(from our thread in Actual Discussion) It exists as you see it in this weird middle state now because gender used to be completely synonymous with sex (and for most people, it still is).

I first became familiar with the idea of gender in High School in the 90’s. Unlike most, I have forestry credits as I was in boarding school and had some very odd classes. We ran an apiary and made our own honey, kept and raced sled dogs, worked a restaurant we ran, ran a library, etc.

We were also tasked with taking care of a square kilometre of forest up in Northern Canada and, as such, had to learn about plant species native to the region. Doing that, we learned about plant gender.

Plants have a gender because they lack a biological sex; it is a different classification system. In regards to humans, however, dictionaries (and people using the term) at the time used it interchangeably with the term sex. The only differentiation that I ever saw between the two was in dealing with plants or heavily academic papers dealing with some very specific things.

Intersex humans were, at least taxonomically, an aberration and not a classification. Early on they presented and operated as whatever their dominant sexual traits would indicate and frequently did not deviate and there was little issue with this.

But even without “gender,” and even in the early 80’s when I was born, there was a wide berth in what it could mean to be a man or woman. When people were talking about stereotypes, they seemed to be speaking about things that I’d seen in old TV shows from the 50’s and 60’s, not things I was familiar with in real life. That “housewife and single breadwinner husband” home shit was long past and seemed antiquated even then. It wasn’t BAD to be stereotypical or not, mind you, but other than a few farming households I knew, I never saw the “stay-at-home-Mom” dynamic. Every family had a different dynamic and people fit where they built themselves space to do so. I knew very few “stereotypical male” Dads or “stereotypical female” Moms other than on TV, and we all knew damn well that TV wasn’t true to life.

When I witnessed third-wave feminist messaging start to get big in the 2010s speaking about this stuff like it was common, expected, and had to be destroyed, it was odd to me. It was like they were fighting with ghosts from days long past.

I recognize that my personal experiences don’t match everyone, but I lived in Cincinnati, Edmonton, Calgary, Saudi Arabia, Kingston, Amsterdam, Thailand, Kentucky, and many more. The only place I witnessed what could be described as “traditional roles” was in Saudi, and even then it was only defined by a few laws, not the way people actually acted. I knew many friends that had their father completely cowed by their mother even in that insane theocracy.

All that to say that gender in humans… doesn’t seem to have a purpose to me. Since gender can be fluid in humans, it is not at all worth categorizing in humans. It means, effectively, nothing. It’s like trying to categorize hair colour down to the hex code; it accomplishes nothing whatsoever.

Sex is a medically distinguishing characteristic and is easily definable. It adds clarity. I get why it needs to exist. It has value.

Gender? I don’t understand why it came to be used for anything as it hasn’t done anything other than stir basic culture war garbage.

It’s not the OS doing it, it’s the game itself adding the ads to pause screens, loading screens, etc.

But they don’t correct them often, especially if it’s a longer post that has some nuance to it. People here don’t like nuance. I’m not sure people anywhere do anymore. That would involve reading and understanding others that you actively disagree with.

Thought I was pretty clear by stating it in nearly every post. I’m not talking about babies other than to say they shouldn’t have it done unless they have a very specific medical condition.

And yeah, I’m totally pro-education.

Absolutely. There are some truly weird attitudes that are deeply unscientific about this stuff. Even my wife didn’t understand it when we first discussed it. We don’t have any sons, but even if we did I wouldn’t have had them circumcised unless they had a medical issue that required it. And yes that is true even though I am circumcised. No, I don’t care about making any dicks look like mine. That’s fucking weird.

It is completely unnecessary because I live in a place with readily available contraception, low rates of STIs, and other factors.

Am I mad that I was circumcised? No. Am I proud? No. It just is. I don’t understand attitudes about it. Everything is a small trade-off in life. I appreciate the plusses that I gained from it, and don’t really know or care about the minuses because they were never a part of my life.

