this post was submitted on 20 Jun 2023
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This is the part I have a problem with:
Gender isn't assigned by the individual. Gender is assigned by parents, doctors, the community, and society broadly. Gender is an inherently social construction. Some people have misconstrued this to mean that gender is an individual construction. It is not. How you see yourself is only part what makes you, you. You are also defined by how others see you. I understand that some people don't identify with the gender that has been assigned to them, and thus want to change their gender assignment, and I empathize with those people, but whether or not they are able to do this is at least partially out of their control. Just because you see yourself a certain way, doesn't mean others will see you that way, and, again we are defined not only by how we perceive ourselves, but how others perceive us.
You're thinking in the right direction, but you're not quite there. Yes, gender gets assigned at birth as your biological phenotype (because the overwhelming majority of humans identify as cis gender). Humans become individuals and eventually realize that maybe their assigned gender does not fit them. At this point it becomes their own choice and it overrides any gender assignment given at birth. Depending on the individual, gender changes from something that's assigned to something you assign yourself.
Yes, genders are tentatively assigned at birth because most languages are based on gendered pronouns and gendered words. So we need a gender to refer to this new person, and we can't ask babies for their input.
But that's not different than a father saying his baby will like sports. Or, in my case, saying your baby will grow up to play Magic The Gathering with you.
Because when they're old enough to decide for themselves, they can change whatever temporary labels you attached to them. And they can say they don't like Magic. Gender. I meant gender.
Relevant Tom Scott video: https://youtu.be/46ehrFk-gLk
First, only about 25% of languages are fully based around everything being gendered.
Second English has some specifically gendered words as remnants from old English and the languages that blended together to make English.
Third, of those gendered languages, they don't necessarily agree on what gender things are. In the video, they mention that "A Key" in German is masculine and in Spanish is feminine.
Guilty of western bias. But should be a bit obvious that I didn't mean smaller languages, or languages spoken from people that are usually not here discussing with us. But if it wasn't obvious before, I am making it explicit now.
How different languages gender a key (or a chair, or teapot, or whatever object) is not really relevant for a discussion about genders in people.
And I don't even mean that to defend anything, just trying to explain why people apply genders to babies. And how people just do that for convenience, and how that's not relevant as a "permanent" gender.
That's not true. Your gender assignment is defined by how others treat you, how they interact with you, and that's not completely under the individual's control. You can't choose how other people view you, at least not entirely.
That's a pretty absurd notion.
Let's do a mental exercise based on your assertion:
You identify as a man. You were born a man and have always outwardly displayed masculine characteristics. You are in a room with 100 people, and they collectively decide against your will that you are a masculine female and treat you as such.
Are you now a girl because the collective has decided that? Or are you still a man because that's what you have always identified as?
Before you say "100 people does not make a society," the number of people who decide that is irrelevant. Additionally, the reason 'why' they decide you are female is also, according to your logic, irrelevant. It just matters that they all agree.
You still think that gender is imposed on you by society?
Well, sometimes people are wrong and you seem to be wrong right now. I think you have some misconceptions about the definition of gender and biological sex.