I personally recognize the difference between genetic/biological sex and gender. Sex is what nature gives us, gender is an societal construct, and therefore arbitrary. We could just have easily determined that dresses and pink are for boys and that going shirtless with blue shirts is for girls.
Examples:
- white is the color of mourning in China instead of black
- kilts
- men and women are acceptably topless in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa

So what exactly does one mean by acting like a man or a woman? It is necessarily restrictive to look down on a female for acting manly or butch or pursuing a goal that is typically considered "for men." The same goes for thinking less of a male who wears makeup, decorates, or acts feminine. This is in the same way one would be restrictive of a person to predetermine which field of study or vocation would be acceptable for him to pursue based on other genetic criteria such as race, hair color, or height (excluding the obvious examples of professional sports which for obvious reasons naturally ought to take things like height into account).

I do not find gender offensive in the least, but I do find it repulsive to predetermine for a child how he or she should lead their lives based on the sex they were born with.

So if the emerging definition of pig is more in line with that of pigeon then pigs will fly?

excellent way to frame the argument sam

The very concept of being offended by gender offends me.
So do PC control freaks.

I believe you. It is getting harder to raise rational children. In addition to the denial of reality, I think the more confusion and depravity they can expose our children to, the better for the collective agenda.

Marx's concept is based on dialectic struggle. There must always be something to divide people and creates two classes - us and them. The actual differences do not matter; only having the difference is important. That is why the socialists always proclaim unity - because they are against it. An easy rule of thumb - whatever the socialists say, the reality is the opposite. Like the Democratic Republic of North Korea and the truth in Pravda.

You are dead right. That's also a reason why they target young people/children with this stuff. They know it has more fertile ground there and will have the strongest long-term effect. My little kids ask gender-related questions all the time. I just keep saying the obvious. "Boys grow up to be men. Girls grow up to be women. Men and women make babies...." Believe it or not, it's a constant battle.

I've always been pretty easygoing about what or how people want to call themselves, but I'm pretty old-fashioned about how I address someone. If you dress like a woman/girl, then you're female. If you dress and wear your hair like a man, then that's how I regard you.

That being said, I admit to being puzzled when confronted by a person who appears androgynous, and seeks offense if I try to avoid gender address, or even guess correctly about their gender. I guess some people want to be offended, as a means of somehow gaining a superior position when in fact they have low self esteem.

I have worked with transgendered persons (all male-to-female transitions), and I have to admit there must be some pheromone signals that trigger an alarm system. Even though I had congenial dealings with the transgendered as professionals, I felt distinct discomfort that had no basis in their behavior or appearance, Gender is a biological fact, not a preference.

Most people think of gender as being the same as sexual anatomy, while the emerging definition of gender is more in line with the cultural role of sexual expression, which can have shades of variation. What I find irritating is the politically correct need to categorize each and every of us within one of five, or ten, or is it fifty now? gender categories. You are either male or female. What you do with your own gender expression is none of my business, and I'd rather not have the state slicing and dicing favors based on your personal gender preference.

plusaf... No they don't... but neither do the wackos who do not have the sense to look at their bodies and tell what sex they are, have the right to tell us to take their decision or shut up. I do not want to share the mens' room with ladies or with guys who are not sure what they are.This is a low point in human stupidity. If one is not sure...shut up about it and leave us straights alone. Your whining is an insult to human intelligence and seeking special government is asinine. Keep your unknowns out of my childrens' bathroom...they know who they are.

I condemn (without whining) the separation of toys by gender. It's a free country for stores that want to do it, but I don't support those toys.

It's also a free country for people who want to call themselves a gender different from their biological sex, including those weird new genders that I don't understand.

While I don't presume to tell transgendered people how to live, I do not yet understand it. It seems like they're saying they're born, let's say, a boy, but they always liked doing "girl things". I reject the premise that there are girl things. Suppose there's some activity, like playing with dolls, that girls enjoy much more than boys, even without parental encouragement/discouragement. Okay, that doesn't make dolls are "girl toys". If people just do what they want in live, without regard to group identity, they don't have to change groups. They don't have this awkward situation of comparing their biological sex with how people in that group are supposed to feel about things. How the individual feels defines what that individual ought to feel like.

That agrees with what I know and have read.

yes, but in these cases there are a few studies showing that it makes sense to put off the decision until puberty. Those individuals and families must have a difficult time. The point is, the rest of us still get to use basic definitions that are accurate and there are only two genders.

It's ridiculous. Just another progressive distraction. I remember reading years ago that the UN wanted to push for 5 genders. Male, Female, Homosexual male, homosexual female and trans gender. Gender is supposed to be based on the plumbing you have and the left is trying to base it on your lifestyle.

Didn't she? I'm so glad I read it as a teenager so I have always had a good attitude about sex.

I think in the past gender was chosen by what was easiest to accomplish surgically rather than what was genetically real, and, yes, from what I have read that was shown to be a disaster. Denying reality never seems to work out well.

well there are intersex and hermaphrodite anomalies. It has been suggested that determining sex at birth for those with this condition is not a great plan.

Hi, plusaf. They can decide all they want. That doesn't change the reality.

ME, does 'gender is a fact' apply to folks that think they have the right, power or wisdom to "decide the gender" for another individual?

Dagny healed him :D

Prejudice is an opinion; gender is a fact.

Hank Rearden believed his desire for sex was evil in the beginning.

That's how the religions get a lot of power, by convincing people their bodies -- their innate natures -- are unnatural and evil. Ayn Rand kicks this nonsense to the kerb with refreshing vigour, by painting her heroes and heroines with raw physicality.