Abstract

In this contribution, I discuss the potential inclusion of the third gender in future city projects. Drawing on Braidotti’s post-human context, which opens up new ways of reinterpreting the evolution of our species, I focus on the concept of ‘other’ understood as ‘extraterrestrial’. To do this, I use two structural paradigms: Richard Shusterman’s somaesthetics, in which body and gender are seen as identifying with each other, and the third gender, which allows the body to detach from its usual subjugation to gender. Paul B. Preciado’s book Can the Monster Speak?, published only one year ago, opened a conversation about the epistemological deconstruction of bodies. Preciado tells us that we “we are all in transition”, which means we must consider how to welcome others and adapt public and private spaces for a new way of being in the world. To propose a possible answer to the question of living, in particular, I refer to two case studies from the contemporary history of urban planning: the Vienna Women Work City and Petra Doan’s theory about the tyranny of gender in public spaces.