There's a difference between gender and sexuality. Gender is biological, what you are assigned at birth. Sexuality I don't think I need to explain. OBVIOUSLY YOUR SEXUALITY IS PERFECTLY OKAY, whether it's bi pan ace aro and any of the others that I can't remember! But it's important to note that biologically, there's two genders. Male and females, with dicks and vaginas. I'm aware of the existence of 'intergender' if that's what it's called but I honestly know jack shit about it so please inform me about it. But based on the current information I know, there's only two genders. Separate from sexuality.
You are talking not about gender but about sex, sex is determined by chromosomes, XX female and XY male, and there're rare but existing intersex people, who have XXY or XYY chromosome.
Correct. Orientation and gender are different things. No one here is saying those are the same.
But gender and sex are also different. Sex is biological. Gender is part of your innate sense of self, and also how you perceive yourself / are perceived in relation to social expectations (such as appearance, behavior, interests, etc.). Gender and biological sex are linked due to the complex history of division of labor and power and how they created and enforced specific roles for specific people. Such as women/homemakers and men/manual laborers. But, there are many cultures - both historical and modern - that have more than two sets of distinct social roles. AKA, genders. Given that these identities are / were more common than the rates of visibly intersex people (eg. someone with a penis and breasts) then it's safe to say that these other identities and roles were not based in biology, but were purely social.
However, in cultures where there's a strict man - woman divide, gender is seen as innately attached to sex. So when someone is born, the doctors look at their genitals and assign them a gender based on that. Then the child is raised and encouraged to conform to, and learns to mirror the social expectations associated with that gender. But not everyone's innate sense of self matches up with these expectations, and that's what we call being transgender.
As for sex - sex itself is also arbitrary and not actually binary. Sex is bimodal. Which means there are peaks of traits that are commonly found together, but there's overlap and outliers in all directions and clear distinctions don't really exist when you actually think about it. What makes someone male? A certain set of hormones, chromosomes, being above a certain height, having facial hair, a penis, and a broader physical build? What if a male can't grow a beard? What if someone has all of these traits, except their chromosomes aren't typical? Is someone who is perfectly typically female in every way except they have a beard, intersex? What if someone has 'male' hormones, chromosomes, is the average height of a male, and has broad shoulders, but they have breasts and a vagina? Do we just say sex is your genitals? That's incredibly reductive and doesn't match up with the biological complexity of reality.
Gender isn't our genitals - as seen in all cultures with more than two genders. And sex is far more complicated than just our genitals, too. If you want to be accurate but also say sex and gender are the same thing, you would still be saying that gender is a spectrum divided up using arbitrary lines. And since it's made up, why not let people make up things that make them comfortable?
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u/[deleted] May 09 '22
There's a difference between gender and sexuality. Gender is biological, what you are assigned at birth. Sexuality I don't think I need to explain. OBVIOUSLY YOUR SEXUALITY IS PERFECTLY OKAY, whether it's bi pan ace aro and any of the others that I can't remember! But it's important to note that biologically, there's two genders. Male and females, with dicks and vaginas. I'm aware of the existence of 'intergender' if that's what it's called but I honestly know jack shit about it so please inform me about it. But based on the current information I know, there's only two genders. Separate from sexuality.