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Original poster

On the whole gender self-identity issue . .

64 replies

Justmyownself · 16/02/2018 16:41

I keep hearing the phrase

"Gender is just an artificial social construct"

Well so is age. Humans invented time, and the very concept of an "age". So if we must accept gender as being a social construct then surely next in the firing line is "age".

Could we now be any "age" we identify with?

If I am biologically a 25 year old, could I not "identify" as being 20? And demand that people use that number when referring to my "age"? Also, if I were biologically a 15 year old, but felt older, could I "identift" as 18 so that I could drink alcohol, live on my own, drive a car, etc?

It seems that it's entirely illogical to believe in gender as a social construct, while ignoring the obvious issue relating to "age"

Any thoughts?

OP posts:
FranticallyPeaceful · 16/02/2018 16:42

I’m going to identify as 20 from now on.

Mind blown.

JoyTheUnicorn · 16/02/2018 16:43

No that's ridiculous.
You are born, you go through infancy, childhood, teen, adult and beyond.
Even without a concept of time people still age.

snash12 · 16/02/2018 16:44

It's baffling.

HesterShaw · 16/02/2018 16:44

Humans invented time

Confused Really?

JoyTheUnicorn · 16/02/2018 16:45

At 25 you can identify as 20 and probably get away with it, but a 70 yr old can't identify out of old age and inevitable side effects of ageing just as a woman can't identify out of her biological reality.

Lime123 · 16/02/2018 16:47

This is a very good point.

Elementtree · 16/02/2018 16:50

Humans invented time

Ha.

CuriousaboutSamphire · 16/02/2018 16:51

Time isn't construct though... it is our understanding of the linearity of our lives... progression of events... it exists without our understanding or acknowledgement.

If we refused to understand/acknowledge gender it just wouldn't exist.

TheKitchenWitch · 16/02/2018 16:52

I agree. It is all total bollocks.

Melamin · 16/02/2018 16:54

Humans invented time Hmm

Original poster
Justmyownself · 16/02/2018 16:56

Hester. Yes really. Animals dont have "age", we invented it.

OP posts:
UpABitLate · 16/02/2018 16:57

Yes totally agree and been saying this a lot.

Time, the experience of the passing of it, is highly subjective. It changes as we age. When we are young it feels to go more slowly.

There is also the fact that people age differently, in terms of their bodies ,some 40 yo for eg really are more like 30, some are more like 50. This is a proven phenomenon to do with the degredation of certain markers (forget what).

Most people will understand and relate to statements like "X has always seemed older than her years" or "Y is really young at heart".

On this basis I'd say age is a good candidate for self ID.

Sex, not do much. It's something that all mammals understand, which is male and which female, and the existence of male/ female is kind of fundamental to the whole species at a very basic level. The idea that male and female are social constructs is very silly.

Original poster
Justmyownself · 16/02/2018 16:59

Curious. If you believe gender doesnt exist then try becoming pregnant without sperm.

OP posts:
Backingvocals · 16/02/2018 17:00

Yes humans invented time. In fact the industrial revolution regulated
and established a single time in a way that it had never been before. Some physicists think that the passage of time is an illusion and all times are happening all the time simultaneously.

Melamin · 16/02/2018 17:01

Hester. Yes really. Animals dont have "age", we invented it

Animals may not have the means to measure or the inclination to measure time, but they age all the same.

kubex · 16/02/2018 17:02

Yawn.

Yet another thread on gender issues started by someone who has absolutely no idea what they are talking about.

Original poster
Justmyownself · 16/02/2018 17:05

Melamin. They do not all age the same.

The entire life cycle of a Housefly can be measured in weeks, yet a Giant Tortoise lives for centuries.

OP posts:
Elementtree · 16/02/2018 17:05

Codifying time to meet the needs of the industrial revolution, or for seafaring, is not the same as time.

Original poster
Justmyownself · 16/02/2018 17:06

Kubex. The thread is about "age" not gender. Did you actually read my question?

OP posts:
Dipitydoda · 16/02/2018 17:07

I’ve no idea why gender is a social construct ever single species of mammal has differences in the way sexes act (with the occasional anomoly outside the norm) but arrogant of humans to think they’re any different. You could argue that everything in the world is constructed through individuals and societies perspectives. For all anyone knows I could be here alone playing a giant game of sims in my mind. So I say anyone could then identify as anything in my game. I’m about to self identify as a 21 year old nymphomanic model who can eat chips and battered sausage which identifies as a lettuce leaf😁

nooka · 16/02/2018 17:08

Some people think of gender as a politer way to say sex. In which case they probably think that saying gender is made up and changable on a whim is nuts. And if you can change your sex then why not your age, race or indeed anything else about you. You will find examples of all of these things, adults identifying as babies, as having disabilities, being of a different race, indeed sometimes of a different species.

However many people do not think gender = sex. They would argue that gender comprises of the rules society imposes on the two sexes. Little girls are sugar and spice and all that rubbish. People who don't like the rules imposed on them because of their sex, may fight against them (aka feminists), may choose not to conform (butch lesbians and camp gay men being perhaps extremes of this), or now may decide that they have 'essence of woman/man' and choose to change gender (sometimes just through presentation, sometimes through drugs or surgery).

You now also get people in the trans community who take this concept and stretch it out so much they can declare that sex is a social construct too, and simply by declaration their male body is now female (or vice versa). Somehow most people's default reaction ('this is nuts' as above) has been declared 'phobic' and very wrong.

BoneyBackJefferson · 16/02/2018 17:11

Many people identify as a different age, mainly when they are going through a mid life crisis. 40 - 50 year old men and women in clubs trying to look fashionable and only succeeding in getting their wallets and purses lightened by those that will be doing the same in 20 years.

nooka · 16/02/2018 17:11

Case of 40 year old who says he is a three year old with special needs and tried to make university staff change his nappy: www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/vancouver-island-university-fetish-student-professor-fired-1.4400306

There will no doubt be more of this sort of thing to come.

TheGoldenBowl · 16/02/2018 17:12

If you believe gender doesn't exist try getting pregnant without sperm

WTF? OP I think you're confused.

Gender is a social construct.

Sex is biological fact.

Humans invented the many ways we have of measuring and describing time. But they didn't invent time. Confused

Next you'll be arguing that death is a social construct.

Melamin · 16/02/2018 17:12

The entire life cycle of a Housefly can be measured in weeks, yet a Giant Tortoise lives for centuries

They all die in the end Wink

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