Published on 05/20/2024 15:00 by Evie

Evie’s Jeebies On Gender

Good afternoon friends! Due to life stuff over this past little bit this article will sadly be a day late and a dollar short (or in normal turns, shorter and later then I would have liked). As such I decided that maybe info dumping on my crazy ideas about gender would be a cathartic exercise and also maybe stir some more of these in the future.

Anyway, let me introduce the shorter, less well researched, and far more informal “Evie’s Jeebies” with this weeks topic being Gender.

What even is Gender?

So to start this one off, I feel like I need to describe the specific thing I am talking about when I discuss Gender. Gender to me is far more of a system of interconnected concepts then necessarily a singular distinct thing on its own. In this sense Gender encompasses the cross roads of identity (How someone perceives their own gender), performance (How someone does or does not project their identity into their life), gender roles/stereotypes (activities often dictated by society to be linked to a particular gender), and biology (in relation to hormones, secondary sex characteristics, and primary ones as well). All of these different parts interplay in what I would call Gender (with a capital G) as a concept.

So What is the jeebie then?

Well, for a while now I have had a theory on Gender and Gender politics that largely seem to be consistent with what I have seen anecdotally. Now the plural of anecdote is not data, but this is my blog and as far as I am concerned it will never be peer reviewed. So let’s get into this theory on gender.

The Jeebies with Gender

So, I would categorize peoples gender identity as either Resonant, Indifferent, or Discordant. Meaning that someones gender identity is either based in a “sense of self” or identity with their gender (Resonant), Based in external factors such as society or biology (Indifferent), and based in a sense of wrongness for their assigned gender (Discordant). Now the lines might be murkier then this simple three option sample, but largely I have been able to put people in one of these three buckets. One of the most surprising findings is that those who have a Resonant or a Discordant identity are largely trans supportive. Meanwhile, it seems many individuals who are anti-trans are largely from the Indifferent category, and I think I know why.

So consider the gender indifferent person. From the very beginning they were assigned a gender and largely, it was fine. Sure there is the normal friction that gender causes in society, girls often wish to be free of patriarchy, boys are rewarded for denigrating women, etc etc. However, their internal sense of gender stems not from a want to be a particular gender, a desire to fulfill some divine gender essence, or even an enjoyment of the gender they were assigned. Largely, these folks have never thought about their gender, it is what it is and was based on something solid right?

Consider this mythical person who has largely been moving through the world thinking that there are men and women, their categories are based on their genitals, reproductive function, or chromosomes. Sure you might not know if you are fertile or what chromosomes you have, but you can make decent guesses based on your genitals. You may have heard in passing about some people who identified as “transsexuals” who got surgery to change their genitals, but largely this was a taboo concept that affected maybe 100 people in the whole country. As far as you are concerned, gender = genitals because genitals ~= sex. As such, this is a concrete concept that you no longer how to think about, you never have to consider these weird gender things because of it. That is until those dastardly trans people show up with their GeNdEr IdEnTiTy IdEoLoGy.

Now that person has questions they need to answer. If gender != genitals then how do I know I am a man or a woman? How do I know my wife is a woman? How do I know my daughter won’t grow into a brutish man? Or even worse, how do I stop my son from tuning into a sissy crossdressing ladyboy!?!?!? Heck, could some trans ME if they were persuasive enough! Obviously this is a lot to suddenly have to think about, and it is all because of those dastardly trans people and their ideology. If we just went back to gender = genitals and never let people change, I can go back to the easy way it was before.

From here, it is easy to see how someone who has “bit the apple” in the gender = genitals arena can easily fall down this rabbit hole. Often times I see this exact framing in anti-trans activists who frame their debate not in the real dehumanizing, demeaning, and dismissal of trans people, but instead of one in which they are “just standing up for science and common sense”. The reality is that the common sense and science they are standing up for are only the ones that further their anti-trans agenda, and less explicitly, means that they don’t have to do the cognitive work for themselves or worry about possibly doing cognitive work for others (especially those they care a lot about).

You could possibly see similar parallels in the classic “homosexuality is a choice” argument. Those who pose the argument of homosexuality being a choice are often asked in retaliation “When did you choose to be straight” and often times the response is along the lines of “Well I don’t choose to be gay”. Often times these people are conceptualized (rightly or wrongly) as possibly bisexual people who actively choose to date those of the opposite gender for a variety of reason both internal an external. These folks who “choose to be straight” would be the Indifferent equivalent in relation to sexuality. While not a perfect analogy I think it helps get the point across and helps frame the exact issue I am writing about here.

Ultimately, a reworked idea of Gender that prefaces identity and self determination threatens the safety of those who are Indifferent, but I don’t think it has to. I think that basing your gender off what you were born with and being perfectly fine with whatever that may be is entirely valid and is enough on its own to provide that identity each of us may want or need. The issue comes in forcing that same conceptualization on other people or being unable to accept that others might not have the same experiences as you do. In other words, he indifference is not the problem it is the refusal to believe that those who are resonant or discordant exist.

Written by Evie