...People are stuck believing in gender-identity, gender-expression, and sexuality binaries, when binary thinking about these things is relatively new in the history of humanity (ie, women were imperfect male forms). In order to break the binary, those who do not fit the binary model need to stand out and be heard. This causes people who are set in their ways to resist recognizing what's always been there. It makes them uncomfortable because there's little to no language for gradients of sexuality and gender. Without language for these gradients, it's very difficult to really think about these things. Over time those who resist recognizing these gradients will come to accept it because it's a reality. When that happens, we may end up having the label-less society that you seek because most people will be accepting that gender-identity, gender-expression, and sexuality are not binaries (i.e., if not A then B--if not straight, then gay; if not man, then woman; if not masculine, then feminine).
First off a binary system is Number system that uses only two values (0,1; on, off) to represent codes and data. Its used in mathematics as.a system of counting or measurement whose units are powers of two.
It has been used to describe people who think in all or nothing terms i.e., YES or NO but not maybe.
When defining gender the assumption it is a binary system is erroneous.
Science does not define gender as it does values in mathematics or star systems or when constructing computer programs.
It uses biological and physiological characteristics "'gender' and that sense it can refer to inherent physical and genetic characteristics or socially constructed roles, behaviours, activities, and attributes that a given society considers appropriate for men and women.
In fact someone can be born a hermaphrodite with both sets of sexual organs.
Yes biologically nature as a general rule with homo sapiens only created two genders not three or four. In some species on our planet life forms procreate without gender differentation.
There has always been dialogue as whether onces biological or physical birth status alone defines their gender.
As certain NOT all societies of homo sapiens have evolved social constructs moved from assuming gender role is based only on the genitilia you were born with to individual choice as to how to use that genitilia and with who.
Biologically all life forms on the planet earth have a certain percentage of homosexuals and this is explained as a genetic fail safe like disease to prevent over population. The fact that its been identified in all life forms that reproduce suggests this.
Not withstanding that across the board existence, in certain societies, religion, culture, life experience has shaped peoples' beliefs as to what constitutes "normal" or "socially acceptable" sexual behaviour. In that sense its fluid and ever changing as morality constantly changes which determines what is socially acceptable.
In today's Western societies and their legal systems, consensual sex between people of majority age is considered legal. In psychological terms, consensual sex between people where there is no violence, one side is not exploiting the other with a power advantage, is considered healthy. The definition of homosexual as being "abnormal" or a psychiatric disease has been removed. In the DSV Psychiatric Diagnostic Manual sexual behaviours are diagnosed in a manner that describes a cluster or constellation or list of specific behaviours and where the majority of those behaviours are symptomized or expressed or acted out or felt in such a way as to predominant the individual's behaviour, its then given a classification.
That classification begins and ends at an individual level. Certain classifications of sexual disorders or conditions are considered dangerous or illegal. We define non consensual sex as the criminal act of sexual assault. Sex with minors is defined as
**** (pre-pubic) or hebephile (persons starting or in puberty stages or teens).
The laws in Canada also define statutory sexual assault if an adult engages in sex with a minor, and then makes exeptions to that where there is no large age difference in specific cases.
None of the above is binary. Its based on a scale of relativity.
There is no gradient formula or gradient descent used as a first-order iterative optimization algorithm for finding the minimum of specific sexual behaviour or gender identification using social constructs. It also certainly is not done when examining physical or genetic features of gender.
Sexology, psychology are social sciences and by that very inherent nature creates a relativity scale to examine and characterize behaviour and when possible characterize it using objective criteria.
Psychiaty is more complex overlapping with neurology. Today the line or distinction between organic brain diseases (neurology) and functional mental illnesses (psychiatry) is getting thinner and thinner as pstychiatry works along with neurology to discover chemicals within the brain and physical brain structures that can manifest psychiatric symptoms.
