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 think gender is a social construct, it is a fluid identity. Gender is much more complex and nuanced than the societal binary of male and female.
Have you heard of the concept ‘autigender’? Autigender describes the fact that being autistic can significantly influence our experience of gender identity. I think this definitely applies to me.
I think gender is biology, gender roles are social constructs. Genders exist because of evolutionary pressures that create a premium for mechanisms that mix up genes, leading to genetic diversity. Most things that affect the fundamentals of the human condition have biological causes. This includes homosexuality and transexuality. I do not think that people choose their sexual orientation or their gender identification. Though societal norms have an influence on their expression, they are overwhelmingly biological in origin. I draw a distinction between gender as a biological concept and gender identification.