#gender is not a social construct

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

"I ain't no monkey," says the Xian creationist. "No, it sure is better to think you're descended from a magic spell, dirt, a rib and multiple waves of incest," people who understand evolution reply.

"Gender is a social construct," says the Starbucks barista with a Gender Studies degree. "No, it sure is better to think sex-associated human behaviors, preferences and tendencies are the result of a millennia-long secret, global, self-sustaining brainwashing conspiracy, especially when other primates exhibit similar behaviors, preferences and tendencies to humans through evolution, requiring a magical spell to protect homo sapiens alone from this biological process," people who understand evolution reply.

Sex-associated differences in behavior, preferences and tendencies are real, for the same reason biological differences themselves are real.

Do what you like. But don't get mad when men and women choose to do what comes naturally to them.

We are a part of nature, not separate from it.

[foxfairy06]

Hi, only wanted to ask about xenogenders: why do exclusionists think they aren't valid? Just curious

Thanks for this blog btw, one of my favs now :)

First off, let's talk about their history. They were coined by a cis, neurotypical woman who posed as a trans woman online. She basically insinuates that neurodivergent people can't understand what gender is. Which, yikes. Throughout the entire history of them, it's been said that it's "for neurodivergent people who have a hard time understanding social constructs like gender" (which I'll address later in this post), or "for neurodivergent people who have a hard time understanding their feelings, so they describe the way their gender feels like light and fluffy like a cloud, or angry and soft like an angry cat.". The problem with this, it infantiles neurodivergent people.

Which is fine when it's coming from someone who actually is speaking for themself. Neurodivergent people who experience something that does cause them to not be able to do something are allowed to convey that they can't do those things, and they are not infantilising anyone, and they are not putting neurodivergent people down. Having a disability is having a disability, it isn't good or bad, and it's wrong to act like someone with a disability can do anything. It's wrong to place expectations on disabled people they can't live up to, and when a disabled person can't do something, don't act like they're making a biased judgement about disabled people because they aren't. I can't just stop ticking, and my tics extend to affect more of my life than just my tics. My ADHD "infantiles" me in some ways, and there is nothing wrong with that, and don't expect me to be able to exist in the same way as a neurotypical person.

HOWEVER, the majority of people who label themselves with xenogenders are neurotypical or self diagnosed. They do not have the ability to speak on neurodivergence correctly. They just don't. They don't have the tools. They don't have the experiences. They don't have the time in therapy. They don't have the education. They are using neurodivergents as a scapegoat and in the process insisting that there is something so fundamental that we simply cannot understand. They are speaking for us, and have created false information about a group they can't speak for.

Now for the science.

Gender isn't a social construct. At least not in any way that is compatible with the concept of xenogenders.

• Gender in the terms of *gender studies* which was formed in the soft science of *sociology*, describes the expectations, performances, and roles associated with being a male, and a female. In this theory, a social man is someone who is masculine and a social woman is someone who is feminine. In this theory, these are learned behaviors enforced by society. Men are masculine, they're strong. They hunt, they have no feelings other than anger. Women are caring and nice and they cross their legs when they sit. Obviously this is not applicable to individuals. Because obviously most people don't fit into these definitions. This concept of social gender is useless for labeling an individual as a man or a woman. It's bunk. It's accurate for how society treats people though. Xenogenders do not have any socially ascribed behaviors, expectations, or roles. Therefore under the tucute definition of gender "gender is a social construct", aka gender theory, xenogenders are not genders. Some people could argue that "well my learned behaviors are light and fluffy like a cloud", that still doesn't mean that society perceives you as cloud-like or that your learned behaviors are similar to that of a cloud. It also doesn't have anything to do with the sexes, and therefore isn't compatible with this theory.

• Gender in terms of what we identify with is a different thing entirely, and is a neurological and psychological map of your sex characteristics. Someone who individually is a man identifies with a body that is entirely categorizable within male range, and someone that is a woman is someone with an identified body that is entirely categorizable within female range. Someone who is nonbinary, (nullsex or on the duosex spectrum), is someone who's identified body doesn't fit within those ranges. Gender is different from the "gender" represented in gender theory. This is because a man can look, act, sound, think, and express in the ways typically associated with women and still be a man. Even if he's trans. The social ascriptions to gender are meaningless, and gender itself is not. Xenogenders do not reflect any gender identity. They are not correspondent to an individuals understanding of their own body, and not equatable to transness or nonbinarism. They're a self-chosen label that bares no meaning. They represent nothing real.

