The "two or many genders" debate really is just a debate on how society should integrate people whose behaviour doesn't conform to their physical sex. There's often an objective phenomenon (sex-nonconformity) that is interpreted subjectively by a given culture. The best way I can put it across is how different cultures have different "genders". All this means is that they interpret what's going on differently.
In foreign cultures like some Indian tribes or the Samoans, gender non-confirmity is typically regarded as a third category (two-spirit, fa'fafine). There's men, women, and then this "third gender" which is really just a third category for the relationship between expected roles and one's birth sex. Contrast to in the west, where until very recently, we denied gender non-conformity ever even happened. Then, we considered it a "disease" where you were "born in the wrong body". So people born male with this "disease" are "cured" with hormones and surgeries that will allow them to pass themselves as "female". It's the same underlying psychological phenonomon viewed through two different cultural lenses.
Those who claim there are more than two genders are really just trying to advocate for a model of gender that rejects the "disease" model that western medicine rather arbitrarily came up with some time in the 1940s. It resembles a western spin on how indigineous cultures handled this issue, placing it into a "third category", while at the same time respecting those who identify as women under the "disease" model.
The only reason this issue is so damn radioactive is there's a false notion that a specific model of gender should be pushed onto the population at large by legislative fiat (hate-crimes legislation, other regulations on private business). I suggest if you don't agree with a specific model of gender, then don't, because there's no single right way to classify something as long as you keep all the facts in mind (such as the reality that not all people born men are going to "act like men.") But the freedom to assess the facts and decide upon what model of gender works for both the individual in question and the people they voluntarily associate with will be paramount in maintaining the dignity of everyone involved.
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[ 5.6 ms ] story [ 22.8 ms ] threadIn foreign cultures like some Indian tribes or the Samoans, gender non-confirmity is typically regarded as a third category (two-spirit, fa'fafine). There's men, women, and then this "third gender" which is really just a third category for the relationship between expected roles and one's birth sex. Contrast to in the west, where until very recently, we denied gender non-conformity ever even happened. Then, we considered it a "disease" where you were "born in the wrong body". So people born male with this "disease" are "cured" with hormones and surgeries that will allow them to pass themselves as "female". It's the same underlying psychological phenonomon viewed through two different cultural lenses.
Those who claim there are more than two genders are really just trying to advocate for a model of gender that rejects the "disease" model that western medicine rather arbitrarily came up with some time in the 1940s. It resembles a western spin on how indigineous cultures handled this issue, placing it into a "third category", while at the same time respecting those who identify as women under the "disease" model.
The only reason this issue is so damn radioactive is there's a false notion that a specific model of gender should be pushed onto the population at large by legislative fiat (hate-crimes legislation, other regulations on private business). I suggest if you don't agree with a specific model of gender, then don't, because there's no single right way to classify something as long as you keep all the facts in mind (such as the reality that not all people born men are going to "act like men.") But the freedom to assess the facts and decide upon what model of gender works for both the individual in question and the people they voluntarily associate with will be paramount in maintaining the dignity of everyone involved.