Gender binaries are so last semester

The Boston Globe reports on the increasing use of mixed-gender student housing, allowing men and women to room together in the same bedrooms on college campuses. The usual suspects -- feminists, homosexuality advocates, confused, transgendered souls -- are behind the trend. Particularly striking is the rhetoric of mixed housing advocates. Some choice samples follow.

Denise Darrigrand, dean of students at Clark: "It's a new world, and gender has taken on all kinds of new definitions. It's about being more inclusive, and it's about keeping pace with the times."

Gender has new definitions? Does it mean something more than male and female? But as long as we're being inclusive and keeping pace with the times, why bother having bedrooms at all? Why not just throw all the students into a common bunkhouse? Wouldn't that be more in keeping with modern notions of discretion?

James Baumann of the Association of College and University Housing Officers: "Among Millennial students, whether it's race, gender, or nationality, the borders are coming down. The lines just aren't there anymore."

To what borders is he referring and where have they gone? Does he mean "walls"? Those borders? But the walls are still there. They haven't gone anywhere. They now merely separate one set of post-gender roommates from another set of post-gender roommates. Or am I missing something?

Dartmouth housing applicatin form: "[Dartmouth] seeks to provide a living environment welcoming to all gender identities; one not limited by the traditional gender binary."

Jeffrey Chang, Clark student: Separate housing policies "needlessly reinforce an oppressive gender binary"

If gender is no longer binary, what it is? Are there three variants? Eight? One hundred? Does anyone know? Are not even transgendered variations defined relative to the binary models of "male" and "female." But I suppose that's oppressive. Much like the English language. And biology. Why not throw those out, too? No reason to let oppressive and outdated ideas about language and science impede inclusion. We need to keep pace with the times, after all.

You think I'm being facetious? Dartmouth doesn't. Its housing form, according to the Boston Globe, "asks students their personal gender identity and if students have a third-person pronoun they wish to be addressed by." It? Other? Does the student get to make one up?

I know I am not the first (nor the last) to marvel at the pedagogical irresponsibility of America's colleges and universities, but I really do wonder whether students who get to define realty any way they like have any incentive to learn what the world really is.