I find the whole thing very confusing.
There's nothing wrong with being confused about it; even we GLBTQIA+ are confused with stuff, mostly because the language changes and if you're not as into it as some others are, you miss out.
The biological part is simple: most people fit into bands of characteristics that we call "male" or "female." Some seem to split it right up the middle, biologically. This simply proves that the insistence that "male" and "female" are mutually exclusive ain't the whole story.
Exactly.
And then within those two characteristics are variances too, which further complicates stuff.
Now, on to the social aspects. It seems odd to me that as we are erasing the legal distinctions between men and women, now everybody's focussing on the social distinctions, even though they're purely imaginary.
The social aspect of male/female has been in flux since we dropped out of the trees; the issue is people having these ideas of what the male/female is, vs. what the 'reality' might be. With reality meaning more to one's experience than someone else's.
The issue though is that gender is now more a social construct than something physical, because limiting it to just the physical means you've cancelled out a lot of people who do not fit that 'scientific' stance, and we've learned that the thought of binary of XX/XY is more complicated. So if the genetics are, the social aspect has to be too.
Wearing a skirt does not make one a biological woman (ask a Scot). Men in particular have been cross-dressing in private forever. Who gives a shit if they do it in public? Is it really worth running around with your hair on fire screaming "GROOMERS!" and proposing stupid-ass laws?
And here is where I think it's not necessarily that it's a "man wearing a dress", but rather the underlying misogyny of society being shoved out into the open.
Put a woman in a dress, it's expected.
Put a woman in pants, well now a days it's okay because it just makes sense to wear 'trousers' over skirts. So skirts/dresses are a choice.
As you pointed out, kilts are a warrior's attire, not only for every day use (which shows it's a social aspect).
But a man wearing a dress (or obviously women's clothing), even if he's not trans, even if he's straight and married, people flip their shit. Why? Because it's a man wearing something that belongs to a woman. By wearing something that belongs to a woman, they are de-masculinizing themselves. And if it's accepted, what other men will 'put on a dress' and 'twist' the image of what man and manhood is?
At it's base, the whole issue of the hate for trans women is about masculinity, the view of it, and the status of what happens if masculine doesn't mean what people think?
Nevermind that high heeled shoes, make up and even dresses were worn by men hundreds of years ago because people then saw it a 'fashion' rather than a signature of gender.
If you say so. Apparently, for this condition of being a hermaphrodite, It doesn’t exist yet it is most common in the human population in the southern portion of Africa. Weirdly interesting.
Much like all roads lead to Rome, most searches of the term hermaphrodite lead to the modern term intersex….& some of the links don’t even mention the term hermaphrodite. Then, as far as a percentage of the human population, the percentages are all over the board with respect to the term intersex.
I think because the science of gender and learning gender and sex is becoming more a thing, the language has changed. Because the language has changed, some things are let go and other terms replace it. Like hermaphrodite, tranny, cis (though as I've said before, I understand the reason for it, but I don't use it myself).
And because the science is expanding, terms to include those who aren't the "typical" gender also have people freaking out. Stuff like
Exclusive Language
- Breastfeeding
- Grandfather, Grandmother
- Father, Husband, Male Partner
- Maternal
- Mother, Mama
- Motherhood/Fatherhood
- Niece, Nephew
- Pregnant Women
- Postpartum Woman
- Sister, Brother
Inclusive Language
- Chestfeeding, Nursing, Lactation
- Grandparents
- Non-Pregnant, Non-Gestational Parent, Family Member, Support Person
- Perinatal
- Birthing Person, Laboring Person, Gestational Parent
- Parenthood
- Niblings
- Pregnant People
- Postpartum Parent
- Siblings
The language isn't changed to somehow throw out the 'old words to spite straight people', but to be inclusive of people who don't fit the past meanings of them.
Not everyone who is a 'mother' is a woman, they could be non-binary, for example.
Trans men could breastfeed their infant if they've not done a breast removal.
It doesn't mean Joe Public has to use them, just in medical situations it's easier to use that just in case the patient is not a trans person, for instance.
At it's base, a lot of the language changes are about respect; and people are having a fit over the idea of needing to be respectful to people who do not fit their idea of what 'normal' is.
And then there's just assholes
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