This is important

[supergee]

Also, listen up: gender is a spectrum. The closer you look at ANYTHING the blurrier the lines get. INCLUDING GENDER. LIFE is complicated

--Adam Savage

Read the whole thing.

Comments

[arlie]

The cynic in me says that gender is a social category, and like all social categories, is an oversimplification or outright lie, intended primarily to keep the society running - with little or no consideration for individuals, or for reality.

But I'm from the opposite extreme of gender queer than someone who is trans - I see my chromosome combination and/or genitalia as just about as important to "who I really am" as whether I live in an odd-numbered or even-numbered house. Learning how to behave in socially appropriate ways with regard to gender was a PITA, and it was even harder to design ways of being "acceptable" without also being miserable. To the extent I have a gender ideitity, it's mostly about solidarity and shared experience with other people who are (mis)treated in similar ways for similar reasons.

And to the extent that it's a social category, then it's perfectly "accurate" for it to be nuance-free. Just like e.g. race - another way in which the society I live in assigns people to categories for the purpose of treating them differently, and in particular in order to give some people inherent advantages, from birth on, because of their assignment to a prefered category.