical principles for the organization of society, in order to be approached from the perspective of gender, necessitate the end of sex/gender as we know it. Not just less flagrant inequalities for women.
