As usual...I was replying to a post elsewhere and got tangential.
So I moved my musings here:
Re: Gender
I get that other people don't feel the same way that I do about my sex/gender (which is largely indifferent most of the time).
I was born into a female-shaped body with hormones and plumbing that had the potentional to do biologically female mammal stuff (have a baby/breastfeed) that never got used for that purpose (although I was willing to use them for that, it never worked out). Aside from reproductive related things I don't see what gender has to do with much of anything.
This is the shape of the meatsack that I am wearing, if I woke up tomorrow in a male meatsack that would be interesting, but I don't see how that would change the ME that is wearing the meatsack. So there are the biological effects of testosterone (which I suspect I have a fair amount of as my mother's first child - birth order biology has some interesting facets) if my new meatsack had testicles and Y chromosome mods - which would presumably have an effect on mood and aggression. But my brain itself, life experience, intellect, education would be what I have now.
I think that it would interesting to see how the world would interact with me differently - to understand the ways that the world would view me. But gender norms and stereotypes are, in my opinion, large a social/cultural construct and don't apply to individual people who have traits and skills and strengths and weaknesses shaped by genetics and environment. People are sometimes surprised when I say that I have never felt limited or discriminated against because I am female. I suppose someone may have dared to say at some point that I couldn't do this or that "because you're a girl" - but I can imagine my response being, "Oh, yeah? Watch me!", so I wouldn't have taken them seriously. (Self-confidence was never an issue in this regard.)
Now, I am sure that my experiences also reflect the advantages inherent in being a member of the second most privileged demographic - white, upper/middle-class, nominally Protestant, American but ... female. Also, smart, firstborn, able and having my particular (awesome) parents. My husband does remind me that I am "my father's oldest son". I often wonder if my Dad would have been a different father to us girls if he had actually had a son. We joke about it - but I never got the sense that he was disappointed that we weren't boys. I did the whole hunting/fishing/fixing/yardwork/tractor-driving/learning at the knee bit - got dirty, did manual labor, dealt with gross things, peed outside...These weren't "boy" things, they were Dad things. I also did the whole changing diapers, babysitting, making food, sewing, ironing, hanging laundry, setting tables, wrapping presents...these weren't "girl" things they were Mom things.
AND I did a whole lot of other things reading, picking up litter, playing musical instruments, hiking. learning, singing (poorly), craft-stuff, climbing trees, science-stuff, taxes, budgeting, planning. There were "alone" things or "family" things. So, taken all together, we had the opportunity to DO ALL THE THINGS! Although my parents did (what I now see as) gendered things, WE (the daughters) did "people" things.
My sisters went on to be mothers - a biological potential that I didn't actualize. (I deliver babies but I never successfully made them and, yes, I have issues...the phrase "failure as a woman" was used by ME to describe my feelings after a second failed pregnancy...don't worry, I'm in therapy
) So, for me, the difference between the biological sexes centers around reproduction and mammalian parenting. Take that bit off the table and...gender seems irrelevant (to me)
I don’t know him but I think I’d really like him 
