There are plenty of trans individuals who’d disagree with that. Gender is a made-up concept the same way that ‘birds’ are a made-up concept - they’re a human categorization of actual phenomena.
I think this is the point. Maybe? Sorting stuff in categories is a human hobby even if the reality doesn’t give a shit about categories. See cladistics: we paste labels on beings and say this a species, this is a genus, and we have to arbitrarily choose when a group is neither one or the other, because life didn’t evolve following human rules.
Species, as an example, are far from strict and static categories, but such categories are still standard in academia because even in a field as precision-oriented as academic and scientific studies, they ARE still useful reflections of real phenomena.
There are plenty of trans individuals who’d disagree with that. Gender is a made-up concept the same way that ‘birds’ are a made-up concept - they’re a human categorization of actual phenomena.
Humans just can’t resist categorizing things with fuzzy borders. Just ask any biologists about taxonomy and you’ll see what I mean.
And there are trans people who believe gender is a social construct too, though. It is an open debate.
I think this is the point. Maybe? Sorting stuff in categories is a human hobby even if the reality doesn’t give a shit about categories. See cladistics: we paste labels on beings and say this a species, this is a genus, and we have to arbitrarily choose when a group is neither one or the other, because life didn’t evolve following human rules.
Species, as an example, are far from strict and static categories, but such categories are still standard in academia because even in a field as precision-oriented as academic and scientific studies, they ARE still useful reflections of real phenomena.