8 upvotes, 1 direct replies (showing 1)
View submission: Do non-binary identities reenforce gender stereotypes?
that social constructs or subjective experiences have no effect on reality
Good thing I literally never said that
because you've claimed that they don't exist
Good thing I never did that either
Everything you said is obvious and in no way against anything I said. Social constructs don't "not exist". They exist. The entire context of discussion was that the idea of some "internal sense of gender" that you supposedly "just know" when you have, and the idea that you need a special label if you don't relate to any of the conventional genders. That is the crucial difference with your race example. No one goes, "gee, I don't relate with any race, let me just change to another race or call myself 'non racial'".
You want a better example? I'm an immigrant. That is a label that you could argue exactly in the same way that is part of my identity. I have lived a reality that a non-immigrant could never relate to. I have lived things that a lot of other immigrants can relate to. Cool.
I also have a different immigration experience than... most immigrants. I'm not a French, English or American dude who came to Canada for fun or a job, I fled my country to have better living conditions. I also am not the same as someone who is a refugee and literally fled war and death.
This illustrates my point that a simple label is fucking useless. Being an immigrant, by itself, doesn't mean anything other than the fact that you left your original country. You need to go way in detail to actually give the "immigrant"-ness meaning with the person. The exact same goes with gender -- what is gender? The social, psychological, cultural and behavioral aspects associated to men or women. There are common things men do and women do in a given society, but those are based on traditions and legacy norms that are typically either outdated, based on religion, straight up patriarchal and toxic, or obsolete for other reasons. In 2024, they make zero sense. Yet we obsess with shoving gender into people's identity. Instead we should be pushing for embracing the uniqueness of people's identity and separate it from this obsession into categorizing people with reductionist labels within an obsolete social construct that is gender.
Comment by Closetbrainer at 13/01/2025 at 07:56 UTC*
1 upvotes, 3 direct replies
No, there are genes, hormones, sexual organs, etc. that also have a huge play in this. You can’t just say being male or female is a social construct. I’m a cisgendered female and I do feel like it’s a big part of my identity. I gave birth to a child and am a mother. These are not social constructs. Can you carry a child or understand being pregnant? This is my experience. Others AFAB don’t feel this way. Who says their experience is any less valid? Why do people care so much about how others feel about their gender? If they are happy with their choices, who is anyone else to judge them?