Poll: There are only 2 genders....right?

[AgedGrunt]

I suppose all I can really do is ask you to see it from their perspective. Imagine if you were the same as you are now, but everyone treated you as if you were of the opposite sex. Wouldn't that drive you crazy? Would you continue to be yourself, despite the dismissal of those around you or would you pretend to be that other gender just to appease them? If someone of one sex appears indistinguishably as someone of another, why is it anyone's business which chromosomes they have or even what genitals they have? I don't know about you but I don't see a lot of genitalia when I go outside, people tend to wear clothes.

How someone is referred to and what they are, are two different things. That's my point.

And I'd find it ignorant if I were called a woman when I am and was born male. I'm male by fact; public perception can't change that. Transgenderism is about perception, which isn't fact.

Not saying it's fine to ignore someone's identity or that trans people should have to pretend to be someone they're not, but then I'm also not saying that everyone else has to pretend trans people are someone they're not. Personally, I don't care as long as we're good people and not lying and deceiving each other about what we are.

 

[Dizchu]

How someone is referred to and what they are, are two different things. That's my point.

And my point is that biological sex and gender identity are being conflated. You can either say gender is purely biological that has no effect on how you are treated or that it is a cultural thing that does greatly influence how you are treated. The third option is that there should be boundaries on how biological males and females can express themselves, which sounds a bit unethical don't you think?

And I'd find it ignorant if I were called a woman when I am and was born male. I'm male by fact; public perception can't change that. Transgenderism is about perception, which isn't fact.

But gender is about perception. You can often look at a person without seeing their genitals and determine if they're male or female. If you met a dude on the street that identified as a dude, you wouldn't demand a blood sample from them so you can take it to a lab to check their chromosomes and only then believe them. That'd be absurd. Yes, the way transgender people transition is artificial, but so are things like prosthetic limbs. They're repairing a fault with their body so they can live their lives more normally. I don't see what's so wrong with that? By constantly reminding a transgender person of their birth sex, what you're doing is essentially like reminding an amputee of their struggles growing up without a leg or the accident that they lost it in. It helps nobody, the amputee knows that they have a leg missing, they just don't want to be burdened with this fact constantly when there are ways to circumvent the problem.

It's not like transgender people aren't aware that they're transgender, they just want to live normally and not be reminded of it all the time. You later go on to say that they're "pretending" and that those that accept them are also "pretending". But those that make the most fuss are those that demand that their identity is wrong and that they are living a delusion.

But let's say that being transgender was "pretending" and it wasn't a legitimate condition. What you're suggesting is the same as going to a church and shouting "there is no god" or "Allah is the only god" or something like that. All that happens is that you satisfy your ego and annoy a bunch of people. Is it worth it?

 

[Lightknight]

I suppose all I can really do is ask you to see it from their perspective. Imagine if you were the same as you are now, but everyone treated you as if you were of the opposite sex. Wouldn't that drive you crazy? Would you continue to be yourself, despite the dismissal of those around you or would you pretend to be that other gender just to appease them? If someone of one sex appears indistinguishably as someone of another, why is it anyone's business which chromosomes they have or even what genitals they have? I don't know about you but I don't see a lot of genitalia when I go outside, people tend to wear clothes.

If I was really white but felt like I was black I wouldn't expect people to conform to my own view of reality when I clearly do not match the criteria of their reality to be treated as such.

It's important to treat everyone with respect and as valuable people. That is vital to understand in this discussion. It is by no means a necessity or obligation to play along with someone else's disorder. My personal concept of someone being male or female is entirely sex-based. How the person feels or behaves is irrelevant to the physical makeup of the person to most people in what sex they are treated as. There are some gray areas but those are exceptions and not typically the norm (such as hermaphrodites) and wouldn't qualify for transgendered individuals even post operation (genital mutilation and hormone therapy don't actually change your sex so much as your legal sex and your apparent sex, but too much biology remains).

