What is Gender?

[vivster]

Jaicee said:

vivster said:

Now this is a thread. I wanted to make one like this for quite a while.

As you have pointed out already there isn't a single thing attributed to each gender that is unique to a certain sex. It's a meaningless categorization and it has long outlived its welcome. I reject the notion of transgender because you cannot transition between something that doesn't exist. People build their stupidly rigidly defined categorizations and then whine about not fitting in them. Well, here's the truth, not fitting in is normal and it's the responsibility of the person to deal with it. I don't care if you want to change your sexuality or your appearance, but don't force me to put any importance on your own conceived arbitrary categorization.

Gender has become something that's akin to a religion, where we have to respect whatever crazy thing people who have subscribed to said religion believe. I treat any person with respect if that respect is reciprocal. I don't care about your appearance or your preferences but when you start forcing me to behave in some way that's uncalled for I'm gonna get pissed and I'm already pretty pissed about this new religion. You're not a woman or a man or gender fluid. You're a genderless blob to me. You're defined by what you do.

The world needs to become genderless and the sooner that happens the better. But looking at the "progress" we made with other religions I'm not holding my breath.

Caitlyn Jenner is not a hero. Jesus is not a hero. They're both humans.

I'm highlighting the bolded item because I think that represents a unique view that no one else here has articulated yet. I mean you and are in agreement on the rest.

But that (the bolded part) is interesting! So basically you're a subscriber to the Judith Butler type of view that says both gender AND BIOLOGICAL SEX are social constructs if I'm gathering your position correctly?

I use the current interpretation that divorces gender from biological sex. Biological differences exist and should be respected, but they don't define you.

A woman is nothing more than a human that has certain biological characteristics and certain needs. Those needs are different from other humans, but they are in no way more or less important. The thing here is that humans are extremely diverse. There is no point in arbitrarily drawing a line between two groups if the biological differences within 1 group are as big as the differences between the groups. There are women that look and act like men and vice versa, so why even divide the groups then?

There are special needs people who have to regularly go to special physicians to get themselves checked for their own biological issues. Be it a woman going to a gynecologist or a wheelchair bound person going to the orthopedist. I don't think we'll have to assign a gender to differently abled people just because they're physically different, so why would we do that to biological sexes?

Genders are a social construct, created from the human need to categorize everything. From the earliest societies women were labeled the weaker gender, partly because of necessity and partly because male power fantasies. But that isn't really a natural state or a default state seeing how there have been matriarchal societies since the beginning of time. Biological sexes looked differently so of course they have to be separated. Animals and humans are wired to form groups and see members outside our group with skepticism. These things can be overcome however. Humans are intelligent enough to see past difference. We did it with races and we can do it with gender as well.

If we look at infants we can see universal acceptance and respect of all genders and races, which means they're only later indoctrinated. This indoctrination is not malicious in most cases but it's just very stupid and causes more problems than it's trying to fix. It all starts with gendered clothing, colors and even toys. One of the most egregious things are gendered bathrooms. Children are taught to keep to their own gender. Having homogeneous gendered groups in childhood and especially youth creates a very toxic circlejerk within these groups who will then define the other group and creating a false picture, further dividing them. At the end of adolescence all the damage is done.

To change people's perception of gender we need to start in the early childhood. The current generation is already lost but change can come in the future. At some point people have to stop caring about genders. Sadly we're currently going in the opposite direction. Ironically it's fueled by people who fight for gender equality. We're currently regressing in our acceptance of genders and races because people put emphasis on things that should not be emphasized.

I think I made my point here. Now I'm trying to think of a way to fix the issue with gendered changing rooms.