Ultimately if someone wants to call themselves catgender, ok i guess I can't stop them and I'm not going to be a dick about it but I'm also not going to sit around and pretend like it holds any water or means anything.

[a-gay-poptart]

I have found the best ally

Straight and cis people will say that they are allies, but you will NEVER measure up to my dentist.

Me: "Hey, is it ok if I can change my name on my info from [DEADNAME] to Aspen?"

Random woman that I wasn't even talking to in the chair next to me: "Honey, if that's the name you had at birth, [DEADNAME] is your only name."

My dentist, very slowly turning her rolley chair towards the woman: "Shush."

Random woman: "Excuse me?"

Destist: *closes privacy curtain while staring bullets at the lady*

Me: *pissing myself laughing*

My dentist while changing my name in my info (reminder that English is not her first language, she immigrated from Russia): "There, Aspen, you have pretty boy teeth. Smile and make all girls swoon."

Me not having the heart to tell her I'm not transmasc but I'm Agender, and still pissing myself laughing: "Thank you [DENTIST NAME]."

Edit: Ok, this has gotten alot of attention, but right now my other posts is what really needs attention. I have a few fundraisers for people trying to evacuate Palestine and Gaza, but also a diabetic who needs her insulin shot. Please please please, go to my page and at the very least repost those posts, have the day you deserve and free Palestine🇵🇸

[taliabhattwrites]

The Third Sex

After months of research and painstakingly connecting the threads of transmisogyny theory, queer activism, and field-wide epistemic injustice, I would like to present "The Third Sex": my treatise on a third-world transfeminism.

[victusinveritas]

[lgbtqtext]

Requested by analog-autistic

[anarcho-catboyism]

[moonlightsprinkles]

"Gender is a social construct but it's still very real!"

Yeah sure, the same way religion is real lol. Illogical and fundamentally rooted it oppression and lies and stereotypes.

[liberate-women-now]

Amazon Description: "Nobody seems to understand that Hannah is not a girl. His parents ask why he won't wear the cute outfits they pick out. His friend thinks he must be a tomboy. His teacher insists he should be proud to be a girl. But a birthday wish, a new word, and a stroke of courage might be just what Hannah needs to finally show the world who he really is."

The idea that there are certain clothes, behaviors, activities that determine whether you are a boy, or a girl is just reinforced with the idea of gender identity. This book basically teaches young children that wanting short hair, not liking pink, wanting to actually play and have fun, not wanting to be "pretty", not wanting to wear "girl" clothes, makes you a boy.

It is so hard to explain the very simple idea that gender is oppressive. Of course kids aren't going to like being taught from birth that you must wear pink, no you can't play that sport, those are boy clothes!, etc... And no, the answer is not to say someone was "Born in the wrong body!" when they express dissatisfaction from forced gender roles. Straying from gender roles doesn't mean anything is wrong with you, your body or mind. You can cut your hair, wear different clothes, play sports, or whatever, none of those things make you a different sex.

[juliesque04]

gendies yet again discovering that gender is fake and most people's "true selves" don't align with the strict boxes we've created BECAUSE SAID BOXES ARE FAKE

[yournonbinarypal]

[agnesandhilda]

watched conclave last night and then read the wikipedia entry for the book and now I'm wondering about the category ten shitstorm that a publicly intersex pope would cause

[foxfairy06]

[lethaldefect]

you can't convince me that a cis man can be so beautiful...

[taliabhattwrites]

"Epistemicide" is a term you should become very familiar with in all discussions regarding trans oppression.

It sounds fancier than it is. The term is related to the concept of epistemic injustice. In essence, trans people have historically been subject to a form of epistemicide: our stories, histories, testimonials, ways of life, all erased and buried to maintain the patriarchal myth of dichotomous, naturalized, immutable sex.

We are then further marginalized through epistemic injustice, prevented from participating in the processes of knowledge-production, our testimonies devalued, our voices suppressed and our identities defined for us, not by us. The perception of us shaped by others, instead of ourselves. The conversation about us dominated by the voices of those who'd rather stamp us out, shouting over us constantly.

If you're not accounting for this as a central mechanism animating transphobia, you're missing a lot of the picture.

[victusinveritas]