Posted: 11 years ago
How important is the identity of your gender?

I am talking about gender, the mental aspect, not sex as the physical aspect! 
Posted: 11 years ago
You sure have increased the viewership of this topic by 20-30% by using the word "sex" instead of "gender". lol
 
@ topic. To be honest I am not clear on the question. The word gender is used in social and culture context while word sex reflects physical attributes. I identify to my gender however not satisfied by gender role i.e. expression of gender identity. To me that is more important.
 
I hope someone with more knowledge on this topic and who understood the question will be able to give a more appropriate and relevant answer.  
 
Let me present to you a case of confused gender identity. lol. sorry couldnt resist
 
[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veoweOUFJpo[/YOUTUBE]
Edited by King-Anu - 11 years ago
Posted: 11 years ago

You sure had me coming in like curious cat saying Whoa! Nelly!

 

I'm a bit confused like King Anu though. Is there something specific about gender identity you want to discuss – conforming/non conforming to gender roles, stereotypes , gender pride etc. Or something more general and light – like mistaken online identities.

 

Just for starters - I'm very androgynous on the internet. I'm often mistaken for a boy. At first I was taken aback. But now I have fun with it.

Posted: 11 years ago
^^
You remind me of another member TheUltimate.
Posted: 11 years ago
Let me clarify my question with some details...

Why is person's gender (sex) identity (male/female/others) so important to people? How important is our gender identity?  Is gender really an expression of one's essential self?

Edited by -Aarya- - 11 years ago
Posted: 11 years ago
Originally posted by -Aarya-


Let me clarify my question with some details...

Why is person's gender (sex) identity (male/female/others) so important to people?

A person's gender identity is not important to people. They only like talking about it scandalously. 😳


How important is our gender identity?  

It is greatly important for all those who ever feel confused or anxious about it. For them, figuring out their true gender is tough but highly essential. Suddenly the whole person that they are and what they think of themselves depend on their undiscovered gender identity. Acceptance is vital here. 


Is gender really an expression of one's essential self?

Yes, I think it is. I had read an article once which stated that men and women's brain are designed very differently and that they are bound to have unlikely thoughts and actions. While a person's gender is who they think they are and want to be, their sex is what they were born with. So, their sex is an expression of their essential self because their biological characteristics are such. Albeit it is unhealthy to base everything you are about on your gender/sex. So, it can be said that gender is one of the expressions of a person's essential self, but not the only expression. 



Posted: 11 years ago
Originally posted by epiphany.


Posted: 11 years ago

Gender identity is important because of how society functions. There is a certain level of social conditioning to how genders behave and interact. In an ideal world we would all be human and gender would be subordinate to personality and human qualities. But it is impossible to have a society completely devoid of gender identity. The best we can do is make a sincere attempt for gender equity and ending gender stereotypes.

 

I don't know how important gender identity really is. Many of my best friends growing up were boys. So I've been a tom boy with boyish qualities since I was a kid. I don't mind being perceived as androgynous or boyish. But at the end of the day, I'm still a girl and I do place some relative importance on being seen as a girl.

 

To a large extent, I think we identify with and embrace our biology and have an affinity to it. It may not be an expression of oneself, but it is one part of self expression. Gender, nationality, language, culture, race, religion, class, income, social status and a plethora of other things collectively form self expression.

 

Sometimes gender seems trivial, but when we see transgender children/people struggle to fit in and gain an identity – we realize how important it really is in society. Perhaps the world would be better without so much gender emphasis – but it's a double edged sword. Can we really strip away all these little identifiers that make who we are. Without it we would all be nothing but one carbon compound life form indistinguishable from the other.

Posted: 11 years ago

Why is person's gender (sex) identity (male/female/others) so important to people?

Its a part of social conditioning. Other than that you could blame grammatical compulsions for it. When I refer to you in the third person should I use he/she/her/him ...? You get the practical problem faced?  😆

How important is our gender identity?

My off hand response was that it hardly matters but I guess we tend to take a lot of things in our life for granted. The ordeal that an athlete who was brought up as a female  had to face due to the gender determination tests she had to go through highlights the significance it can sometimes assume. For details of the case you could check here-  http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/india/india-athlete-gender-ordeal

Some genetic or hormonal conditions could get diagnosed much later in life (around puberty) and change the whole course of a person's life. It would be quite traumatic for a person to suddenly be told that  she /he is not the gender that she /he had believed to be all these years.

Is gender really an expression of one's essential self?

No, I dont think so. It is more of a conditioned response.

Posted: 11 years ago
I think to answer that question it would depend on the cultural diaspora one is being brought up in: What is the social connotation of your gender in the culture, society, religion, government etc of where you are? 
External influences will always play a role in how one relates to their gender identity, and it's short sides and highlights. There is also the component of primary influences (family, and how you've been raised with in your household) and secondary influences (arguable the most influential: media, society, culture, school, friends) and tying it all together: Your experiences. 

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