It isn't that I don't get that they're experiencing a gender identity that is disparate to their physical sex. I get that. It's just that I don't think that is relevant to what sex they are. You could walk up to me and tell me you're a kitten inside (yes, some furries really go this route) and I'm still going to think of you like a person of whatever sex you appear to be.

Now, the individuals that I know which are transgendered? I'll be polite and caring just like I am for anyone else. But I am not going to go out of my way to accommodate their own personal reality. I shouldn't be labeled as transphobic just because of an issue of semantics. Me saying "he" instead of "she" doesn't mean I hate someone. I stand strong with them against bullying and any hate. But I also expect my own view of reality to be respected too. Why should their reality override mine?

 

[IMissedThatOne]

I suppose all I can really do is ask you to see it from their perspective. Imagine if you were the same as you are now, but everyone treated you as if you were of the opposite sex. Wouldn't that drive you crazy? Would you continue to be yourself, despite the dismissal of those around you or would you pretend to be that other gender just to appease them? If someone of one sex appears indistinguishably as someone of another, why is it anyone's business which chromosomes they have or even what genitals they have? I don't know about you but I don't see a lot of genitalia when I go outside, people tend to wear clothes.

If I was really white but felt like I was black I wouldn't expect people to conform to my own view of reality when I clearly do not match the criteria of their reality to be treated as such.

It's important to treat everyone with respect and as valuable people. That is vital to understand in this discussion. It is by no means a necessity or obligation to play along with someone else's disorder. My personal concept of someone being male or female is entirely sex-based. How the person feels or behaves is irrelevant to the physical makeup of the person to most people in what sex they are treated as. There are some gray areas but those are exceptions and not typically the norm (such as hermaphrodites) and wouldn't qualify for transgendered individuals even post operation (genital mutilation and hormone therapy don't actually change your sex so much as your legal sex and your apparent sex, but too much biology remains).

It isn't that I don't get that they're experiencing a gender identity that is disparate to their physical sex. I get that. It's just that I don't think that is relevant to what sex they are. You could walk up to me and tell me you're a kitten inside (yes, some furries really go this route) and I'm still going to think of you like a person of whatever sex you appear to be.

Now, the individuals that I know which are transgendered? I'll be polite and caring just like I am for anyone else. But I am not going to go out of my way to accommodate their own personal reality. I shouldn't be labeled as transphobic just because of an issue of semantics. Me saying "he" instead of "she" doesn't mean I hate someone. I stand strong with them against bullying and any hate. But I also expect my own view of reality to be respected too. Why should their reality override mine?

Well you somewhat contradicted yourself. If you wanted to be polite and caring you would call them the gender they would want to be addressed at and the reason for a that is easy: because you're compassionate to their mental troubles.

But let's start somewhere else, because I want to make sure you have to right picture of what gender identity disorder actually means. Their perception of reality is not different from your own. Every transperson knows what sex they are. As you already stated gender identy can be different from the sex of a person but question is why? And since you compare them so to people who think of themselves as animals I think your information on why and how modern psychology came to the conclusion a "core gender identy" in each individual exists is lacking.

The first part is that for the last century the transsexual patient was seen as actually delusional and everything was done to hopefully free them from their "twisted" minds but neither psychotherapy, behavior therapy or aversion therapy helped and the question was why are transsexuals so ressistent to treamtment? Even very early on people suspected a biological root and this has only been strenghtend by recent research. The whole etiology has not been found but a strong a biological influence is nowadays out of question: Here are some sorces just so you know I'm not talking out of my ass
http://europepmc.org/abstract/med/25667367
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1743-6109.2011.02567.x/abstract;jsessionid=E31F983FFF8B5F1A62A57462AA3895CE.f02t01?deniedAccessCustomisedMessage=&userIsAuthenticated=false
http://press.endocrine.org/doi/full/10.1210/jcem.85.5.6564

