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What is gender?

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Oh yeah, definitely, I agree with you there. I know I was confused for some time, I know a lot of people who were but I also do think a lot of people jump on this sort of thing, like any other talked-about topic just for attention, and even to fit in at times if they want to feel like a part of something. I think that can go both ways.

I can see your first point too. I mean, there's a lot of people who transition and don't plan on doing certain things, only changing a few things to feel comfortable with themselves. That definitely exists.

Yeah, like for everything else, being part of something, imitate someone, wanting to feel different, I see that often with young people and it's often part of other trends as well but since I know nothing about those people and how they really feel I just let it pass. It's sure that some people might be really annoying if they are using it just to get attention, but if they really just want attention they will find a way or another to be annoying.
 
gender: what you identify with sex: the sex you were born with, the amount of x and y chromosomes in your cells.

i'm straight, and i relate to it, because i like guys? i just wanted to point out the difference, and yes i do advocate for the rights of people in the lgbtqia community!
 
See, this question doesn't make sense to me.

If gender is what you feel you are and sex is what you physically are, the reason I feel that I am a boy is because I am happy with the gender my sex comes with by "default", if you will.

If I considered myself a girl, but still had a disco stick, then I'd say that's precisely what makes me belong to one rather than the other. If I did the whole transition, then I'd be a girl in every way.

Disco stick lol (didn't know that one)

Ok, to me its not that clear because I don't really identify to a gender, if you are asking me what gender I am I will most likely say female because it's what written on my records, apparently there is no biological ambiguity. If you are asking me if I'm fine with it, well not really because girls come with really annoying parts and nothing as fun as a disco stick..but anyway, I can live with them..so far..but you can be sure if the Blue Fairy appeared in front of me and granted my wishes they would gone in a split of second. Now for the identity part, I don't especially feel anything about it, when I was 12 and someone called me girl, I was going right for the jugular, now I just attack if someone say I should think, do, act a certain way because of my gender. I let people call me like they want, I don't care about it, I don't feel offended either way...but madam is still hard to swallow. I feel really uncomfortable in female clothes, but I could say I feel uncomfortable in anything that is not jeans and t-shirt, of course I don't have long nails, long hair, make-up or jewels either, but it means nothing. If I'm with a female group I don't get anything they say, but I'm not good with people anyway, if I'm with a male group I feel like at home but I grew up mainly with guys, so...
I certainly do girly stuff sometimes, like ....I don't know...playing to ACNL? I certainly do manly stuff...but I don't like killing bugs, I prefer playing with them. So to resume: sex at birth=female, not happy with it but can live with it if nobody pisses me off, secretly dream to get rid of some parts but don't feel like growing a beard either, I guess I would be fine not having a sex at all. Do I feel like a woman, not really. Do I fell like a man, not really. Do I know how they feel anyway?

See to me it's confusing but it's not important. From what I see here people just go with their genitals, fine with it, not fine with it. If you have no genital you go with how you feel, but what makes you feel that way if it's not genital or hormones?

- - - Post Merge - - -

gender: what you identify with sex: the sex you were born with, the amount of x and y chromosomes in your cells.

i'm straight, and i relate to it, because i like guys? i just wanted to point out the difference, and yes i do advocate for the rights of people in the lgbtqia community!


It gets complicated with xx male, xy female, it's not an absolute rule.

And gender and orientation is two different things.
We could go that way too, saying what we like in our favorite gender but I feel the slippery slope...So....Er...maybe not.
 
