I Have Gender Identity Issues
I am pleased to have opened discussion on this. A lot of ideas are based on ignorance. Some on belief. Over to you.
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Long answer. Bear with me.
Gender is a language device. Most languages will recognise 3 basic genders: Masculine, Feminine and Neuter. Words we use can change based on the gender of the object or the subject in a sentence.
Gender identity is a term that highlights a failure in language education in the western world. People conflate gender with sex and, although the two can mean the same thing, they have two different purposes. One helps us differentiate words, the other tells us the scientific makeup of a living creature.
One shouldn't identify his or herself with a gender, but a sex. You are male or female and thus you should use the gender language that corresponds to that sex. There are a couple outliers who now go by "intersex" that scientifically dont simply fit into the male/female system. These people choose their gender language based on a large amount of factors. Usually being which sex they appear as or which functioning parts they have.
Some believe that because these people choose their gender, that all humans should be able to choose their gender. This however isnt sensible as gender is about making communication easier. If we state that all gender has no correlation to sex, it defeats the purpose of having gendered language in the first place. So instead males should use masculine gender and females should use feminine gender. Neuter gender can be used as well but a lot of people feel it dehumanises them too much so they avoid it.
Gender is a language device. Most languages will recognise 3 basic genders: Masculine, Feminine and Neuter. Words we use can change based on the gender of the object or the subject in a sentence.
Gender identity is a term that highlights a failure in language education in the western world. People conflate gender with sex and, although the two can mean the same thing, they have two different purposes. One helps us differentiate words, the other tells us the scientific makeup of a living creature.
One shouldn't identify his or herself with a gender, but a sex. You are male or female and thus you should use the gender language that corresponds to that sex. There are a couple outliers who now go by "intersex" that scientifically dont simply fit into the male/female system. These people choose their gender language based on a large amount of factors. Usually being which sex they appear as or which functioning parts they have.
Some believe that because these people choose their gender, that all humans should be able to choose their gender. This however isnt sensible as gender is about making communication easier. If we state that all gender has no correlation to sex, it defeats the purpose of having gendered language in the first place. So instead males should use masculine gender and females should use feminine gender. Neuter gender can be used as well but a lot of people feel it dehumanises them too much so they avoid it.
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@SW-User Which is more of a reason that a minority group shouldn't force others to change language to suit their needs. They should either let it occur naturally or not at all.
@LilirWyddfa Exactly
LukeTheDuke · M
I had never given this issue a single thought In my life. I had advertised for a flatmate years ago and the person I took in was a trans woman. Living with this person opened my eyes to the ignorance people have on this issue. It was only after she moved in that she told me that she had gone, partially, through reassignment; had she not said I would never have known. Not for a second in any of the time we spent as flat mates was their any behaviour or attitude that would remotely make me think of this person as anything other than a woman. It taught me a great deal. Over the many hours that we spoke I was awakened to the issues behind gender identity and learnt so much from our discussions.
@LukeTheDuke What exactly did you learn in those hours? Full disclosure, I'm not in support of gender reassignment. I think people need to accept the body they were born in. But maybe hearing your story could enlighten me more about the subject.
@LukeTheDuke I've never taken their illness lightly. All forms of dysphoria should be taken seriously. Mental illness is no joke
SW-User
@Sharon masculinity/ femininity are social constructs which create a false binary
SW-User
@Sharon Individual behaviors yes. The qualities people rate as stereotypically masculine and stereotypical feminine can occur on the high or low end. I score highly on both stereotypically masculine qualities and stereotypically feminine, others score low on both and then there are those who score high on one only.