Imaginary genders.

Gender is defined before you are born, but what does that have to do with the price of tea in China?

Conception and development are part of the birth process, dipshitzky. 

Abnormal chromosomes apart, people are born as 'biologically male' or 'biologically female'.   Traditionally people were expected to accept being defined by their birth sex and abide by social rules based on their biological sex alone.

That meant that individuals that did not conform to the approved stereotype faced ostracism and persecution for breaking those rules.   One was a heterosexual or an outlaw.

A more enlightened view recognises that people are not defined by their biological sex alone but a by a more complex concept of 'gender' which tkes into account that not all biological males are 'masculine' in their nature nor are they all attracted to females (and conversely for biological females).   In the old model, anything other than heterosexulity was a perversion; the new model is much more realistic.

but I would say that the concept of gender is still under development.  There is no agreement how any genders there are, and care is required because while it is right that homosexuals and lesbians are are not stigmatised it would clearly be wrong to invent a gender for paedophiles - the theory and philosophy of the new model needs a lot of work.   

 

Like I said. It's a mental disorder.

how do the singular use of the words man and woman relate to the new use and definition of gender?

I think that statement is hypocritical.  If people felt the need to conform to the stereotypes of a gender, and the only way to do that is to become a different sex, then everyone is still conforming to the old stereotypes and nothing has changed.  In that way of thinking, the very fact that a man feels he needs to change his sex because he does womanly things supports the stereotype.  

If we want to change things, then it is the stereotypes that we need to denounce, not change the biological sex that someone was born with.  We shouldn't call them man or woman based on what it is they do or how they act.  Unfortunately, the majority of the population do act as the stereotypes suggest.... 

So, in my opinion, transgenders are not helping their own cause, they are actually doing it harm, if all they really want to do is change the stereotype.  Do you really need to be a girl to act like one?  Or is that still an insecurity due to societal norms?   

There is no need to mix science and actual fact with the way that people feel inside.  If you are trying to make the outside look like how you feel inside, then you are conforming to what society believes you should be.  

Bottom line is, you were either born a man or a woman, no one can change that.... and on a rare occasion you can be born both.... like Jamie Lee Curtis.