And not only that but transgender people aren't the only ones with mixed up gender identity. For a very long time intersexual children have been tried to be raised as one gender or another only depending on how well developed their penis was with very poor results.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1421517/

It then became standart that every person has an inner sense of their gender and being forced to live against it causes the individual mental stress and depression:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23574768
http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/ccp/81/3/545/

So the reasons you should treat them as their gender ther're presenting rather than as you see them are the following:
1.No one wants to be gender dysphoric and the only way for them to live a halway normal life is to treat like a person whose gender identity matches with them after all if you were hit you with gender dysphoria you would want to be treated the same way.
2. As it has been shown gender dysphoria causes a lot of pain to the individual trying to ease that pain by atleast letting them live as a normal woman or man as best as it can be done should be a non issue since it only costs you a quick change of pronouns.

Also no one expects to go and tell a transperson that they actually have their nonexisting gentials and that their penis is totally a vagina. They know what is and isn't there. You also don't have to date them or whatever the only thing that people ask for is that they will be treated socially as their gender identity since social recognition and acceptance is important for every human being.

 

[Silvershadowfire]

So... My answer to the question is twofold. Under strict definition of the term, there are three manifestations of sexual characteristics in the human animal; male, female, intersex.

To those of you arguing the XX XY defintion, I will respectfully point out that there are in fact five criteria used to determine if a person is male or female:

1) The number and type of chromosomes
2) The type of gonads (sexual reproduction organs - testes or ovaries)
3) The sex hormones produced (the ratio of testosterone to estrogen)
4) Internal reproductive anatomy
5) External genitalia

People in whom all five of these critera are not all male or all female at birth are considered 'intersex'.

(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intersex )


Personally, I tend to group people in my head into five particular sexual groups; male, female, female-presenting intersex, male presenting intersex, and neutral/androgenous/both. Again, this is just my personal perspective. It has nothing to do with science, social norms or gender representation.

 

[chumpo]

Gender dysphoria is a mental disorder, not a reflection of reality. People are what they physically are, whether they like it or not. I'm under no obligation to lie for anyone, and care very little about the feelings of anyone who would demand that I do so.

Registered to say that I strongly agree with this guy.

This is a mental disorder and comes entirely down to perception. Well, my perception is different and I do not see a 3rd+ gender, just as I do not see the body of christ in a cracker.

You want to start a dumb cult? Sure, go ahead.
You want the freedom to do that? Sure, you already have it.
You want to wear a crazy hat at work to show your faith? Go for it.
You want me to stat saying your hat is actually your hair? Well now sadly it has become about me, and not you, and I am gonna say no.

 

[Danny Ocean]

Some gendered norms are biologically driven. Most are partially biologically driven (seen as a combination of nature and nurture).

There are of course some gendered stereotypes that don't span cultures and those are purely socially driven. But they are by far not the total sum of all gendered stereotypes, some which are anchored in real universal differences that have been measured across cultures.

Honestly, it would be silly to believe in evolution and to not believe that we as a sexually dimorphic species don't have differing qualities in this area.

This is true. That's why I clarified in that quoted section that, "it is primarily determined by a set of apparent phenotypical characteristics which only partly reflect sexual differences."

That is to say that: it's mostly attributed based on the visible effects of particular combinations of sex chromosomes. Often, however, the sex genes are given inaccurately heavy weighting in their determination of physical differences, such as in the case of weight (more an environmental and hereditary factor than a sexual one), or strength (more the result of lifestyle differences).

We do very much have differing qualities, of course, but in the greater scheme of the animal kingdom these differences (even in extreme cases) are not really particularly large, yet are given huge emphasis in determining the structure of our societies and the way we treat eachother. That's why I think all the other animals would think we all look the same, or the invading aliens would be laughing as we consistently fail to make the most of our species' potential.

The exception of course is reproductive role, which obliges women to take about 9 months to carry the baby, and then the baby to be breast-fed. But, again, this minimal biologically-determined obligation has been blown up to the point where (in most of the world) females are considered mothers or potential mothers first and foremost, regardless of their other potentials.

