Gender, genetics, and the mind

What is gender? For most people, that's an easy question. So easy that they don't even understand why someone would ask.

It's just gender, you know?

Well, okay. How many genders are there?

Two. Male or Female.

What about the transgendered? What about someone born male but dressed and acting female?

Still either male or female.

Okay. How about when someone defies the categories of gender entirely? Neither trying to act like a man nor trying to act like a woman. But rather intentionally acting in such a way that defies both genders?

Okay, fine. Three genders. I still don't see your point.


All right. Never mind number of genders. How about this.... where is gender?

Huh?

Is it in the body? In the DNA? In the mind?

All three. A man has a man's body, XY genes, and believes he is male. I don't get it.

Okay. That's what I wanted to get at. There are, like it or not, people who don't fit into those characterizations. Objectively, we have the biological hermaphrodites (XXY), the transgendered, or the effeminate 'flaming fag' vs the masculine 'bull dyke.' A lesbian doesn't want to be a man; she just wants to be with women.

And then there's transvestites. Most transvestites fancy girls.
Who told you that?
A transvestite told me that.
Bah. Probably lives in a cave.
No, an EXECUTIVE transvestite. (Thank you Eddie).

Sexuality and gender have very little to do with each other. Let's leave that stuff aside. Let's just talk about where gender is. Can we agree that it's not in the body?

How about not JUST in the body?

Good enough. But my contention is that it is primarily in the mind. The mind decides gender, not the body. Transgendered people often feel like they are "born in the wrong body." Their minds are female but their bodies male (or their minds male while bodies female. Let's not leave anyone out). In those cases, the body AND the DNA are wrong.

With Hermaphrodites, generally speaking they are 'assigned' a gender at birth. Sometimes that's the gender they feel, sometimes it isn't. They have the chromosomes for both, so in a way, their genes match their minds. But regardless of where the genes are, the mind is what matters.

Okay, I agree with that. But only because you're having this conversation with yourself, and I want to see where you go with this.

Fair enough. Where I'm going with this is suggesting that a person can have more than one gender.

Sure. Like when the body is male but the mind female. 

No. I mean when someone is BOTH male and female, but at different times and in different situations.

So like a crossdresser?

Maybe. Maybe not. Let me use myself as an example

Seems fitting, since this is all in your head.

Yeah, and that's exactly my point. In real life, in the atomic world, I am a man. Physically, biologically, emotionally. Even mentally. In 'real life,' I am male. But sometimes, my mind likes to experiment, likes to be female for a while. And those times, I feel like it's legitimate. Like I really AM female for those times. I leave my body behind (either by dreaming or just going somewhere disembodied like the internet or a video game) and I become female.

So this WHOLE conversation was just for you to say that you're transgendered?

No. Because I don't think I am. I don't think of myself as transgendered. I wouldn't make a permanent change to my body, if that were an option. I might make a temporary change. But I want to experience being someone else, not to actually BECOME someone else. Which is why I do it online.

So then what do we call it?

I don't remember who said it first, so I'll claim credit. We call it 'Netvestite' or 'Netgendered.' For those of us who see different genders in ourselves, but only when we leave our bodies behind.