Explain to my Grandpa Gender Indentity

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think your grandfather is rightfully confused because for years we’ve been fighting against gender stereotypes. It’s ok for men to dislike sports and power tools and to be more into fashion and baking. It’s ok for women to like working on cars and to hate makeup and dresses. But now we have people saying, I’m really into the things stereotypically associated with the opposite sex, so that means I actually am the opposite sex and I need to physically transform myself to make my outside match the interests and behaviors driven by my “opposite sex” brain. It’s stereotype reinforcing.

It does seem like this but it's a correlation and not causation thing. Trans people have been around for hundreds (thousands?) of years and in cultures across the world. The idea of somebody being trans didn't appear when we started trying to break down gender stereotypes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think he’s being awkward on purpose. Like a lot of conservatives or older people. He’s not really trying to understand.

I don’t read the OP’s post like that at all. I can certainly believe an elderly man would question this and sincerely want an answer. Isn’t that what we would want? People to open minds and listen to new information/perspectives? I don’t automatically assume ill intent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think he’s being awkward on purpose. Like a lot of conservatives or older people. He’s not really trying to understand.

How can you infer that from what the OP wrote? Is it never ok to ask questions if you don’t understand something?

[Anonymous]

Women are adult female humans. Transgender women are adult human males that feel like they are women and want to live their life as such.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Women are adult female humans. Transgender women are adult human males that feel like they are women and want to live their life as such.

But what does it mean, “to feel like a woman?”

I equate being a woman with my female sex, along with the hormones and such from being female sex. But if you identify with women and don’t have the hormones that come with being female sex, what does it mean to feel like a woman?

It’s not that you like men, because as mentioned earlier, some identify with women but also identify as gay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Women are adult female humans. Transgender women are adult human males that feel like they are women and want to live their life as such.

But what does it mean, “to feel like a woman?”

I equate being a woman with my female sex, along with the hormones and such from being female sex. But if you identify with women and don’t have the hormones that come with being female sex, what does it mean to feel like a woman?

It’s not that you like men, because as mentioned earlier, some identify with women but also identify as gay.

No idea. I’m not trans. It’s probably not possible to understand it unless you are.

[Anonymous]

It’s hard even for me, a hetero cis-woman, I don’t know what it means for me to know I feel like a woman. Aside from having girl parts not sure what makes me a woman, but then again that makes me female not necessarily a woman.

It’s basically a social construct, so who is defines it?

[Anonymous]

Males have one Y chromosome and one X chromosome, while females have two X chromosomes.

[Anonymous]

Google "andpagender bread person," print, give to grandpa. Discuss.

[Anonymous]

Wow - "gender bread person"

Sorry about that!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Males have one Y chromosome and one X chromosome, while females have two X chromosomes.

Which is biological sex. That doesn’t define a woman.

[Anonymous]

Another cisgender poster who doesn’t understand here.

I never thought I was particularly feminine. I wear makeup sometimes but I can take it or leave it, I don’t act girly, I wear t shirts and jeans and vans most of the time, etc.

But then I wore this men’s shirt that felt incredibly masculine on me, and it just felt really wrong somehow. I like the shirt in theory but I never wear it because i don’t like how I feel wearing it.

This probably won’t help your grandpa but I thought it was interesting that maybe I do a certain amount of gender performance, even though I’ve never thought much about my gender.

[Anonymous]

Because being a woman is different now than it was in 1950, which is different than it was in 1800.

Gender roles change, which means what aligns with being a woman changes.

It was easier to state what does it mean to be a woman pre-feminism, when gender roles were more black and white.

Now, what it means to be a woman doesn’t have to fit that narrow definition it was previously.

It is gender expression, and even though people don’t want labels and boxes, there are still some norms people embrace because otherwise there would no longer be a need for gender labels.

If someone said make a list or everything that makes you a woman I would say XX chromosomes and certain body parts and functions, but again that makes me female and not a woman.

I’m not a woman because I dress a certain way or I act a certain way. What makes me a woman is that I identify if with group of people who also use the label.

Because I identify different than my grandma did in the 1950s, we are having a different experience of what it means to be a woman.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow - "gender bread person"

Sorry about that!

I love that infographic. One thing that I don’t understand though is that it says being a woman is related to things like hormone levels (which other people have mentioned here). But some people who were born men and have male hormones still identify as women.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Because being a woman is different now than it was in 1950, which is different than it was in 1800.

Gender roles change, which means what aligns with being a woman changes.

It was easier to state what does it mean to be a woman pre-feminism, when gender roles were more black and white.

Now, what it means to be a woman doesn’t have to fit that narrow definition it was previously.

It is gender expression, and even though people don’t want labels and boxes, there are still some norms people embrace because otherwise there would no longer be a need for gender labels.

If someone said make a list or everything that makes you a woman I would say XX chromosomes and certain body parts and functions, but again that makes me female and not a woman.

I’m not a woman because I dress a certain way or I act a certain way. What makes me a woman is that I identify if with group of people who also use the label.

Because I identify different than my grandma did in the 1950s, we are having a different experience of what it means to be a woman.

Except that they do. Have you spoken to a young person recently? There’s a preponderance of labels. They seem to be embracing fluidity and extremely narrowly defined labels at the same time. Of course older people are going to be confused.