 

[KyuubiNoKitsune-Hime]

As far as I'm concerned, there are only 2 genders; both are biological classifications regarding the reproductive capabilities and its associated genes of an individual organism. I also don't want to play pretend with people who don't like their sex.

Yes because gender dysphoria isn't a real thing and transgender people don't have a valid expectation to be refered to by gender pronouns that fit them and their identity best. Wait... That's the opposite of the truth, and it's hurtful to transgender people. Not only that, but saying "playing pretend with people who don't like their sex" is both insulting and condecending. Seriously look at what the person before you posted...

Gender dysphoria is a mental disorder, not a reflection of reality. People are what they physically are, whether they like it or not. I'm under no obligation to lie for anyone, and care very little about the feelings of anyone who would demand that I do so.

The DSM-V physician's desk reference manual does not call gender dysphoria a mental disorder or mental illness, and neither does any other valid psychological data. So right there you're absolutely incorrect. Also if I came up and misgendered you intentionally you'd be angry with me, so how is it any different for a trans person, especially when it takes no real effort on your part? It's not, and if you expect me to respect your feelings, it's a two way street, respect, you don't get yours with out giving back in kind. So your argument doesn't hold water.

Registered to say that I strongly agree with this guy.

This is a mental disorder and comes entirely down to perception. Well, my perception is different and I do not see a 3rd+ gender, just as I do not see the body of christ in a cracker.

You want to start a dumb cult? Sure, go ahead.
You want the freedom to do that? Sure, you already have it.
You want to wear a crazy hat at work to show your faith? Go for it.
You want me to stat saying your hat is actually your hair? Well now sadly it has become about me, and not you, and I am gonna say no.

Except that gender dysphoria is not a mental disorder or mental illness, no psychiatrist, psychologist, or therapist of any kind will agree with that is a disorder either. At least none who didn't get their diploma out of a cracker jack box.

Also non-sequitur argument is non-sequitur, you're not being asked to call a hat hair, you're being asked to use comfortable gender pronouns.

 

[likalaruku]

I'm female. I dress feminine (though I only wear pants & capris) but all my hobbies are masculine, past jobs include house construction, cooking, car sales, & nursing the elderly. I don't get along with girly girls or macho men. I tend to be drawn to tall aggressive women & timid feminine looking men, but I'm not a sexual person. I guess I'm more of an anti-gender person. I suppose it's the same thing as Genderfluid? Not sure... I don't really approve of "gender roles" but seeing people spit in the face of traditional roles does please me, but mostly because it annoys conservative people & I have that whole Schadenfreude thing going on.

 

[KyuubiNoKitsune-Hime]

I'm a woman. I dress feminine but all my hobbies are masculine, I don't get along with girly girls or macho men. I tend to be drawn to tall aggressive women & timid feminine looking men, but I'm not a sexual person. I guess I'm more of an anti-gender person. I suppose it's the same thing as Genderfluid? Not sure...

Genderfluid is basically applicable to people who have no set gender identity, they go from one to the other depending on what they feel when they wake up in the morning. Some days/weeks/months/whatever they feel female, others they feel male, and others they feel neither. I'd kind of say your post-gender, or just have a preference for people who don't conform to the gender rules.

 

[Mong0]

As far as I'm concerned, there are only 2 genders; both are biological classifications regarding the reproductive capabilities and its associated genes of an individual organism. I also don't want to play pretend with people who don't like their sex.

Yes because gender dysphoria isn't a real thing and transgender people don't have a valid expectation to be refered to by gender pronouns that fit them and their identity best. Wait... That's the opposite of the truth, and it's hurtful to transgender people. Not only that, but saying "playing pretend with people who don't like their sex" is both insulting and condecending. Seriously look at what the person before you posted...

