Comment by twinkie2001 on 12/01/2025 at 05:34 UTC

32 upvotes, 9 direct replies (showing 9)

View submission: Do non-binary identities reenforce gender stereotypes?

I won’t answer your question because I have a similar view myself. I’m trans but have never been able to wrap my head around what being “non-binary” is.

To me I suppose I’ve always seen gender as being essentially a conglomeration of personality traits. Your sex is the physical, your gender is the mind. So maybe that answers the question?

But in reality, humans are complicated and I think we’re often all a bit too quick to want to put labels on everything.

Replies

Comment by OilAshamed4132 at 12/01/2025 at 14:27 UTC

10 upvotes, 3 direct replies

How does one even have a gender of the mind? What does that mean??

Comment by Flexappeal at 12/01/2025 at 16:18 UTC

9 upvotes, 1 direct replies

Many LGBT spaces online are atrocious about this. *every* preference or personality trait must be assigned or sorted into some new jargon or label. It’s pretty ironic when you think about it

Comment by thegimboid at 12/01/2025 at 07:12 UTC

26 upvotes, 4 direct replies

I've always had the same opinion, and it has only been reinforced over the years when (in pleasant debates with friends of who describe themselves using various gender terms), no one has been able to describe any gender to me without resorting to using cultural stereotypes or describing a person's sex (physical attributes).

If gender is entirely a cultural belief that only exists in each form within the culture that people are immersed in, then the concept of gender itself isn't really anything but a social convention that reinforces stereotypes.

Comment by redroserequiems at 12/01/2025 at 20:53 UTC

5 upvotes, 0 direct replies

What makes me a woman or a man? I feel no attachment to any gender. I like dresses, but because they are comfortable and I am disabled. I hate make-up and other girly things. Does any of this make me a woman or a man? No.

Comment by dreagonheart at 12/01/2025 at 11:41 UTC

9 upvotes, 4 direct replies

If this helps:

Whatever makes you your gender, I don't have it. Like, your gender is strong enough that you identify as the gender opposite what was assigned to you. It clearly has meaning to you. My mom, a cis woman, says she would still be a woman even if she was put in another body, such as a man's body. That's evidence of her gender. I have never had that tether. If you put me in a man's body I wouldn't be any more or less of a man, or woman, than if you made me a computer program.

Comment by Anonphilosophia at 12/01/2025 at 09:09 UTC

7 upvotes, 1 direct replies

Same. And for some reason, I always expect non-binary people to dress androgynously. Which, of course, is not a thing.

But I'm always surprised when they dress in gender stereotypical clothing that matches their gender assigned at birth.

It IS complicated. I don't try to understand, I just wish everyone well. 😊

Comment by armrha at 12/01/2025 at 09:07 UTC

2 upvotes, 1 direct replies

Several cultures have a third gender.

https://www.britannica.com/list/6-cultures-that-recognize-more-than-two-genders[1][2]

1: https://www.britannica.com/list/6-cultures-that-recognize-more-than-two-genders

2: https://www.britannica.com/list/6-cultures-that-recognize-more-than-two-genders

Could just be some kind of expression along these lines?

Comment by ta0029271 at 14/01/2025 at 09:26 UTC

1 upvotes, 0 direct replies

Given this point of view, how useful is a term like "gender" outside of academia anyway? I say this as it just confuses things, everyone has a different definition and most people think it just means sex.

Would it be better to just say personality? Or if you want to be more specific terms like sex-based stereotypes or societal norms.

"I am a male with a feminine personality" makes more sense to me than "I am a male with woman gender".

Comment by ThePocketPanda13 at 12/01/2025 at 16:20 UTC

1 upvotes, 0 direct replies

In my experience non-binary people simply don't fit either predetermined conglomeration of personality traits.

To be fair if we're defining gender as a conglomeration of personality traits then just 2 options seems pretty limited.

And I think that's literally what it is. "I dont fit into either of these categories so I'm going to label myself as something different"