The diagnostic criterias for gender dysphoria also talk a lot about this concept of gender identity.

What is the essence of being a ‘woman’ or a ‘man’ that is described when people talk about gender dysphoria?

Ask proponents of the gender identity movement, and you will receive vague answers about just something we know (read: feel). We are moving away from using sex to determine our sex class as a man or a woman (which is a helpful descriptor when one sex class severely oppresses the other). Unfortunately, instead using the presence of the magical gender essence as a determination of this descriptor, we continue to prop up the gender binary.

Worryingly, by using an inner feeling to determine if we are women, we reinforce the idea that women have girly brains — that think in a girly way — and can be born in male bodies, or vice versa.

Pink box or blue box

The concept of the ‘girly brain’ belongs in the last century, and it must stay there. Gender identity is not compatible with a progressive society because relies on the idea that ‘manhood’ and ‘womanhood’ are different feelings that can be felt.

By propping up the ideas of gender by raising a generation to believe that there is an inner sense of being a man or a woman. In a world that is already heavily gendered, labeling our inner sense of self with a gender is the lastt thing we need.

We are giving credence and credit to outdated ideas. Either we are teaching children that boys and girls can be anything, that clothes are just clothes, and toys are just toys, and there is no right way to be a girl or a boy.. or we’re teaching children that if they reject gender stereotypes (and also may have a gremlin) then they aren’t really their sex, but born in the wrong body.

A good example that illustrates the sexism and stereotypes that defines the gender identity movement is the recent news that Sam Smith identifies as non-binary — i.e. he is neither female or male. When he speaks about this subject, he says that it is because he has sex in a ‘feminine’ way, he moves in a ‘feminine’ way, and he ‘thinks like a woman’ in his head sometimes.

Does Sam Smith feel like a woman sometimes because he’s experienced oppression as a woman sometimes, or when he says he ‘feels like a woman’, does he mean because he likes stuff traditionally associated with women? I doubt it is the former.

This is why the gender identity movement gives outdated, old fashioned, and harmful ideas a place in modern society. It reduces the biological reality of sex and the subsequent oppression to just a feeling that can exist in anyone’s head.

Mermaids teaching material on ‘gender identity’ shows clearly how this movement upholds gender stereotypes

The above image is part of ‘gender diversity’ training given by Mermaids, and again, the obvious sexism is… well, obvious. The difference between GI Joe and Barbie is the difference between being a man and a woman. There is no place in models like this for gender non conformity. There is no place for children who might grow up ‘feeling like a boy’ because the world around them teaches GI Joe and the stuff he likes is boy stuff.

How much of gender dysphoria would be relieved if we actually stopped teaching regressive stereotypes in schools like this? If we let our children know that toys are just toys and clothes are just clothes, and Barbie and GI Joe are for everyone.

Which of these feels more progressive when we really look at the root of it.

“I am a woman because I have a deep feeling that I have the essence of the female gender, because I am emotional, nurturing, and caring, and enjoy wearing dresses and nail varnish.”

“I am a woman because my body was organized to produce ova (whether it does so or not). That’s all — it has no baring on my clothes, hobbies, or inner feelings.”

I would argue the latter is more progressive.

While some criticize this as ‘reducing’ womanhood to their bodies, surely it is more progressive to define us by biology than our personality? Ultimately, gender essence does not determine if we are oppressed or the oppressor. It doesn’t say anything about an individuals experience of life as the oppressed or the oppressor — the likelihood that they are being paid less than the other group, the likelihood that they will be sexually assaulted more than the other group.