I have had compliments on it explicitly because I was circumcised and women expressed relief about it. I’ve also been told it looks nicer just hanging there. One lady I used to date would complain about her ex incessantly because he wasn’t exactly the cleanest dude, and when combined with his lack of circumcision, he was kind of gross and you can use your imagination as to what that entailed.

On the other side, my best friend in high school had his circumcision fucked up and every time he got an erection, it hurt because it was done incorrectly and caused one side to “pull” wrong.

I’ve also had a septoplasty later in life so I could breathe better. This argument that you see above would be like going online and telling people that there is a medical use for it, but they come back and start screaming at you in freaked out panicked tones and assume you’re meaning it’s for everyone. It isn’t, but to deny that there is a medical use is actively wrong and harmful.

Well it doesn’t need to be removed for most people obviously, but to say it never needs to be removed for anyone is patently false. Same thing with other body parts like adenoids, wisdom teeth, and the gallbladder. It’s not like they have no purpose, but taking them out can fix or avoid medical issues. Reading the medical papers, it seems it is removed because it is the first thing to rip during sexual intercourse, and as we all know from grade school, exchanging blood is one of the fastest way to get STIs or other diseases.

Obviously it is also the best way to cure phimosis which is something my uncle had repaired this way when he was 20 something.

And again, this is probably extremely unnecessary in most areas of the world.

I have never defended, nor said a single positive thing about clitoral removal. Don’t mix up circumcision with it please. They are not the same. I have yet to see a justification for removing anyone’s clitoris that isn’t some crazy religious bullshit that has no basis in scientific fact at all.

That study is from 2022. Some of the ones linked on Wikipedia are the same age, very slightly older, or even newer. These aren’t studies from the '70s using outdated methodologies or something. It doesn’t nullify the science. They’re both seemingly saying somewhat opposite things but that doesn’t mean that one is outwardly completely wrong, it means at best the science is still out and at worst it depends on specifics of the situation.

And yeah, it would be great if they would provide full health care for everyone, but for people in war torn parts of Africa it’s not really an option because the governments aren’t stable or don’t care. I also wish proper contraception was available everywhere for free, but it isn’t. And even if it were, you can’t tell me that you believe that every person would use it 100% of the time.

So again, every time I see this it’s simply people who don’t like circumcision getting mad that there may, in fact, be a functional use for it somewhere and it’s not just people trying to get their kids dick to look like their dick. That’s such a weird and disturbing dodge.

Oh definitely! Except condoms are not really readily available in a lot of places (for example, parts of Africa) which is where it happens frequently and is a permanent boost. A 30% reduction in transmission is significant.

You don’t have to like it, but I’m factually correct and the science backs me up. See Wikipedia for a primer.

I’m confused… How does regular bathing reduce the spread of HIV and other STIs? How does it remove phimosis?

I’m definitely not saying that the procedure is the right thing to do for infants, but factually there absolutely are medical uses and upsides for some people.

Edit: Downvotes don’t make me incorrect. Use your words. Talk with me like a person. I’m open to being wrong.

Economist here. This is pretty much the anti-intellectualism that everyone here is talking about and this is the opinion I’ve seen constantly on Lemmy.

Most people have no idea what it is that I do and think it’s something to do with making billionaires more money. It isn’t and it never has been and it hasn’t been for anyone that I’ve kept in contact with from any of my classes.

You don’t have to be involved in financial matters to be an economist either. We’re more involved in finding out root causes and impacts in certain fields.

Just make their middle name Duck and you are golden.

I’d argue the original Evil Dead trilogy get progressively better with each movie.

Yes, but not one made by Apple.

I don’t get it.

That’s just the ones on TV.

I’m an economist and many of us don’t have much to do with currency economies and could be better described as “find the root cause experts.”

Hell, I use my skills in the IT field.

It used to mean being constipated which is why this meme confused me. Apparently now it has something to do with having a boner for some reason?

Apple and Mac come to mind.

Not at all. I updated my initial request to clarify.

Yup. Definitely misread. Deleted it now!

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