Gender dysphoria is a mental disorder, not a reflection of reality. People are what they physically are, whether they like it or not. I'm under no obligation to lie for anyone, and care very little about the feelings of anyone who would demand that I do so.

The DSM-V physician's desk reference manual does not call gender dysphoria a mental disorder or mental illness, and neither does any other valid psychological data. So right there you're absolutely incorrect. Also if I came up and misgendered you intentionally you'd be angry with me, so how is it any different for a trans person, especially when it takes no real effort on your part? It's not, and if you expect me to respect your feelings, it's a two way street, respect, you don't get yours with out giving back in kind. So your argument doesn't hold water.

Registered to say that I strongly agree with this guy.

This is a mental disorder and comes entirely down to perception. Well, my perception is different and I do not see a 3rd+ gender, just as I do not see the body of christ in a cracker.

You want to start a dumb cult? Sure, go ahead.
You want the freedom to do that? Sure, you already have it.
You want to wear a crazy hat at work to show your faith? Go for it.
You want me to stat saying your hat is actually your hair? Well now sadly it has become about me, and not you, and I am gonna say no.

Except that gender dysphoria is not a mental disorder or mental illness, no psychiatrist, psychologist, or therapist of any kind will agree with that is a disorder either. At least none who didn't get their diploma out of a cracker jack box.

Also non-sequitur argument is non-sequitur, you're not being asked to call a hat hair, you're being asked to use comfortable gender pronouns.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_identity_disorder
"Gender identity disorder is classified as a medical disorder by the ICD-10 CM[7] and DSM-5 (called gender dysphoria).[8]"

Even were it not, it is still a disorder that afflicts the mind, causing one's feelings to detach from reality, so my point would still stand. Regarding your second point, you're assuming that the transgendered's desired gender is the actual gender, which is what I disagree with in the first place. Also, if you just walked up to me and misgendered me, I'd probably just be curious and a bit amused.

 

[KyuubiNoKitsune-Hime]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_identity_disorder
"Gender identity disorder is classified as a medical disorder by the ICD-10 CM[7] and DSM-5 (called gender dysphoria).[8]"

Even were it not, it is still a disorder that afflicts the mind, causing one's feelings to detach from reality, so my point would still stand. Regarding your second point, you're assuming that the transgendered's desired gender is the actual gender, which is what I disagree with in the first place. Also, if you just walked up to me and misgendered me, I'd probably just be curious and a bit amused.

Right there in that wikipedia article it says medical disorder not mental disorder which was not changed from the DSM-IV where it states: "The DSM-IV-TR diagnostic component of distress is not inherent in the cross-gender identity; rather, it is related to social rejection and discrimination suffered by the individual. Dr. Darryl Hill insists that GID is not a mental disorder, but rather that the diagnostic criteria reflect psychological distress in children that occurs when parents and others have trouble relating to their child's gender variance. Transgender people have often been harassed, socially excluded, and subjected to discrimination, abuse and violence, including murder."

So that argument just fell flat. Both are available on the the article you linked too.

"My opinion invalidates your self expression" is an argument that shows no respect for the other person, or in other words not an argument that holds water if you expect any basic respect from the other person.

Also if you were disrespecting me by misgendering me and I did the same to you, you'd take offense with it rather quickly, because I wouldn't be stopping until you did.

 

[cikame]

If a man wants to be a woman, that's fine, i'll call them a woman, but he's still a man and always will be. There are only two genders and you will always be what you were born to be.

Animals don't have this confusion, and all we are are intelligent animals.

 

[Addendum_Forthcoming]

So... My answer to the question is twofold. Under strict definition of the term, there are three manifestations of sexual characteristics in the human animal; male, female, intersex.

To those of you arguing the XX XY defintion, I will respectfully point out that there are in fact five criteria used to determine if a person is male or female:

1) The number and type of chromosomes
2) The type of gonads (sexual reproduction organs - testes or ovaries)
3) The sex hormones produced (the ratio of testosterone to estrogen)
4) Internal reproductive anatomy
5) External genitalia

People in whom all five of these critera are not all male or all female at birth are considered 'intersex'.

