Understanding transgenderism.

[John 6IX Breezy]

Gender exists as an interaction between mind and body. The interaction between mind and body is ill-defined, so the definition of gender is ill-defined. We might want to suggest as Nudger does that it's all "data" that is acquired independent of the biological facts. But this would be going too far. We know that the brains of people with gender dysphoria differ from those of cis-gendered individuals in ways that strongly suggest a biological basis. And at bottom, the brain is biological, so the distinction itself is a construct. If there weren't biological sexes, there would be no gender. So gender is rooted in biology, even if its expression is moderated by mind and culture.

Yes, I agree.

However, I do sightly side with Nudger with regards to essentialism. I don't think we'll find any psychological or neurological sex difference that is exclusive to males or females, and therefore diagnostic of having a male/female brain or mind. In other words, I think the biological infrastructure that leads to transgender individuals, has something to do with the way the brain constructs identities. For example, we know there's overlap between our memory systems and our identities. So, anything as indirect as how we construct memories could indirectly affect how we form such identities.

I don't think, however, that there's any meaningful psychological experience for what it's like to be a female, aside from the embodied experience. So perhaps it's also worth discussing what it would and would not mean for gender to be rooted in biology.