Is gender still a valid concept if...

lol, you are such a revolutionarist! I love it.
Well, you are ahead of time. Outside LGBT there is just very little amount of people who know anything about that issue. Or about the possibity that there could even be any issue.

 

In my mother language there is no separate terms for "sex" and "gender". Gender is reffered to as "social sex". I think that explains a lot. Gender is the set of behaviors that are "approved" by the society as appropriate for female or male people. So, while sex is a set of biological traits, gender, or what makes a man/woman is a set of behavioral traits that differ from time to time and from place to place. But gender is also the way that someone expresses his/her sexuality. So, in a personal level, I think that gender can be experienced and expressed in a million ways and, therefore yes, it is sexist to separate the human behaviors and label them as womanly/manly.

As for attraction... I think that sexual attraction has to do mostly with sex, and romantic with gender... Not sure. What do you think about that?

 

I love your perspective. After taking a class in Gender and Environment, I reached the same conclusion. There is no point in identifying as a gender on any level. I do believe that biological sexes are useful especially in the medical field, but even the assigned categories of male and female are insufficient. What about hermaphrodites? In my personal opinion there are a minimum of five sexes, which further invalidates the use of a social gender to be forced into two categories. Gender is irrelevant. Society has come to use it as an explanation for certain behaviors. They use it no differently than someone who is describing their characteristics. It is wholly provincial.

 

That could be a philosoraptor meme.

 

Well, when people discover and learn that gender and sex are different, many assume this makes gender in itself a social construct based on stereotypes. Gender stereotypes ARE a social construct, but gender itself is not. We could eradicate gender stereotypes completely and we'd still have transgender people. People's brains are literally wired for their body. The reason transpeople exist is when due to hormone imbalances in the womb, they are born with a brain of the opposite sex. Because of how their brains are wired, they intrinsically have a gender; this is the identified gender. Saying that there's no such thing as gender outside of stereotypes is pretty much invalidates me as a person. It's kind of transphobic.

 

I have to say, I agree with your point 110%, and I've been saying the same sort of things for years.

For me, though, I don't feel at home in my body. And I'm not particularly manly - most people think of me as quite "feminine", as far as social roles go.

 

There is no reason for limiting what is acceptable for a person to do based on their anatomy. You and feminists everywhere are on the same page with that. These social constructs do exist for a reason though. Humans undeniably learn best by categorizing. They categorize people like they do anything else to better understand them. I do not believe the social constructs remain to oppress people based on their biological sex, but they have come to do so and in my opinion that warrants a need for change. At the end of the day, all humans are just trying to understand each other and their own place in the world.

 

I completely agree with you. As a society we are wholly flawed. Change within our society, which I agree is needed especially in the case of gender, is slow coming and has to be done over generations. It is our job now to guide the future generations to question such categories and to define themselves with whatever terms they find appropriate.

 

Do you have evidences of this? Also, please note the limitations of those studies and yes I do realize it's hard to find transsexual to find studies. Also, do find studies that goes against the results with similar setup.

I have evidences that may point to the non-existence of brain sex.

Here's a study that takes a look at brain sexes - "Male or Female? Brains are Intersex"

Add that study with psychological studies from Harry Reis and Bobbi Carothers, Hyde, and other authors that found no to little differences in behaviors of males and females, and then you have indication that points to the fact that there might be no such thing as male/female brain.

An affirmative proof of brain sex would be no to little overlap in a large sample rather than averages of different areas. Right now, I do hope that there are studies that do look into overlaps in the brains.

Also, while I respect your identity, I rather stand up for facts even if it seemingly harmful to others as scientific information is far more important than emotions. I wouldn't mind if scientific information goes against me or my own identity if it adequate. If it is adequate finding, I'm not gonna argue against it if it can be used against me.

 

Behaviours comes under stereotypes. A sense of intrinsic gender is not to do with behaviour.

As for studies, try these:

-Zhou et al. (1995)
-Kruijver et al. (2000)
-Chung et al. (2002)
-Garcia-Falgueras and Swaab (2008)

All of these support the idea of brain gender, which doesn't necessarily mean gender stereotypes or behaviour. As for your facts, well, the reason our identities exist is because they are fact. It's about as simple as that.

Also, I did try to find some contrasting studies, but all of what I found was about homosexuality, not transsexuality. Interesting to note is that some of the studies about homosexuality tended to support my side of the argument anyway.

 

Well, saying that women behave like this and that men behave like this is an enforcement of gender stereotypes. There are some trends, but those don't really mean anything because social conditioning has a part to play in it. Regardless of behaviour, gender is what someone knows, intrinsically what they are. Trans men can experience phantom penises, regardless of how they behave before or after transition, whether they be more masculine, more feminine or between them. Gendered behaviour is just a stereotype.

 

What language is your mother language?

and gender is probably not completely necessary, but if not then how do we describe the differences between what we call masculine and feminine? Language is meant to describe the things in our world so that we can relate them to others, so gender describes the concepts of masculinity, femininity, and any mixes or other genders that exist.

On applications and forms sex is just whether you have a penis or a vagina. Gender describes you inside. I think it's necessary.

---------- Post added 11th Aug 2013 at 09:04 AM ----------

I like your thinking :eusa_clap