(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intersex )


Personally, I tend to group people in my head into five particular sexual groups; male, female, female-presenting intersex, male presenting intersex, and neutral/androgenous/both. Again, this is just my personal perspective. It has nothing to do with science, social norms or gender representation.

Seems like an arbitrary list, actually.

I have Klinefelter's (XXY), low testosterone, all that jazz, partial breast growth when I was 16, REALLY awkward body issues as a kid that really didn't help coming out to my parents ... I don't consider myself intersex. For the majority of people who would be on that list would be overwhelmingly KS people like me.

Also how does the number of sex chromosomes determine sex? Are we talking barr bodies included, or other things I'm failing to take into account? If they mean it to mean; "You have 47 or more chromosomes, you are intersex."

Which seems like a pretty stupid thing to say to someone with Klinefelter's who actually manages to produce offspring via surgery to extract viable sperm and artificially inseminate an ovum from the mother. How can you be 'between sexes' and produce a baby from your own baby gravy? Basic genetics, the Y still makes a 'male' in most aspects, but the majority of Klinefelter's (XXY, XXXY, XXYY) patients have low testosterone production. Often develop secondary sex characteristics... but the majority of them would still likely call themselves males.

This whole intersex thing seems kinda arbitrary unless self elected.

(Edit) ALso, I identify as genderqueer (genderfluid, specifically, depends of my mood when I wake up) ... so it kinda plays havoc if that initial list is true, and your list is how you see people. Seems much simpler to just treat people as they say they are and present as and call it a day. Also, I feel uncomfortable people thinking of me as intersex when I've never seen myself as intersex. Probably for the same reason I would have trouble with people treating me as male if I don't present male. I would imagine the KS males would not take kindly, in most cases, to not being thought of as males and there's no reason not to either.

(Edit of an Edit) They should also have a sixth criterion on that initial list; Do they consider themselves intersex, male or female? And just have this override EVERYTHNG above.

 

[Mong0]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_identity_disorder
"Gender identity disorder is classified as a medical disorder by the ICD-10 CM[7] and DSM-5 (called gender dysphoria).[8]"

Even were it not, it is still a disorder that afflicts the mind, causing one's feelings to detach from reality, so my point would still stand. Regarding your second point, you're assuming that the transgendered's desired gender is the actual gender, which is what I disagree with in the first place. Also, if you just walked up to me and misgendered me, I'd probably just be curious and a bit amused.

Right there in that wikipedia article it says medical disorder not mental disorder which was not changed from the DSM-IV where it states: "The DSM-IV-TR diagnostic component of distress is not inherent in the cross-gender identity; rather, it is related to social rejection and discrimination suffered by the individual. Dr. Darryl Hill insists that GID is not a mental disorder, but rather that the diagnostic criteria reflect psychological distress in children that occurs when parents and others have trouble relating to their child's gender variance. Transgender people have often been harassed, socially excluded, and subjected to discrimination, abuse and violence, including murder."

So that argument just fell flat. Both are available on the the article you linked too.

"My opinion invalidates your self expression" is an argument that shows no respect for the other person, or in other words not an argument that holds water if you expect any basic respect from the other person.

Also if you were disrespecting me by misgendering me and I did the same to you, you'd take offense with it rather quickly, because I wouldn't be stopping until you did.

I misread medical as mental, I'm actually kind of shocked that it isn't considering they have a mental or personality disorder for every little quirk.
The other half of my point, which has gone unaddressed, is the fact that self perception does not change one's physiology. Neither does sex reassignment surgery, as the body still retains the same sex genes, and there is no creation of reproductive organs. Additionally, sex being the reproductive classification of an animal is a widely accepted definition of the word, not an opinion.

