- Joined
- May 6, 2020
TL;DR: yes but with some stipulations
Let me start by saying that, just because something's a social construct, that does not mean that you can identify as "whatever-the-fuck" and call that valid. Social constructs are constructed by society; hence the name. "Civilization" is a social construct and we all have a general idea of what that means. Even if our particular idea of the concept may differ, we know what it generally looks like. Gender is much the same way.
If you see someone who looks like a woman, talks like a woman, acts like a woman, etc. you would treat it as a woman. That is: up until you discover that they have a dick under their skirt. At that point, there is some contention. But prior to this discovery you would treat this individual as if they were the sex they portrayed themselves as. And there's the bottom line.
If you would treat an individual as one thing even though they are another, you are dealing with a contrast between socially constructed values and biology. Obviously, if a dude in a dress calls himself a woman, he's not a woman. But if they were sufficiently passing so that you wouldn't even question which gender they were, they are effectively that gender. So gender and sex are really two different things: sex being how your biology works and gender being how society perceives you. This doesn't mean, to any degree, that you can just decide you're a girl or a boy and expect everyone else to respect that. But it does mean that masculinity and femininity are not quite as cut-and-dry as we might often think.
Let me start by saying that, just because something's a social construct, that does not mean that you can identify as "whatever-the-fuck" and call that valid. Social constructs are constructed by society; hence the name. "Civilization" is a social construct and we all have a general idea of what that means. Even if our particular idea of the concept may differ, we know what it generally looks like. Gender is much the same way.
If you see someone who looks like a woman, talks like a woman, acts like a woman, etc. you would treat it as a woman. That is: up until you discover that they have a dick under their skirt. At that point, there is some contention. But prior to this discovery you would treat this individual as if they were the sex they portrayed themselves as. And there's the bottom line.
If you would treat an individual as one thing even though they are another, you are dealing with a contrast between socially constructed values and biology. Obviously, if a dude in a dress calls himself a woman, he's not a woman. But if they were sufficiently passing so that you wouldn't even question which gender they were, they are effectively that gender. So gender and sex are really two different things: sex being how your biology works and gender being how society perceives you. This doesn't mean, to any degree, that you can just decide you're a girl or a boy and expect everyone else to respect that. But it does mean that masculinity and femininity are not quite as cut-and-dry as we might often think.
