[Serious] Non-binary

[Neo-Scholastic]

In the end, just like some guys are feminine and some women masculine, so too are there people who don't identify with their sex, yet neither do they identify with the opposite sex.

This makes sense to me in theory: Once we've detached our biological sex from our gender identity, every combination of those variables should be possible.

In my world growing up and through my 20’s, the gender references were about either sex or non-English grammar. Then in the late 1990’s, the term “sexual preference” got dropped (presumably because preference implies choice) and gradually replaced by “gender identity.” In the oughts, I adopted what seemed like the consensus opinion: that gender identity and biological sex referred to different things – the former relating to self-perception, the later relating to animal physical features. Then with social media, the number of proposed gender identities seemed to explode. Then in the late 2010’s, I saw my first ginger-bread-person infographic. As a concept, gender identity now seems to include pretty much anything anyone can invent.

So you can see, just within my life, the preferred terms for talking about sex and gender has changed significantly at least 3 times. And each time, for the sake of trying to be agreeable with people who considered themselves enlightened about such things, I adopted and tried to respect the careful distinctions being made. At this point, I have given up on trying to keep up. I refuse to play all these “progressive” word games about sex and gender. They were never really about understanding; but either 1) misplaced enthusiasm for sexual self-realization or 2) making the language around human sexuality incoherent and filled with shibboleths.

My first new position is simple: fuck gender identity. It’s a meaningless category and I really don't care. In this life, no one sees you the same way you see yourself, so get over it.

My second new position is equally simple: “biological sex” is redundant. Your sex is your sex precisely because it is not contingent on what you feel or believe about it.