I want to hear a genuine counter-argument to the "only two genders" argument. Not because I support either side...

I want to hear a genuine counter-argument to the "only two genders" argument. Not because I support either side, but because I'm on the fence and I'd like to hear both sides. At what point did we run out of space within the ones we have?

I've always just been content with guys wanting to be feminine because they're gay, or just wanting to be feminine at all even if they're straight, and vice versa for gals. I can even see why some people would rather float between the two because of their sexual orientation and preferences. Having aesthetic and/or personality goals of any kind is fine, and can even be an objectively good thing. Hell I don't even care if they'd rather go by the other gender's set of pronouns.

What I don't get is where this flexible gender definition that people believe in came from, and assholes like the guys who try to tie it down to basic percentages really aren't helping. Again, I'm not against OR for the idea, but I want to understand the mindset of constructing other "genders" when the ones we have work fine as long as you don't give a shit what people feel about your sexual orientation, because right now I just can't wrap my head around it. Why is the idea that everyone should be conforming to the presence of 30-odd new genders that are supposed to be just as real as the two physically present ones that we have based all of our sexuality on for all of human history more sensible than the idea that the people who fit into this extreme margin are confused about how their sexuality fits into the genders we have?

Not acting like yourself or not accepting your gender is basically a split personality disorder

Thank you!!! If you can't accept you were born with a pair of balls and a dick and you wanna be a chick then you're not fucking right in the head and need to be put in a psych ward

Yeah. The biggest thing is that those faggots won't acknowledge what they really are and try to drop their genitals and hormonal features to become something they aren't. They don't accept themselves for who they are and Internet society is teaching them that's ok because Internet society is run by a bunch of fucking teenagers around 12-17

Not really the proposed topic. I don't really give a flying fuck if someone would rather be a guy or a gal right now. I wan't to know where the idea of extra genders came from, and if/why I should respect them as just as important as the two that were presented to us physically.

well, first thing to understand is that there's academic feminism (theory crafting) and 'political' feminism (to which i count the tumblr feminists as well as real politics). the aboundance of genders and pronouns and all that shit is a try of the political feminists to live out the theory. the theory often refers to simone de beauvoir, who said you aren't born a woman, but you become one. more recent theorists, like judith butler, took the gender idea to the next level, arguing that 'sex' is as instable as gender. gender is understood as the way you reflect on cultural impressions and then act however you think is adequate to your situation. gender defines a performative, fluctuating situation of acting out 'one's body' (benhabib). thinking that the gender is in a way related to the sex is confusing, since there is a connection, but it's merely cultural inscribed rather than a causal link. therefore the binary categorizing of genders is moot, since gender was never supposed to mean anything that can really be categorized. though it always exists within the system of connotation and culturally inscribed meaning. therefore political feminists take it to the extreme to put a focus on how absurd the idea of binary gender (and later: sex) is.
>I'm a guy btw

This isn't a defense FOR non-binary genders, more of just an understanding behind them;

Basically, as a boy in many circumstances, you're taught what a boy is supposed to be: tough, doesn't cry, likes girls; depending on your local culture there's other factors such as liking sports, doesn't wear skirts, etc. so on and so forth.

So what happens when you DO cry as a boy? Well, you either convince yourself it's something you need to work on NOT doing, or you convince yourself that you're simply not a boy. Well, if you're not a boy, you're a girl then, right? Well, no, because you still like girls, you don't like to wear dresses, in fact you like to do everything a boy does except you can't help but cry really easily. Throw in a little chemical imbalance in the brain and you're got a convincing argument in your own mind that you're neither a girl nor a boy.

Basically, it comes down to conflict with arbitrary social constructs of what "boy" and "girl" means (beyond 'penis' and 'vagina', which is really all it should be) combined with a difficulty associating that social norms are not necessarily biological fact.

Plus I think I lot of people do it insincerely, in that they know damn well they're just doing it to go against the grain.

Don't know if I answered the question. Gonna go fap.

Some, tried to break social norms and educate people.

Kids took that as hip, abnormality ensues, until the next trend takes place at least

A lot of people have some deep seated problem with being explained in simple terms like 'male' 'female', most of us don't give a flying fuck, some do. There isn't much argument against biological genders that makes sense, some people just don't like the assumptions that go along with it.
I don't really care what people want to call themselves, makes no difference to me. Still if you are getting treated in a hospital it is probably a pretty shitty idea to try and argue that your 'not a man' if you have a penis. In summery, biologically it's up to science, socially it is complicated.

SecondedPeople want to be special snowflakes so they make up special snowflake genders for themselves. And no you shouldn't respect them

>people

Thanks for two surprisingly objective responses.

For this one, I have to say that I just can't see your proposed situation or ones like it as something that could justify the need for something more than the genders we have or the choice to live without caring about it. I'd rather believe and teach that there's nothing wrong with a boy crying, whether he's gay or not, than teach the importance of having brand-spanking new genders just to define a person's personality or sexual tendencies. Something like that is better left to learning about someone as you get to know them, and not an imposed information packet disguised as a gender.

I totally agree in that it's better for society to move away from arbitrary social constructs of what a boy and girl are supposed to, or not supposed to do; but as it has to do with non-binary genders, by theory is that this simply wasn't happening fast enough.

In an advanced culture that no longer had the incredible responsibilities men and boys had to their families in, say, the first half of the 20th century (and the same goes for females); the social constructs no longer make much sense. If they are, however, continued to be pressed upon generations that no longer has any use of them, you get the environment we see today.

Until someone takes you to court because you are the wing pronoun, taking everything you own. That could come, based on how it advances through

>You used*

>Wrong* Damn it

That's a pretty interesting way of looking at it, I suppose, but it doesn't really explain the aggressive push made by people who support the idea in the first place. Why are the same people who are so aggressively for this idea of having new genders also so hateful of those who are fine with the ones we have. Not even just haters of men, but haters of "cis-gendered" people in general are coming to be held as fucked up guardian angels of an "oppressed group" that has yet to see any real oppression that people who aren't straight in general don't receive.

Because I could choose the word pretty or beautiful, but there's no point to OP

I don't really understand what you're trying to say.

You can dress how you want, act how you want, fuck who you want, call yourself whatever you want, and completely disregard the fact that there are only 2 genders and you are the one your chromosomes dictate. I don't really care.

Now if the rest of you would just stop caring about stuff that has nothing to do with you, problem solved.

>stuff that has nothing to do with you
Well that's kind of the point. Regardless of your personal opinion on the matter, it has a decent chance of eventually becoming your problem as well, as you might find yourself in a situation that demands that you are either accepting of the situation, or have a reason not to be. I would just rather be informed and ready to change my opinion based on what I think makes sense given all the information than just hear what is "right" from a couple of people and take it as fact for the rest of my life.