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Gender is a fancy type of air bender hehehe

I hate myself for this lmao
 
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I like to think of gender like this:

MALES ---------------------Anything in between----------------------------------FEMALES

Males and females are on the ends of the line, but gender is anything in between.
 
there are two sexes and three genders imo (male, female, other). 'other' also meaning neither i guess. just gonna put this out there, why do people even care about gender. i honestly just say go with the gender you were assigned at birth and treat yourself however you want and just don't care about what your gender says you need to like. you don't need gender to define who you are?? gender is getting less and less constructed by the day anyways. and i'm not saying with genders that it was a good thing to make things feminine or masculine, or sexes feminine or masculine, i'm just saying wouldn't it be better if there were two genders for the two sexes? and i know not everyone is trying to be 'different' but it really sounds like that when you say you identify as xxx. i can understand 'neither' or just 'other' but don't try to make up something. what i'm trying to say i guess is that gender should not have things associated with it. it should just be something between your legs. honestly its not the biggest problem out there. of course this is just my salty opinion on all this. these two kids at my school are constantly bringing up gender and whining about it on facebook so sometimes i wish i could just tape their mouths shut and tell them my opinion. but i am terrible at arguments so

also it annoys the **** out of me when people get offended by using he or she pronouns on them without telling me what they identify as. of course if they really identify as none of the three i mentioned i'll gladly use the pronouns they ask for, but i'm going to use the socially constructed gender based on what you look like unless you tell me. theres no goddamn way i could know you identify as something else. its easy to do this on the internet tho i just remember to call everyone they since you never know
 
there are two sexes and three genders imo (male, female, other). 'other' also meaning neither i guess. just gonna put this out there, why do people even care about gender. i honestly just say go with the gender you were assigned at birth and treat yourself however you want and just don't care about what your gender says you need to like. you don't need gender to define who you are?? gender is getting less and less constructed by the day anyways. and i'm not saying with genders that it was a good thing to make things feminine or masculine, or sexes feminine or masculine, i'm just saying wouldn't it be better if there were two genders for the two sexes? and i know not everyone is trying to be 'different' but it really sounds like that when you say you identify as xxx. i can understand 'neither' or just 'other' but don't try to make up something. what i'm trying to say i guess is that gender should not have things associated with it. it should just be something between your legs. honestly its not the biggest problem out there. of course this is just my salty opinion on all this. these two kids at my school are constantly bringing up gender and whining about it on facebook so sometimes i wish i could just tape their mouths shut and tell them my opinion. but i am terrible at arguments so

also it annoys the **** out of me when people get offended by using he or she pronouns on them without telling me what they identify as. of course if they really identify as none of the three i mentioned i'll gladly use the pronouns they ask for, but i'm going to use the socially constructed gender based on what you look like unless you tell me. theres no goddamn way i could know you identify as something else. its easy to do this on the internet tho i just remember to call everyone they since you never know

I agree on some parts although I would not know where to put everybody we can't identify as either female or male like Caster Semenya. So I would think there are people with more male characteristics, people with more female characteristics and everybody in between, or else. The gender role has little importance to me, I would just all dress people with the same outfit, same hairdo, doing the same task, all the same ;) but some would complain...but even if we were all the same some would still not be confortable with their bodies...there is nothing we can do about that.
 
These threads are blowing my mind, man.

Gender is the state of being male or female (typically used with reference to social and cultural differences rather than biological ones).

Straight out of google dictionary.
 
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gender exists bc we created them and it is an important part of many ppls identities. but gender isnt a Fact or w/e it's all a social construct lol
 
Systems always change, unless they're innate properties of the universe.

That said, a large part of the problem is the fact that the system exists in the first place. People assume "male" and "female" are the only options, and anything that doesn't easily fit into either one, and therefore requires thought instead of stereotypes, is "wrong" for simply existing.

And the example I gave, where we have words like "tomboy" for girls who aren't "traditionally girly" tells us just how long we've all been aware that people who don't easily fit into those two arbitrary boxes are here, yet there's so much yelling over "changing gender" these days, as if people who aren't strictly male or female are a new thing.

Do I think tomboys are less girls than girly girls? Not at all. Maybe a different kind of girl, but every bit a girl all the same, so long as that's the box they feel comfortable in. But there are people who feel more masculine on one day, and more feminine the next, regardless of their biology. There are people who don't feel like either one. There are people who feel trapped in the wrong box while a large segment of society tells them they have no choice but to stay there.

