posted by geeblock
People are born with six toes, 3 nipples, and a whole bell curve of mutations. I don’t find it that hard to believe that a person can be born as the switch in the wrong position in the inside ie a man in a woman’s body or vise versa. Or someone who says they knew they were gay from their first memories. I don’t call that a mental illness but see it as more in the side of mutation or some type of biological/genetic thing. It took 25 years of teaching and working with thousands of children to gain a better understanding than I had coming from a small town in bfe
Here's the issue, though:
We have no scientific justification for establishing what a "man" or "woman" is.
To put it in a syllogism, it might be said like this:
Premise 1: If a trait is predetermined, and if
Premise 2: Predetermined traits are fixed through genetics and biological differences, then
Conclusion: A trait must be exhibited through genetics or biological differences to be considered predetermined.
The truth is, if we do separate gender identities and genitals, we don't even have a definition for the genders. Outside a cultural context (which doesn't affect the biology of a newborn), genders would have functionally no meaning at all.
Effectively, one of these two things is necessarily true:
a. Gender doesn't exist at all apart from sexual organs
b. Gender is the result of some combination of choice and cultural influences (as "choice" is rarely ever the exclusive cause for a trait that opens one up to ridicule or ostracism)
There's no rational justification for helping ourselves to a difference between biological markers and gender on one hand, and then treating it like a "born this way" trait on the other.
Now, if we do want to make additional gender distinctions for someone with hermaphroditism or triple X syndrome, I could at least see the case. There are defined biological markers for those, and they do affect the biological markers of male and female biology. Moreover, I don't mean to make light of gender confusion, either. I don't think it's a mental illness (at least not anymore), particularly in our cultural context, as much as I think it's a culturally instilled possibility that, given enough people, will have a fraction identifying with it. Perhaps like a placebo effect in which the curtain never gets pulled back.
I suppose this really boils down to a matter of definitions.
If not defined by gametes, what is a man? What is the definition of a man? What trait or traits are someone born with that make them a man if we don't include their sexual organs?
If we can't define what makes someone a man, woman, or any of the other non-binary genders, then what objective reason do we have to believe that they are real?
Again, I'm not trying to be condescending or argumentative. But there are logical rules we use to discuss things like this, and I still have yet to hear someone satisfy the burden of proof for the existence of genders outside biology unless it's also conceded that they're potentially fluid and undefined outside a cultural context.
