Reminder: This post is from the Community Actual Discussion). You’re encouraged to use voting for elevating constructive, or lowering unproductive, posts and comments here. When disagreeing, replies detailing your views are appreciated. For other rules, please see this pinned thread. Thanks!

This week’s Weekly discussion thread will be focused on Gender. Here is the definition we will be using so everyone can use the same terminology.

Here are some questions that should help kickstart things:

  • Why do you feel it started entering public consciousness in regards to humans about 15 years ago?

  • Was it needed?

  • Did it do what it was intended to do?

  • Are things better or worse now in that specific area?

  • Is there anything you do not understand or would like to discuss about the idea of gender?

  • I’m one of the downvoters, and I’d like to explain why. There’s a few reasons for my downvoting, and none of them have anything to do with disagreeing with you. Indeed I agree to some extent or another with the following:

    • It is very obvious that a large amount of focus on gender and gender expression is politically motivated.
    • Let people be who they want to be and call them by the name they would like to be called.

    Personally I think if you get wound up over transgender people (or non-binary (or assexual (or …))) you need to seek therapy. (Doubly so if you’re afraid of them!)

    I downvoted because the explanation is too facile, too cynical, and too one-sided. Gender is deeply embedded in every society in the world (with, as I noted elsewhere in this discussion, with the specifics of its expression varying wildly). It is to simplistically reductive to attribute the modern conversation about gender to just politicians looking for a cause. Because the very first question I’d have is “why did they pick this particular topic?” The answer is: it was already a conversation in process that they thought they could capitalize on, meaning you haven’t actually answered the question of why the conversation started.