This is a follow-up to a previous blog entry about gender being about identity and sex being about biology. As can sometimes happen with someone who tries to keep an open mind, my thoughts on this have evolved somewhat.
I still see gender as purely abstract, with no basis in physicality. Something that you are what you say you are, as long as you’re sincere in that declaration. I still see sex as having biological meaning. We should be able to say ‘male’ rather than having to discuss ‘people with penises.’
But I’m increasingly seeing that sex can be contextual. On the one hand, when speaking in general terms, it can have its basis in biology. We can argue until the cows come home whether it’s immutably defined by chromosomes, sexual anatomy at birth, or something you can change through medical intervention, such as hormones and surgery. In general use, the term ‘male’ to describe someone whose body is purposed to provide sperm (not that it necessarily has to be able to) and ‘female’ to describe someone whose body is purposed to provide and gestate eggs (not that it necessarily has to be able to.) Ultimately, these terms are useful, and indeed sometimes necessary to discuss biology in contexts where sexual anatomy is relevant.
On the other hand, I now accept that someone can identify as a particular sex, that might even be contradictory to the sex that their biology would determine. Same rules as for gender: if they’re being sincere, then their gender and sex are both what they say they are.
So if we have a conflict between someone’s objective sex (sperm provider vs egg provider) and the sex they declare themselves to be, then identity is paramount. They are, in every respect that matters, the sex they declare themselves to be. And deserve to be treated as that sex.
‘Sex’ as a word already has several meanings. It can be used to differentiate between sexual anatomies. It can be used to describe certain intimate acts. So why can’t it also be someone’s sincere identity?
We are fighting too many wars over the meanings of words right now. What seems to be absent is a respect for belief. People with very different religious beliefs manage to get along at a day to day level, and it’s only the extremists who insist on telling everyone who doesn’t share their beliefs that they’re wrong and going to hell. So if most people can get by agreeing to disagree on the nature of God, why can’t other people agree to disagree on the nature of gender and sex?
