Hi there

[Alvin]

[MENTION=24431]Alvin[/MENTION] and [MENTION=24253]Zen[/MENTION]

I've been thinking about this question of gender, and the idea that it's not something we are but something we do.

I agree with that to a large degree, but I would add that it's so much more nuanced than that. There is something hormonally and biologically grounded in our sense of gender, this must be true, otherwise what is it that tells some people they are absolutely born in the wrong body? I also think about my own experiences as a woman, compared to that of transmen, in terms of being born in s female body and connecting (or in the case of transmen, not connecting) to the expected biological urges women have. I needed at some point in my life, to get pregnant. It's so hard to explain that feeling, but it's powerful and real. Breastfeeding and my response to my child's cry, those are things that felt primal and instinctual to me as a woman/mother. On the contrary, some people are born into a female body but their experiences are very different. The way I've understood it is that our brains have some bits which do give us a very instinctive understanding of what our gender is, and sometimes it matches our biological sex, sometimes it doesn't. And because gender and sex are so often coupled together, something feels off.

Gender expression is fabricated by our culture to express these things that feel somehow natural to us. And it can be really really arbitrary fur sure, but I do think there is some hormonal and biologicalal grounding at the core of some of it.

I'm trying to think of what my main point is...I'm just thinking about this topic and trying to figure out where the line is drawn in terms of what is biologically grounded and what is fabricated by culture.

Hi, baristajedi (Is there any way I can shorten this nickname?)

Here is a podcast that I came across a couple months ago. I think this one might please your thoughts on gender.

http://philosophybites.com/2017/01/amia-...woman.html

You can also subscribe using your mobile. It's fun to listen.