Might there be a gender awareness spectrum analogous to the visual imagery spectrum?

[Writer61]

I've been raped, robbed, beaten up and confined. I've even had a loaded gun pressed again my forehead and had to talk the man I loved out of pulling the trigger.

They were unique experiences. There is no spectrum, no ranking on any sort of trauma scale.

Emotional support emoji required NOW!

 

[Villainesse]

I can't believe @AG31 is still trying to argue this!

You said something very, very wrong and your inability to recognize that is very troubling. Your excuse that "it only applies to me" is complete horseshit. You said it, you offended people, and it hasn't even occurred to you to apologize.

Your"question" which is completely nonsensical, is more important to you than whether you offended or hurt someone.

 

[Villainesse]

Do yourself a favor and stop digging your hole. It's gotten pretty damn deep

 

[AG31]

I can't believe @AG31 is still trying to argue this!

What am I trying to argue? I asked a question about which I don't have an answer.

You said something very, very wrong

What did I say that's wrong? Quote please.

 

[Villainesse]

Well, at least you addressed the question in the post, although I was talking about an inability to share others' feelings, not believe or respect them.

And you clearly lack all of the above, and then some

 

[Britva415]

There've been a number of threads that have been about, or touched on, the visual imagery spectrum, from pure aphantasia to hyper-phantasia. When people first learn about these differences, they're often totally amazed, bordering on disbelief.

I've wondered if their might be a similar spectrum dealing with gender awareness. It's a trickier thing to talk about, because the disbelief when differences are encountered frequently comes in the form of judgement. As if the difference were a choice. I'd like to give this a go again, saying at the outset that I'm not judging people, simply posing the possibility that our brains are constructed differently.

Here are the two cognitive qualities that make me curious. IMPORTANT NOTE: I am not advocating for social or political policy. I am describing a personal emotional state. Let's not turn this into a thread about the proper societal stance toward rape or transgenderism.

1 - The attitude toward rape. I am puzzled as to what people are feeling when they give rape a special status among violent crimes. I've never been close to being raped, but I've thought about how it might differ, substantively, from being physically beaten up, or confined, or whatever. I can't conjure up the feeling that people describe of a special kind of violation.

2 - The drive to change one's gender identity. I can't find a place in my head that strongly identifies as female. My sexuality is clearly hetero, attraction to men, but if I imagine myself being turned into a man, I don't imagine a lot of change, beyond the obvious. The "me" would still be me. Clearly other people are built differently, to the point where a mismatch between what they feel and how they're categorized is so strong they'll expend great effort to resolve the mismatch.

It dawned on me that we may have a spectrum here, that is not widely recognized, like the visual imagery spectrum.

Do you think that's possible? Does anyone share my lack of strong gender identity?

Or, as @stickygirl asked, "So... how does it feel to be a man? If we were somehow able to hide your genitals from your view how would you know you were male?"

I think non-binary people could be found all along the spectrum, from an intense awareness of a mix of genders, to only a faint, on again/off again awareness.

Yes, there is such a spectrum and there are people on all the different points along it.

I base this opinion on knowing people who are self-aware enough to have this exact conversation and place themselves along the spectrum, while they recognize that other people don't have the same experience as them and are valid wherever they're at.

Now:
I don't see what this has to do with rape and nothing I'm saying should be construed to imply any particular belief at all on the subject of rape. I just don't want to discuss that part of this post at all and I hope not to have anyone respond by projecting anything onto me in that regard.

 

[Villainesse]

"I AM PUZZLED AS TO WHAT PEOPLE ARE FEELING WHEN THEY GIVE RAPE A SPECIAL STATUS AMONG VIOLENT CRIMES."

Etc

And maybe "arguing" is the wrong word, it's something worse. You are completely oblivious to the fact that you've hurt and offended people, which is a much bigger issue than your brain-dead question, which nobody cares about.

 

[Britva415]

So you have no thoughts about how people might differ in the quality of gender awareness?

I gave mine and I'm keeping that separate from anything to do with rape.

 

[Britva415]

Not having a strong sense of your OWN gender has NO bearing on your ability to understand, believe, or respect someone else's gender.

Maybe there are two different spectra, because both of these are things. But you're right, they aren't the same thing.

 

[Villainesse]

What am I trying to argue? I asked a question about which I don't have an answer.

What did I say that's wrong? Quote please.

Hoe the FUCK could you be puzzled about RAPE unless you've been living in a cave with no contact to the outside world????

 

[Villainesse]

Am I missing something? Is this a bot?

 

[Villainesse]

50% of women and 1 in 6 men have experienced "contact sexual violence" in their life. 1 in 5 women, outright raped (1 in 31 men).

Safe to say a majority of people know someone who has survived this trauma.

"What's the big deal?"

 

[Hmm72]

the most scum thing any human can do to another, even scummier when a low life scum bag guy does so to a woman.

 

[Writer61]

Writer61 said:
The point is that you appear to be conflating gender awareness with sexual violence.

Well, I'm certainly not.

That may not have been your intention, but you mentioned both topics in the same post and asked whether there was a spectrum connecting them.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Well, at least you addressed the question in the post, although I was talking about an inability to share others' feelings, not believe or respect them.

That's empathy, and I'd say there's a very wide range in that.

 

[kreemi_pi]

Well this sure has been a lot of fun