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If this is what you want me to address, I can address it directly.
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Actually no I can't address it. My life is too weird. The reason I didn't add my own anecdotes is because I understand that most people weren't finally taught to socialize at the age of 20 by transgender-rationalist group houses. Didn't go to a private high school with the cast of an anime, didn't go through middle school with the hippie fifth of the school- the only fifth of the school that inexplicably goes to class in repurposed trailers outside and goes on hikes every Friday. In my life, male and female humans do not act qualitatively differently. They are all queer fucking autists doing their own thing in some galaxy brained direction.
Most people don't go through every stage of their life surrounded by the strangest possible cast of weirdos. I'm sure many, many people actually do get utility out of gender as a modeling tool. I only ever get utility out of gendered 'things'. Yin and Yang, left side and right side kabbalah. Things that different people pick and choose according to their need, regardless of what happens to be in their pants. Culture and biology as tools that you tear apart and reassemble to fit your need.
I didn't argue that the 'gender spectrum' idea is useful to me, because it's actually insufficiently intricate for me. I didn't argue that it would be useful to raggedy_anthem, because it doesn't sound like it would be that useful. The gender spectrum as an idea is good for one thing, and that is being the antithesis to the gender binary. That is to say, if you are so stuck on the gender binary that you cannot conceptualize why a man would want to wear makeup- then the special sauce: 'Male and Female are not thin edged monolithic categories, there is some blur, you have to model a bit more finely than that.' might be just what you need. But raggedy_anthem claims to be doing alright with their conception of males and females +/- small variances. They have enough of the special sauce to conceptualize the gender weirdest woman they know.
It seemed like delving into their anecdote would mean more to them. I'm easily empathy-sniped by people sharing their social troubles. I blame the estrogen.
Are you claiming the male-female spectrums overlap a lot more than others above claim (among the people you've spent a lot of time with)? Or are you genuinely claiming the distributions male and female behavior don't have any obvious or strong differences (again, among those people)?
Even among rationalists, there seem to be strong differences between the way men and women act. Do you not agree? (and the "blame the estrogen" seems to agree at least a bit).
My perspective is heavily shaped by the fact that most of the people that I interact with are AMAB, and the fact that most of the AFABs I interact with are oddballs that have chosen to dwell in AFAB spaces.
Yes I think estrogen vs testosterone makes a difference, I can feel the difference. Testosterone is... grindy... unsatisfied... demanding... estrogen is... a lot more chill... empathetic... similar to the vibe of an SSRI... the degree to which my gendered associations exaggerate the effects via placebo is unclear to me. But at least part of the effect is real, and the end result is real regardless of how much of it is the 'placebo alcohol' effect.
But mind you, most of the people I've socialized with who are on estrogen were AMABs. So I don't associate estrogen with AFABs to begin with.
There is definitely a difference between how AFAB cis rationalists and transgender AMAB rationalists act as well, transgender AMABs are more likely to be techie programmers for one. Whereas AFAB cis rationalists seem to be more likely to be close to EA. Meanwhile AFAB trans rationalists seem more likely to get into internet fights than AMAB cis rationalists. AMAB trans rationalists are more likely to be occultists than AMAB cis rationalists (or AFABs for that matter), more likely to be autistic, AMAB cis rationalists are less likely to take up social space in the room, are usually more relaxed and have fewer quirks to contribute on game night. They might have more to say about tech but they're less likely to go on an infodump.
At least among rationalists, this feels like at least 4 different "genders" to me. The early socialization matters, but the direction a rat is self-directing matters too. How they self direct is both less impacted by socialization (because they question it all), and further less impacted by traditional socialization (because they aren't spending time in the traditional sphere).
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