 

[Anti Nudist Cupcake]

I think gender is something we just made up. You have a biological sex. This is a physical, observable trait that has functional meaning. Gender is all in our heads. What your thoughts are have no meaning whatsoever to the universe unless they are translated into practical application that alters nature. We can make up literally anything and just slap a "masculine" or "feminine" label on it. Blue used to be a girl's color a long time ago but switched places with pink, sitting with one knee over the other is considered effeminate in western cultures but not so much in european cultures, leg and facial hair are considered masculine traits even though they are biological traits typical to both women and men, etc.

I think we should live in a world where we can have a dynamic range of tastes and behaviours without having to keep ourselves narrowed down to conforming to any specific identity labels.

 

[Silvanus]

The other half of my point, which has gone unaddressed, is the fact that self perception does not change one's physiology. Neither does sex reassignment surgery, as the body still retains the same sex genes, and there is no creation of reproductive organs.

SRS quite clearly does change physiology; it changes genitalia and the chest shape, among other things. Genes are not all there is to physiology.

Additionally, sex being the reproductive classification of an animal is a widely accepted definition of the word, not an opinion.

Aye, because it holds true for the majority of animals, and is a useful general rule. This doesn't mean we should treat it as absolute. Doing so would discount injured people, or infertile people, from being considered male or female if they couldn't reproduce.

Similarly, notice that documentaries and even papers will characterise animal sexual behaviour by male-female pairings, because that behaviour is typical and a useful general rule. It's also far from absolute, and we shouldn't treat it as such.

 

[KyuubiNoKitsune-Hime]

I misread medical as mental, I'm actually kind of shocked that it isn't considering they have a mental or personality disorder for every little quirk.
The other half of my point, which has gone unaddressed, is the fact that self perception does not change one's physiology. Neither does sex reassignment surgery, as the body still retains the same sex genes, and there is no creation of reproductive organs. Additionally, sex being the reproductive classification of an animal is a widely accepted definition of the word, not an opinion.

That's right, but; sex is the physical descriptor, gender is the social and mental descriptor. This is why transgender is actually something that exists within humans.

By the way people keep mentioning genetics so I have an interesting thing to add: I have XX male syndrome, or de la Chapelle syndrome, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XX_male_syndrome] which is actually different from XXY genetics called Klinefelter Syndrome. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klinefelter_syndrome]

 

[Naeo]

Terminological quibbling: sex is not gender.

"Sex"--i.e., biological sex--is generally fairly binary. While it may be a bit of an oversimplification, a male/female dicohotomy accounts for almost everyone if we're only looking at biological sex. Yes, there are some individuals who are hermaphroditic or for whom their sex is unclear, medically (not "I can't instantly tell by looking at them), but male/female generally works here.

"Gender," though, is how people self-identify. Gender refers to a cultural categorization of individuals based on their actions--manner of dress, language, etc--and, yes, often their biological sex. Unlike biological sex, a simple male/female dichotomy just doesn't work here. Some people identify as absolutely, super-duper, all the way male. Some people identify as just regular male. Some people identify as neutral/neither. Some people identify as a third gender. It doesn't strictly need to correlate with their biological sex (see, for instance, the existence of transgendered people, whose gender does not match their biological sex). Gender is an individual trait much like what food or music you like, and because it's an individual psychological/personality/etc trait, it's as variable as people themselves are. So there aren't just 64 genders--there are literally an infinite number of genders. Well, an infinite number of ways someone can identify their gender--as very masculine to very feminine and everything in between (and anything off of that two-pole spectrum), with the parameters for masculine/feminine/etc varying across different cultures. Being a continuous spectrum rather than a binary "male XOR female" situation, there are infinite ways someone can identify their genders.

So, no, there are not two, because gender =/= biological sex.

 

[AwesomeHatMan]

From how I've come to understand gender I would say that there would be over 7,000,000,000 genders, where every human being has their own unique gender and as such defining or referring to genders is pointless.