Post #1942979

2026-03-29 13:36 UTC

@cassey I read the post and I’ll admit I don’t get it. They spend a lot of time telling us how all sexes can play all roles, if you have the mental flexibility you can change how you perceive the world and the expectations you impose on others, that people need to be decoded and understood easily by others. I agree with all of that. and then they start reinforcing the idea that you need to change your external appearance in order to be treated differently, be it carrying a kid or transitioning

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@cassey@ottawa.place 2026-03-29 14:23

@eljojo it's making the point that the roles are real - recognized fairly broadly by a culture and even seen as "just the way things are" even though we know that how the roles are defined (men are like this, women are like this, dads are like this vs young childless men are like this) aren't the same across cultures or across time. They're not some inherent truth about biological sex, they arise in a particular cultural context- but that doesn't make the role/category not a thing, right? And yeah - people of any sex assigned at birth can shift between the categories. Some people find they like it more when they're automatically recognized as part of a category that's different than the category they were originally seen as - the childless man who is trusted more as a father, or a person who was assigned male at birth but who feels better when people read them as being part of the "woman" category and treat them how people in the "woman" category are usually treated. You don't _need_ to change your appearance to be treated differently but it sure helps - the roles exist even if we might prefer they didn't, and people recognize others as being part of certain social categories without really thinking about it. If it feels better to be recognized by others as part of the category you prefer - why not?

Open ##1942980