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contact.md

discord: Mithaldu#5818 -- twitter: https://twitter.com/mithaldu

gender.md

WOMAN?

WHY? WHAT? HOW?

TL;DR

gender is:

• one's intrinsic preference to be treated in a certain way by society in a specific timeframe
• a social stereotype that largely though not exclusively affects dating behaviors
• a reference to the whole complex of issues surrounding said preferences

first off, WHY

the social value proposition of genders is:

they provide communication shorthands for "please apply this set of behaviors when interacting with me"

next, WHAT

commonly considered the definition: "a woman is a person who identifies as a woman"

this is not a definition

it's a social criterion that we are currently trying to get accepted by society at large

it is not even intended to be strictly accurate as it is inherently ambiguous. for example, the word "identifies" lacks clarification as whether it is to "another" or "oneself". yet it is very useful for one simple reason in both configurations:

it avoids excluding those that might be excluded by different criteria borne from a lack of our full understanding of the matter

a descriptive definition would be derived from observing how the machine "gender" functions, as in this chain of events:

1. Aspen observes Blaine and based on expressions treats Blaine in a certain manner
2. Corey observes how Aspen treats Blaine, and Corey's brain develops an intrinsic preference to be treated similarly
3. Corey consciously realizes the existence and meaning of these preferences and believes now their identity is X
4. Corey begins expressing themselves by mixing the expressions observed in Blaine with their own

at this point the loop returns to 1., but with Corey as the subject, and the set of expressions slightly altered. this is how the composition of any given gender morphs over time, location, societies and individuals

looking at this, then, the definition of the word gender alone would be either:

• one's intrinsic preference (excluding proxy preferences) to be treated in a certain way by society in a specific timeframe --- "her gender was woman all along"
• a reference to the whole complex of issues surrounding said preferences

additionally there are:

• gender identity: one's internally held belief about one's identity --- "she considered her gender to be woman for years"
• gender expressions: one's expressions that result in being treated in a certain way by society --- "she told me she is woman"
• gender roles: society's expectation for how to behave to be treated in a certain way --- "they didn't tell me their gender so i don't know if they're a woman"

NOTE: you could stop reading here. the definition of gender is everything that's above. everything that follows is only to help understand answer open questions

and lastly, HOW

a question that elucidates some of the trickiness here is:

"is a trans woman who is coerced by external pressures into both externally and internally identifying as a man, a man?"

the question is hard to answer because "being a man" is not usefully defined, and a related vector is as of yet unperceived by her and the others.

linguistically, "man" is a category, "being a man" means "being in the group of man". there are contexts in which one can do so, and the answer to the question above in that context:

• internally, by having preferences to be treated as a man --- NO
• internally, by identifying in one's thoughts as a man --- YES
• socially, by way of acting like a man --- YES
• socially, by way of being treated as a man --- YES

different configurations of the question above, result in different combinations of answers, for example:

"is a trans woman who preferences and identifies and expresses herself as a woman, but is being misgendered, a man?"

• internally, by having preferences to be treated as a man --- NO
• internally, by identifying in one's thoughts as a man --- NO
• socially, by way of acting like a man --- NO
• socially, by way of being treated as a man --- YES

now, if you however wish to converse in normal society, you can't do all of those, you only really ask "are they a man?"

but knowing the above we now can decide which one is most important factor in deciding how to answer that question

certain parts of society would insist that the most important one is one not mentioned yet

• sexually, by dint of the chromosomes one is born with

however following that one would always lead to a supression of intrinsic preferences, which increases the suicide rate, as such we must conclude:

"being a man means to have the intrinsic preferences to be treated by society as a man"

consistency tests

in order to show that this does the work, here a to-be-extended list of scenarios and their outcomes. note that when evaluating the definition in re situations we may declare the internal identification as wrong. this would not be allowable in the criterion, as that would lead to exclusion of people; however in these situations we create imaginary people and declare the truthiness of their internal identification a priori

for each of these, the situation is described, the final answer, then a summary of the 4-sets above. for each the assumption is made that society accepts their performance and reacts accordingly

baby

• a baby is a man? --- no, NNNN
• a baby is a woman? --- no, NNNN

woman

• an average cis woman is a woman? --- yes, YYYY
• an average transitioned trans woman is a woman? --- yes, YYYY
• an average pre-transition trans woman is a woman? --- yes, YYYY
• a closeted trans woman is a woman? --- yes, YYNN
• a trans woman who has not realized her transness is a woman? --- yes, YNNN

man

• an average cis man is a woman? --- no, NNNN
• an average transitioned trans man is a woman? --- no, NNNN
• an average pre-transition trans man is a woman? --- no, NNNN
• a closeted trans man is a woman? --- no, NNYY
• a trans man who has not realized his transness is a woman? --- no, NYYY

now, more complicated cases without stepping through everything

• an average pre-transition trans woman who is being misgendered is a woman? --- yes, YYYN
• an NB who hasn't realized their transness is neither man or woman? --- yes, YNNN
• an out gender-fluid person is a woman at the time she feels like a woman? --- yes, YYYY
• an out gender-fluid person is a woman at the time he feels like a man? --- no, NNNN
• a performing drag queen who is trans and has not realized her transness is a woman? --- yes, YYYY
• a non-performing drag queen who is trans and has not realized her transness is a woman? --- yes, YYNN
• a performing drag queen who is non-binary is a woman? --- no, NNYY
• a performing drag queen who is gender-fluid is a woman? --- yes, YYYY
• a performing drag queen who performs only for the joy of acting is a woman? --- no, NNYY
• a performing drag queen who performs only for sexual gratification is a woman? --- no, NNYY

feel free to suggest more scenarios

addendum

this is a very early draft, rushed out based on my own life experiences and experiences with trans people of very different backgrounds

i am very fallible

please tell me if i fucked up

gender_bonus.md

Haven't worked this one out fully yet, but it also seems fairly unassailable when correctly understood:

Gender is an identity. What separates it from other identities like 'trekkie', is that it is to sufficiently large degree based on human sex organs. Not those of the individual in question, but in a historic sense.

Xenogenders: As far as i understand the only difference between being non-binary and being a xenogender is that xenogender people have a very specific set of roles and behaviors in their mind and specifically named it, as opposed to non-binary people who delineate their gender exclusionary by way of "guy and girl are NOT my genders, but otherwise my gender has no name or description".