It's A Quote

[GrandizerII]

Currently our method of determining gender is based on this -- the way that an individual experiences himself or herself internally.

Socially, out of respect for the individual, we take their word for it. But when examining this academically/scientifically, it's not true that academics go by merely how one self-identifies. When people identify a certain way, this manifests in them presenting themselves in a way that is in accord with how they identify themselves. People aren't just making some claim when they say "I am X", they are saying something meaningful to them that is internally felt but also presented outwardly through various activities in their lives. So for transgendered women (in an environment where they feel safe to express their felt gender), they consistently act like other women within their society, doing womanly things like wearing dresses, putting on makeup, taking their purses with them, shopping with the ladies, talking and walking like them, etc. They not only personally identify as a woman, they align socially with other women.

I go back to the example of identifying as autistic since I personally relate to that. When I first learned about this thing called autism in my 20s, it just clicked in my mind that this is what I had because pretty much all the boxes were ticked. But I had long suspected something different about me before ever being familiar with the word itself, and I didn't get an official diagnosis until later in my life when I was already midway in my 30s. For the diagnosis, all they did was ask me questions about my life, relationships with others, what I struggled with, how I behaved under certain contexts, and had me fill out a few questionnaires. That's about it. There was no brain scan or anything of that sort. So what did they look out for? Behavioral markers rather than biological ones.

And that is the case with gender as well. Just like autism, there are limited biological markers for gender that have been uncovered through science, but when assessing if someone is a particular gender, you look to the behavioral/social markers since they are more accessible.

That said, being a woman is not a psychiatric condition (like autism may be) for which a diagnosis may be favored to get some needed support. So an official assessment is even less needed in the case of gender. And really, we should just be ok with people identifying themselves as whatever gender they identify as, because why should this be an issue at all?