If you can't get your head around WTF "Gender Identity" is about, try this:

FF's

I believe the use of gender to describe cultural roles of the sexes imposed by society began to be used by some feminist academics in the 1970’s.

In the time of Jane Austen sex primarily meant male and female rather than the reproductive act so there was not that element of embarrassment around the word.

Sexual intercourse (communication between the two sexes) was a euphemism for physical intimacy which later stopped being a euphemism and became the most commonly used term for the reproductive act/physical intimacy.

In her book Male and Female published 1950, Margaret Mead refers to the sexes and sex. Gender was at that time used as a grammatical term in the study of language.

its all very tiresome isnt it??

When did we start using the term 'gender' instead of sex?

Just wondering as I read Sense and Sensibility recently and they use the word sex instead of gender - and this was written in the early 1800s.

I've asked this before but don't think I've had a decent response: Is there anything that the word 'gender' means that isn't covered by '[cultural ideas of] masculinity and femininity'?

That starts off well but then descends into the usual mire a few paragraphs in.
Its actually sex which is the socially constructed hierarchy. Gender roles are created to keep one sex in their place. Anything which is 'female' is automatically less than anything which is 'male'.

Sorry, here:

www.who.int/health-topics/gender#tab=tab_1

’Gender identity refers to a person’s deeply felt, internal and individual experience of gender, which may or may not correspond to the person’s physiology or designated sex at birth.’

And:
’ Gender refers to the characteristics of women, men, girls and boys that are socially constructed.’

Further explanation here:

Gender refers to the characteristics of women, men, girls and boys that are socially constructed.

Can anyone come up with a better definition then ?

We've been trying for years. We've asked people that use the term what they mean by it, particularly people that advocate for having laws and policies based on 'gender'. They don't answer except in a circular fashion that requires further definition ('your gender is whatever you feel your gender to be') etc.
One person did explain it as 'whether you feel 'he' or 'she' refers to you' but I don't find that satisfactory if you've been told throughout your life that 'he' or 'she' refers to, essentially, whether you have a male or female body.

Thank you Thelnebriati. That is helpful

Gender is a set of social expectations and rules that a culture decides is suitable for each sex.
It is not based in biology and cannot be codified.

Can anyone come up with a better definition then ? The definition as it is is utterly meaningless to me .

How do we create a functional society based on the changeable, unverifiable, internal feelings of individuals?

Maybe it is better if we stick to unchanging, easily verifiable and externally evident sex rather than gender identity for organising sport, health, intimate spaces, prisons, refuges and so on?

I can’t think of any valid reason to separate anything along the lines of gender identity. Everything becomes mixed sex and women are back to square one and must begin the fight for our sex based rights all over again.

'Gender identity is the gender that a person thinks he or she is'

And I see you have excluded non-binary people in your definition. I'm not scorning you, just wondering why you'd discriminate against them in this way?

And how are you defining "gender", there, member? What if someone thinks their gender is male because they've been told "gender" is the same as sex or it's been inadequately defined to them?

'Gender identity is the gender that a person thinks he or she is'

This raises so many questions!

(1) Do you agree that this is fluid?

(2) When I say - as I am right now - that I am a transwoman, are you obliged to believe me, or do you have a right to challenge whether my words are truly what I believe? If you have the right to challenge then how can you possible determine whether I am being honest? If you don't have a right to challenge me then are you not giving a green light to liars to lie their way in female only spaces?
(3) What is gender other than bigoted, outdated, regressive, sex-based stereotypes?
(4) Why should society treat people based on their gender instead of their biological sex?
(5) Why can white people not identify as black? Or do you think they should be able to?
(6) Can disabled people identify and able-bodied? What about able-bodied as disabled?
(7) Can a person with a penis be a lesbian?

Do feel free to pour scorn on me and scoff though..

I've been away and have just come back to this. Are you seriously saying that the above is a helpful definition of gender identity?? I've read and reread it and am none the wiser. Happy to summarise it though or attempt to, as follows;
'Gender identity is the gender that a person thinks he or she is'

We’re still eagerly awaiting your words of wisdom member! Must be more difficult than you thought, eh?

Melroses, thanks for that video link, it's great. I saw I had already subscribed but they'd got lost somehow, so thanks for pointing me back to them.

The description is perfect.
A preposterous load of pretentious bollocks!