I do not believe in gender identity.

[SernieBanders]

There are two sexes: male and female. Occasionally, that matters.

There is no such thing as an innate gender identity—no internal essence that makes someone more inclined to wear dresses and sip wine, or football boots and down pints. Those are cultural stereotypes, not proof of some mystical gendered soul.

The idea of gender identity is sexist, misogynistic, and regressive. It reinforces outdated norms instead of challenging them. Women do not need an inner feeling of womanhood to be women. Men do not need a gender identity to be men. Sex is real. Stereotypes are not.

I hope with the flurry of cultural changes, legal challenges, scientific findings and executive orders in the last ~12 months, more people feel able to stand up and be counted, and say - No More.

Yes - it's quite fascinating. Different ideologies but the same result.

I don't know if you can say there is anyone who actually doesn't have a gender identity, though. I think you'd have to work REALLY hard to throw off those particular shackles of social conditioning and expectation.

In my understanding if you have a Y chromosome then you are biologically male regardless of whether you have an extra X chromosome or not.

The science is unequivocal. A separate area of the brain deals with gender identity from that dealing with biological sex. For most people, this is not an issue but sadly, a very small number of people find themselves trapped in the wrong body. There was a brilliant Horizon programme setting all this out a few years ago and it followed the dreadful case study of a boy who was brought up as a girl as well as demonstrating the science in this area.

No, the science really is not unequivocal, and you cannot be trapped in the wrong body - the body you have is the only body you can ever have.

Of course, the brain can malfunction. in myriad ways leading to mental distress and illness, but this does not mean you can be "born in the wrong body."

Are disabled people born in the wrong body? was I born in the wrong body because I'm 5 foot nothing, when I'd quite like to have been a tall, lithe, model?

@JeannetteBlue
Can you post the evidence for the different area of the brain that deal with sex and gender?

Astonished and saddened by this thread. Why does it matter to you if someone identifies as something other than what suits you? How is this hurting anyone? What happened to being kind and accepting? You don't have to understand to accept and it's clear from the majority of comments on here that you don't understand and don't try to understand.

I am indeed agreeing. I was simply pointing out that OP believes to be arguing against something while simultaneously believing it to be true.

It hurts us when it allows male rapists to be placed in female prisons or males to be placed in women's rape shelters (some have even gone on to assault the women they were placed with) for example.

this is so near a gender critical view, but fails because it doesn't address what trans activists have done with the concept of gender identity
'gender identity' as described in that piece is psychologically constructed, not innate, and therefore open to change
you could compare it with nationality- I have a national identity, | suppose, I am a UK citizen and think of myself as such, would be recognised as such, and conform in some ways to the stereotypes associated with being a UK citizen. But if I just declared myself to be a French citizen, and adopted some of those stereotypes, it wouldn't make me French, would it.

So, if a man says he has a 'female gender identity' - because he doesn't conform to the stereotypes associated with being male (which are psychologically and socially constructed, not innate and so open to change) - that doesn't make him actually female. So AFAIAC he can crack on with wearing what he wants, but he is still a man. Doesn't matter for most purposes at all- say if he is working at a till, or playing in an orchestra, but for some purposes it does matter and so he needs to be categorised as what he is, a man.

So this is a trans issue rather than a gender issue? And why tar everyone with the same brush as one or two predators?

Well you've certainly found your echo chamber.

For attention 🤷🏻‍♂️

Well, when people use a gender identity to enter women's spaces, yes it is. I couldn't care less if a man wants to express a more feminine identity - heck every boyfriend I had from the ages of 15-25 wore eyeliner and more feminine clothes at least some of the time - that doesn't bother me. It's an issue now because men are using it to enter women's spaces when they have no right to.

So, you think it's Okay for even one abused woman who thinks she's now safe in a shelter to be further assaulted and traumatised. Sorry, but I can't agree with that!

I have thought about the following question and asked it of many people but i have never had an answer, maybe someone here can give me the answer. If a male says he was born in the wrong body because he doesn't feel like a male but has always felt like he is a woman, what the hell does he mean ? He can't possibly know that how he feels is how women feel and surely how i feel is different to what the woman next to me on the train feels. What is this feeling that makes you a woman ? I have no idea how it feels to be a man, in fact does it feel any different to this "feeling" i have as a woman ?
Does he mean he doesn't fit in or he doesn't like typical male pass times, does it mean he prefers the company of women and if it is any of those how the hell does that make him born in the wrong body ? Maybe i am thick but i really don't understand.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7139786/

Because.... we are born with a Penis or a vagina with very different traits and hormones that come along with that biologically. What makes a person want to change ?

I want to see an end to this gender identity tripe. These men who somehow miraculously changed from male to female are stealing women’s achievements and demanding we applaud them.

Can you explain what it is please?

Junk science.

if "cisgender" people's brains develop in line with their "assigned gender at birth" then how does this account for the fact that most of us so-called "cisgnder people" do not consider ourselves to even have a gender identity at all.

How does it explain the fact that the vast majority of people have some traits that would be stereotypically in accordance with a "male gender identity" and some that would align with a "female gender identity?"

They've taken it as fact that gender identities exist at all, when that is not at all nailed down as fact.

I’m pregnant

when I read or hear anything with ‘pregnant people’ I instantly disregard that literature or person.

ill be asking for the sex of my baby and not gender

The ploppers don’t do themselves any favours, do they?

”I’m right because you’re a BIGOT who can’t possibly have considered any other point of view. No need to reply, as my word is final”.

I’m pleased to see that many people are losing fear of the magical B-word which used to silence them.

As it happens, I think gender identity might be real as gender dysphoria is clearly real for a minority of people. But I agree that “gender” is a regressive social construct that shouldn’t be confused with sex.

its uncomfortable isn't it when you read well reasoned arguments that challenge your beliefs

People with DSDs are still ALWAYS either MALE or FEMALE.

@ERthree you are not thick at all you just have not been afraid to think carefully about what you are being told
more people need to do this

“It’s just so unfair. We wouldn’t let 25 year olds compete against 12 year olds because they identified as being younger, yet we allow all the biological advantages a male body has wrt most sports to be denied cos (male) feelings.”

it’s more than this. If said 25 year old had a mental age of 12, due to disability, he’s would also not be allowed to swim against the actual 12 year olds. It shouldn’t matter what people feel. We shouldn’t be guilted into being nice - it’s bad for us.