What is Gender?

[SuaveSocialist]

Jaicee said:

what the hell is gender? I ask because the term gender is today used more often than sex to describe whether one is male, female, "or something else", and yet seems to possess no clear and objective definition that I can observe. 

Have you tried consulting a reputable Dictionary?  They are helpful anthologies of words and their objective definitions, written as clearly and concisely as possible for their possible contexts.  The most recent editions should have the best results.  With a modern search engine you should be able to find them fairly quickly, but I thought I'd help you out as it appears you haven't had any luck with them as of yet.  

Definition of gender ( https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gender )

 (Entry 1 of 2)

1a: a subclass within a grammatical class (such as noun, pronoun, adjective, or verb) of a language that is partly arbitrary but also partly based on distinguishable characteristics (such as shape, social rank, manner of existence, or sex) and that determines agreement with and selection of other words or grammatical forms

b: membership of a word or a grammatical form in such a subclass

c: an inflectional form (see INFLECTION sense 3a) showing membership in such a subclass

2a: SEX sense 1a

the feminine gender

b: the behavioral, cultural, or psychological traits typically associated with one sex

c: GENDER IDENTITY

Those seeking state driver's licenses in Massachusetts are closer to being able to designate their gender as "X" instead of "male" or "female." The state Senate has overwhelmingly approved a bill that would allow for the nonbinary designation on licenses.— Steve LeBlanc

Facebook's message was clear when the social media network added new gender options for users on Thursday: the company is sensitive to a wide spectrum of gender identity and wants users to feel accommodated no matter where they see themselves on that spectrum.— Katy Steinmetz

gender ( https://www.dictionary.com/browse/gender )

noun

either the male or female division of a species, especially as differentiated by social and cultural roles and behavior:the feminine gender.Compare sex(def 1).

a similar category of human beings that is outside the male/female binary classification and is  based on the individual's personal awareness or identity. See also third gender.

Grammar.

1. (in many languages) a set of classes that together include all nouns, membership in a particular class being shown by the form of the noun itself or by the form or choice of words that modify, replace, or otherwise refer to the noun, as, in English, the choice of he to  replace the man, of she to replace the woman, of it to replace the table, of it or she to replace the ship. The number of genders in different languages varies from 2 to more than 20; often the classification correlates in part with sex or animateness. The most familiar sets of genders are of three classes (as masculine, feminine, and neuter in Latin and German) or of two (as common and neuter in Dutch, or masculine and feminine in French and Spanish).
2. one class of such a set.
3. such classes or sets collectively or in general.
4. membership of a word or grammatical form, or an inflectional form showing membership, in such a class.

Archaic. kind, sort, or class.

gender ( https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/gender )

NOUN

• 1  Either of the two sexes (male and female), especially when considered with reference to social and cultural differences rather than biological ones. The term is also used more broadly to denote a range of identities that do not correspond to established ideas of male and female.

  ‘a condition that affects people of both genders’

  ‘someone of the opposite gender’

  ‘everyone always asks which gender I identify as’

  1. 1.1 Members of a particular gender considered as a group.
     ‘social interaction between the genders’

     ‘encouraging women and girls to join fields traditionally dominated by the male gender’
  2. 1.2  mass noun The fact or condition of belonging to or identifying with a particular gender.
     ‘video ads will target users based only on age and gender’

     ‘traditional concepts of gender’

     ‘I'm a strong believer that gender is fluid’

• 2  Grammar 
  (in languages such as Latin, French, and German) each of the classes (typically masculine, feminine, common, neuter) of nouns and pronouns distinguished by the different inflections which they have and which they require in words syntactically associated with them. Grammatical gender is only very loosely associated with natural distinctions of sex.

  2.1  mass noun The property (in nouns and related words) of belonging to a grammatical gender.

  ‘determiners and adjectives usually agree with the noun in gender and number’