Gender's just not as simple as a whole lot of people like to think it is. Which is, of course, the problem, because asking someone to have to actually think about things is just about the worst thing you can do to someone. Or so the world leads me to believe with the way people react to actually having to think about things.

^ this.

If you've never had to consider the reality of a loved one - or even acquaintance - feeling trapped inside a body that feels biologically wrong and ALIEN to them at an intrinsic level, then I can tell you now, it is heartbreaking. The trans people I know have not been lying or exaggerating for attention and drama. They are not "mentally ill" from a clinical perspective. They need medical help, which usually includes therapy and other counselling services in addition to the hormonal and surgical treatments - if they choose to use them. Someone who is born that way is in need of love and support, not shame and ridicule. In 2017, we should, collectively, be better than that.

From the WHO :

Gender refers to the socially constructed characteristics of women and men ? such as norms, roles and relationships of and between groups of women and men. It varies from society to society and can be changed. While most people are born either male or female, they are taught appropriate norms and behaviours ? including how they should interact with others of the same or opposite sex within households, communities and work places. When individuals or groups do not ?fit? established gender norms they often face stigma, discriminatory practices or social exclusion ? all of which adversely affect health. It is important to be sensitive to different identities that do not necessarily fit into binary male or female sex categories.

I am a cis-gendered female. I don't subscribe to gender stereotypes, especially those that limit or harm individuals (of any gender), but I identify as a woman as that is what I am, both in mentality and biologically.
 
Uhh I'd say gender is the genetics and whatever you...just feel like you are lmao
 
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These threads are blowing my mind, man.

Gender is the state of being male or female (typically used with reference to social and cultural differences rather than biological ones).

Straight out of google dictionary.

If you remove all social and cultural references, would gender still exist?
Example: after a few generations of humans living on Mars with the same clothes, same job, and babies in artificial wombs, would people still think they have a gender?

I think the majority here define their own gender with the fact they can relate to their own sex or not...BUT I would think it's not all.
 
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if you remove society and culture, humanity (as well as just sentient life in general) wouldn't exist period. so I don't know what point you were trying to make by basically invalidating yourself
 
Gender is a social construct, whereas sex is only biological.

Speaking factually only, the definition of gender, according to the Oxford dictionary (source), includes: "used with reference to social and cultural differences rather than biological ones". This is the first result when searching it up on Google since Oxford dictionary is a reliable source.

A definition from a different site describes it as: "One's innermost concept of self as male, female, a blend of both or neither ? how individuals perceive themselves and what they call themselves. One's gender identity can be the same or different from their sex assigned at birth". (source)

Aside from pretty much every website stating that sex and gender are different, even in university classes it is taught this way- or at least, the numerous ones I have taken taught it as so.
 
I am not familiar with this concept of gender. My species has only a single gender, known as nuchacho.
 
if you remove society and culture, humanity (as well as just sentient life in general) wouldn't exist period. so I don't know what point you were trying to make by basically invalidating yourself

Ok let say instead that society or culture don't see gender anymore, there is no gender role, no gendered clothes, hair or anything like that. There are only people with different body. Would people still identifying to a gender? Probably?

My point is trying to see what defines gender for an individual.

For some people there are sex and gender, sex being genitals and chromosomes and gender being a state of mind.
So for some, there are two sexes and two or three genders. But people are asked on their own personal experience, why they see themselves belonging to a gender, so obviously if they belong to the majority, they will tend to define their gender according to their sex, if they relate to it or not.
But it's not that easy because there are also people that don't have a defined sex, they don't have the chromosomes related to their genitals or the same genital as everybody, there are people who have genital dysphoria and no gender dysphoria, or gender dysphoria and no genetial dysphoria and so on, so we can't really say that gender is related to sex for everybody.

For some people is definitely gender roles, but if society was switching gender roles tomorrow, a bunch wouldn't follow.
For some it might be the representation of masculinity or femininity but again it's something that might change tomorrow.
Society change, fashion change all the time, so you can't really defined gender just that way either.

So why/how do you relate to a gender? (If you relate to one) There is no bad answer, There is no right answer.
 
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