Please help me untangle why gender is such an issue

What does 'I have a gender identity that fall somewhere between male and female' actually mean?

You are your biological sex. You don't feel like it, you just are it. You can't identify out of it at will, nor can you change it.

That's to way for one minute that people's relationship with their biological sex, sexed bodies and associated gender stereotypes aren't hugely problematic, painful and distressing at times.

But we know that good psychological therapy and support can help people a lot.

@Positrans which scientists think that the social construct of gender identity is in fact biological.
And how does one feel oneself to be a ‘girl’, if this is associated neither with their biology or whether you conform to a gender stereotype or not. What then even is a girl?

it's a person's own innate sense of what sex they are

How do they have an innate sense of what sex they are? What does that feel like? How do they know that means they're the opposite sex?

jadelou85 isn't that what we're all trying to do in some shape or form? There isn't an 'understanding complex human behaviours' course. Our understanding of ourselves and others evolves and develops as we have different experiences as we grow.

No-one need a qualification or pseudo 'expertise' to be curious and empathic about other human beings.

nomorecrumbs yes it is indeed muddled. There is no doubt at all that some individuals experience gender dysphoria which, like other dysmorphias, is psychologically extremely distressing. Children and adults who experience this need access to prompt, specialist psychological support.

This is a bit different from the 'I'm a woman because I say I am or because I like wearing make up and dresses' narratives that, at the current time in history, seem to be associated with the notion of 'gender identity'.

@nomorecrumbs you’ve got it.l and furthermore I agree with @cheeseismydownfall synopsis of this ideology. It’s the new way to be different, it’s the new way of dealing with the suffocating gender stereotypes and I think a small proportion of this issue is people with genuine debilitating dysphoria.

@HecatesCatsInXmasHats that's what they call "gender identity" - it's a person's own innate sense of what sex they are. Scientists think it's biological.

Not everyone has a sense of their gender identity mind - some people are agender. That's fine too of course. Other people have a very strong sense of their gender identity and there is every level in between, including gender identities that fall somewhere between male and female.

Lots of trans girls for example are "tomboys" and have no particular interest in princesses and sparkles, but they still feel themselves to be girls. That's gender identity.

How do they still feel themselves to be girls? What is it that they're feeling that is unique to girlhood?

I think the reason you’re ‘muddled’ is that you’re trying to understand complex human behaviours without the necessary qualifications / expertise.

How "masculine" or "feminine" you are is different issue to your gender identity. People often confuse the two and there's a lot of misinformation out there so that's not surprising.

Lots of trans girls for example are "tomboys" and have no particular interest in princesses and sparkles, but they still feel themselves to be girls. That's gender identity.

Truth is that trans people are just like anyone else. Some trans women are feminine, some are not, and most of us are a mixture. Same for trans men - I have a good friend who is a trans man and he's very camp and very gay.

It is true that many trans women and girls are afraid not to be seen to be feminine because people use that to invalidate them. I know of a little trans girl for example who is terrified to have her hair cut too short in case anyone mistakes her for a boy, and of course, the gatekeepers at gender clinics have been known to refuse to treat any trans woman or girl who isn't stereotypically feminine enough.

Unless you believe that men and women are fundamentally, inately different at anything other than the physical sex level, you can't really believe in transgenderism

Counter to that however

I do believe that many teenage girls truly believe their is something wrong with their sex and want to remove all those body parts. Ie it's the sexed bits of their bodies they feel are alien to them. I suspect this is a mixture of hormones, rapid body changes and the way society treats women and girls

I think you've already untangled the issue yourself

I see current gender ideology as being 50% driven by "look-at-me-I'm-so-interesting-and-complex", 48% driven by the problem of being gender non-conforming in an increasingly gendered society and 2% driven by actual gender dysphoria.*

*made up figures

i agree. gender = a bunch of harmful social stereotypes

Dress equals lady, short hair equals man, it’s so reductive.