OTOH, there is a story to be told about why proto-humans whose brains had states homologous with the states of our brains that we label “gender,” “status,” and so forth succeeded in passing their genes along to the present day, while their siblings who lacked such states did not.
Which suggests that there is—or at least was—something in the world that these brain states correlate with non-accidentally.
That story heavily involves the different roles the genders play in reproduction.
In particular the something that the brain states correlate with is whether you contribute sperms or eggs to the next generation.
Sure, it would be startling if that weren’t a big part of it.
It also probably relates to whether fetuses gestate inside you or not, and to whether you lactate. It might relate to how you bond emotionally to a one-week-old, though then again it might not. It might relate to the selection criteria you use to choose mates. It might relate to the selection criteria you use to choose allies. Etc.
If we actually want to understand “what gender is,” it behooves us to understand the things that it relates to and the things that it doesn’t. And because each of those things is being altered by social changes in different ways, knowing what gender actually relates to helps us predict and understand the effects of various social changes on people of various genders.
That story heavily involves the different roles the genders play in reproduction. In particular the something that the brain states correlate with is whether you contribute sperms or eggs to the next generation.
Sure, it would be startling if that weren’t a big part of it.
It also probably relates to whether fetuses gestate inside you or not, and to whether you lactate. It might relate to how you bond emotionally to a one-week-old, though then again it might not. It might relate to the selection criteria you use to choose mates. It might relate to the selection criteria you use to choose allies. Etc.
If we actually want to understand “what gender is,” it behooves us to understand the things that it relates to and the things that it doesn’t. And because each of those things is being altered by social changes in different ways, knowing what gender actually relates to helps us predict and understand the effects of various social changes on people of various genders.