Published on 12, July, 2020
A discussion in this forum made me ask myself this question, what's gender?. I googled it but what I found there didn't make much sense to me. I always thought that the gender of the other person doesn't tell me much about who they are. It just informs me about the appropriate pronouns that this person wants me to use with them. Frankly I don't care about figuring out my gender. I was born in a woman's body and I never felt like it's the wrong one. I think I'd feel the same if I was born in a man's body. I have never spent time thinking about this part of myself because I never thought that it's important enough to me. I'll be the same person anyway, no? I don't think it would change much about who I am... Can anyone share how they understand gender?
I'll just make a glossary type post of it because people's own understanding of gender often gets confused for biological sex, so I should point out the science based reasons why for me they are two entirely separate things.
"male" & "female, and in fact all words: a social construct, all arbitrarily applied to things as homosapiens evolved a language system to improve communication.Simplified but imperfect biological sex (what a midwife calls at the birth) : penis = "male" vagina = "female" (gonadal sex)Simplified but unreliable (GCSE level) scientific understandig of biological sex: xx = f, xy = m (genotypic sex)Better researched (advanced) scientific understanding of biological sex: Genotypic (See also karotype) sex +/vs Phenotypic sex +/vs Gonadal sex existing in a range that includes intersex individuals.Gender: a social construct that is either A. performative based on societal expectations and stereotypes of B. essentialist, the idea that a single sex charicateristic = gender (unreliable since most people don't walk around with their genitals out or have their chromosomes tested to identify with any certainty*. and C. Identative ( see below)Gender Identity: the Gender you feel you are. Which as a social construct can literally be anything."sex change" (physical transition): technically does change sex as most people's understanding of sex is gonadal based, thus change/remove the gonads of the traditionally associated sex, and you change the sex of the individual.*Arguments against this who claim xx and xy and reproductive essentialism are also usually in for a surprise when they discover things like this occurr https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24313430/ a lot more frequently than one may think.And further reading:https://www.joshuakennon.com/the-six-common-biological-sexes-in-humans/
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/sex-redefined-the-idea-of-2-sexes-is-overly-simplistic1/
https://www.forbes.com/sites/kimelsesser/2020/06/15/the-myth-of-biological-sex/?sh=8ccd5b976b9bhttps://www.hrc.org/resources/seven-things-about-transgender-people-that-you-didnt-knowhttps://slowrevealgraphs.com/2021/11/08/rate-of-left-handedness-in-the-us-stigma-society/
π Bees π (they/them) Autism resources in bio #stoptheshock #NothingAboutUsWithoutUs said:"male" & "female, and in fact all words: a social construct, all arbirarily applied to things as homosapiens evolved a language system to improve communication.
but pronouns are a social construct too arnt they? so why should they be selectively important and enforced when it is just another social construct?
Caelus said:but pronouns are a social construct too arnt they? so why should they be selectively important and enforced when it is just another social construct?
So if I call you a girl, and/or refer to you as "she" or "her" you would be fine with that? Because you are implying it should be fine if it doesn't matter. Because "selectively important and enforced " is not what I said.
Actually we predate birth certificates, which are a modern invention:https://www.hrc.org/resources/seven-things-about-transgender-people-that-you-didnt-knowSorry, but this is why I got bored last week: you could have found this information for yourself with an easy google search if you really wanted to know the answers. So since your questions about gender have an answer already on the internet somewhere and google doesn't need dopamine to stay interested I'm done with this particular thread chain. Have a lovely Tuesday. /gen :)
hasnt the term gender been around longer than your rehashed version of the word though?thats why we have had gender on birth certificates longer than your new meaning of the word and it meant male or female at birth lol
Ah forgot to turn the notifs off, okay I'll repond once more but then I'm off for the night.
Caelus said:but isnt that contradicting what you said though?
No.
Caelus said:but originally you used the term to render things unimportant and to be cast aside?
Because I didn't. Again that's not what I said, I can't believe this needs be explained here, but I am autistic and for me that means explaining things explicit terms.But see what I mean? It's become circular and boring. I'm now explaining to you what I've had to with Number. This topic becomes very understimulating very quick when not discussed with academics in this field as it is anyway. Time for something more fun again so I'll say nn now as I remembered to turn the notifs off this time.
but isnt that contradicting what you said though? so social constructs are important now? but originally you used the term to render things unimportant and to be cast aside? anyway i work with many people who use many languages, i dont mind if they speak indian, i even try to pick up and use some of their words for the exoticness and fun of it. i dont mind if they use naughty words in their language and even use it against each other and myself, i quite like it and it makes for some fun.
Caelus said:and as i said i dont tell people what language or words they can use, they can call me anything they want and i can call them anything they want.
Except I don't think you really believe that. Sure nobody is going to physically stop you, but, even you know due to other social constructs that doesn't render you immune from the consequences if you chose to be disrespectful. Just because something is a contruct doesn't mean it's of no importance in human interaction hence the "social". Which really just goes back to the thread about forum rules, which already exists, so as this is getting dull anyway we don't really need to have this conversation again.Whole thread has kind of run it's course tbh, so I'll just mute it now and go catch a movie.