This is why people should have at least some knowledge of Wittgenstein's beetle in a box thought experiment before getting involved in debates on gender identity. https://twitter.com/oliverburkeman/status/960947159045582849 …
Also, you need to have some idea about the idea that speech acts have illocutionary and perlocutionary aspects; or, to put it another way, that we are inevitably doing things with words (which goes beyond mere ostensible meaning).
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Plus, I'd also recommend the Wittgensteinian idea of "family resemblance" if you want to get an idea of how you might get to define gender in a meaningful way. (It allows you to deal with "edge" cases.)
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Tim Williamson's epistemic theory of vagueness is another possible approach - vague concepts have sharp, unknowable boundaries - but it's highly counterintuitive.
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Alternatively, you could eschew all the philosophy, and just read Everyday Feminism or Buzzfeed, because I'm sure that'll do just as well.
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And finally, repeat after me - gender is a hierarchical, relational system, existing in a dialectical relationship with a biological substrate, that is imposed from the outside through inescapable patterns of socialization.
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End of conversation
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