So for example brain rumours, brain injuries, schizophrenia, bi-polar and other mood disorders (depression) now are all being understood not just in demonstrated behaviour but chemical imbalances or brain lesions or damage or structural anomolies. It has nothing to do with a binary system. The brain is not mapped the way say astrologers map the skies.
The structure of the brain is limited by its physical components, mapping the stars requires a leap of faith through patterns of past patterns to predict future ones.
In fact psychiatry and neurology are reactive not speculative. They deal with the hear and now and what can be measured through whenever possible brain tissue. Psychiatry doesn't speculate on what behaviour humans might manifest 100 or 1000 years from now.
Evolutionists might speculate on how the body will change and evolve not neurologists and psychiatrists who are in the present tense asking how do we treat specific symptoms that may manifest with certain behaviour or other physical displays including skin rashes, vomiting, head-aches, etc.
Gradient descent is used in science to find a local minimum of a function and so in that process one takes steps proportional to the negative of the gradient of the function at the current point.
That is not done and can not be done when analyzing human behaviour and/or physical structure of the human body.
Local minimum function is determined by disecting the portion of body analyzed and engaging in mechanics, understanding its mechanical processes, its cause and effect, how the brain sends a signal through nerves to certain muscles and what interferes with that whether it be nerve structure damage, neurotransmission irregularities, etc.
In terms of defining sexual behaviour, that needs to be differentiated from the word sexuality because its often used interchangeably and leads to confusion. Sexuality is a collective word for BOTH physical characteristics of the genders and social constructs as to how people express sexual drive.
When someone says I am born a man but feel like a woman that can create an obvious dissonance between their physical reality (the genitilia and bodies they are born with) and subjective (individual and social construct) reality.
The latter deals with feelings. Those feelings might be able to be defined because of physical anomalies detected in the brain or other physical parts of the body, or may not exist at all physically.
For example with hermaphordites born with a large clitoris and small
****, the decision to cut the
**** off and focus on the person being a woman may not address other hormonal factors that develop as the body ages to lead the person to feel male although they only have a clitoris.
Some people born in male bodies who feel women and vice versa can be explained by hormonal imbalances. We now know estogen and testosterone are two of many components that can influence or dictate sex drive.
What we also know with
**** and hebephiles is you can castrate them, i.e., remove their genitals but their sex drive attraction still remains.
We now know through mri's that certain parts of the brain lighten up when someone is sexually aroused. We now know if you damage certain parts of the brain it can turn people asexual or cause sexual overdrive or sexual mania, i.e., nymphomania.
We now know for example that
**** might increase blood flow to a
**** but if a man has low levels of certain hormones he may still not feel sexually aroused. We know this two with women and say drugs like estrogen.
Over the thousands of years certain plants and herbs were observed to increase sexual feelings but not necessarily blood flow to the clitoris or
****.
Where the body ends and our emotions and psyche begin is not an exact science. Our minds, emotions and body are three parts of the equation when defining any kind of sexual construct whether it be with behaviour of functioning or reproduction.
Religions at one point taught sex should not be enjoyed and only be used for reproduction. Some people still believe that and associate sex as being "dirty" as its associated with the same body parts discharging feces and urine and can have distinct odours or fluid characteristics.
What should be said is sexuality is not binary and never has been. Its complex and will always be complex and like any study involving life forms, it will vary and can not be defined using fixed close ended logorthyms.
What has been proven is that if a human represses their sexual feelings, this repression of those feelings will cause symptoms that will persist until the sexual feelings can be expressed. Sexual feelings don;t go away, they collect until the point where they become so large they burst out against the person's will. You can only repress a feeling for so long before it has to rise and emit.
Pyromaniacs are a kind of individual who get sexual gratification through fire. They are most often unable to have sex physically due to psycholocial issues so they rechannel the drive through making fires and no they are not aware of this root cause anymore than a serial killer or sexual predator truly understands why they do what they do. Sexual drive is not necessarily predictable or logical when it is expressed and when it is expressed negatively it can be done in an infinite number of ways.
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