I agree with you but this doesn’t exactly counter their point. The scientific explanation for sex was not discovered until recently but the biological differences have been obvious since the dawn of time. Gender is a social construct yes, but it’s framed around real biological differences and ignoring that is… idk. Confusing and kind of irresponsible? The social constructs we’ve formed are heavily influenced by the biological differences between the sexes and you can’t just wave that away and expect people to understand what you’re saying.
Talking about gender being a social construct is honestly pretty mind bending, even if you are entering the conversation 100% open minded.
Gender is the idea that different sexes should have different appearances, clothing, roles, tasks, etc.
For example women have long hair, wear make up and dresses. If a man did that they would be breaking gender norms. None of those 3 behaviors are biological. Another society could have those 3 things reversed and be otherwise identical.
The fact gender is a social construct isn’t that complicated.
Well, for starters, I’m not contradicting their point, I’m confirming it. The use of “cis” or “trans” in terms of gender and the knowledge of chromosomes are recent social constructions. The confusion seems to be in what is actually meant by “social construction”.
For example, you keep saying “biological differences” without prepending the word “stereotypical” in such a way that leads me to believe that you still think of sex as a pair of essential categories.
Gender is a social construct, yes, but Sex is a set of simplified generalizations about multiple highly complex and frequently interrelated phenomena that cannot be reduced to anatomy or chromosomes alone.
Ignoring the fact that these generalizations about sex are mere stereotypes to which many people do not conform is much more irresponsible than insufficiently explaining the social construction of gender.
I’ll bite. Biological sex is real. When people say gender is a social construct they’re talking about everything that (traditionally) gets attached to being biologically female/male. Acceptable clothing, behaviour etc. Those are social constructs and if you disagree you likely haven’t thought about it hard enough. Different cultures put different expectations on gender so good luck trying to find any gender expectations that apply to all of them.
Framing gender as social construct is not the same as telling you masculinity or femininity don’t exist, or that you shouldn’t embody those traits if you want. It’s simply pointing out that our ideas on gender are social fabrications that feel real because of how ingrained they are into our culture and upbringing.
Being cis and embodying traditionally male/female traits is perfectly acceptable and nobody wants you to stop doing that. This conversation is about saying hey, not everyone feels comfortable with traditional gender constructs and that’s ok too.
Yes. Being cis is when your socially constructed gender identity aligns with your socially constructed assigned gender at birth. Being cis is a coincidence of constructs.
Note that someone could have XX chromosomes and be cis, and identify as a man, thanks to SRY gene crossover. He has XX chromosomes, but he was born with a penis, so society called him a man and he happened to agree. So having XX chromosomes and being cis definitely isn’t the same as being a woman, even if being cis weren’t a social construct.
Having xx chromosomes and being cis is a social construct?
Gender existed long before chromosomes were discovered.
I agree with you but this doesn’t exactly counter their point. The scientific explanation for sex was not discovered until recently but the biological differences have been obvious since the dawn of time. Gender is a social construct yes, but it’s framed around real biological differences and ignoring that is… idk. Confusing and kind of irresponsible? The social constructs we’ve formed are heavily influenced by the biological differences between the sexes and you can’t just wave that away and expect people to understand what you’re saying.
Talking about gender being a social construct is honestly pretty mind bending, even if you are entering the conversation 100% open minded.
Gender is the idea that different sexes should have different appearances, clothing, roles, tasks, etc.
For example women have long hair, wear make up and dresses. If a man did that they would be breaking gender norms. None of those 3 behaviors are biological. Another society could have those 3 things reversed and be otherwise identical.
The fact gender is a social construct isn’t that complicated.
Well, for starters, I’m not contradicting their point, I’m confirming it. The use of “cis” or “trans” in terms of gender and the knowledge of chromosomes are recent social constructions. The confusion seems to be in what is actually meant by “social construction”.
For example, you keep saying “biological differences” without prepending the word “stereotypical” in such a way that leads me to believe that you still think of sex as a pair of essential categories.
Gender is a social construct, yes, but Sex is a set of simplified generalizations about multiple highly complex and frequently interrelated phenomena that cannot be reduced to anatomy or chromosomes alone.
Ignoring the fact that these generalizations about sex are mere stereotypes to which many people do not conform is much more irresponsible than insufficiently explaining the social construction of gender.
I’ll bite. Biological sex is real. When people say gender is a social construct they’re talking about everything that (traditionally) gets attached to being biologically female/male. Acceptable clothing, behaviour etc. Those are social constructs and if you disagree you likely haven’t thought about it hard enough. Different cultures put different expectations on gender so good luck trying to find any gender expectations that apply to all of them.
Framing gender as social construct is not the same as telling you masculinity or femininity don’t exist, or that you shouldn’t embody those traits if you want. It’s simply pointing out that our ideas on gender are social fabrications that feel real because of how ingrained they are into our culture and upbringing.
Being cis and embodying traditionally male/female traits is perfectly acceptable and nobody wants you to stop doing that. This conversation is about saying hey, not everyone feels comfortable with traditional gender constructs and that’s ok too.
Yes. Being cis is when your socially constructed gender identity aligns with your socially constructed assigned gender at birth. Being cis is a coincidence of constructs.
Note that someone could have XX chromosomes and be cis, and identify as a man, thanks to SRY gene crossover. He has XX chromosomes, but he was born with a penis, so society called him a man and he happened to agree. So having XX chromosomes and being cis definitely isn’t the same as being a woman, even if being cis weren’t a social construct.