I&#x27;ve always found the idea of gender identity a bit odd because it seems to present this idea of discrete &#x27;identities&#x27;, negating human personality, drawing patterns where none need to exist.<p>Talking about appearance (which covers race, gender, basically stereotyping in general) - a human might look at another human, see that they have certain attributes (I dunno, wonky teeth, not well shaven, particular gait, whatever) and decide to box them.<p>The idea of gender identity seems to be a way of trying to break out of that box of judgement. So yeah, I look like I have a penis, sexually I can interact with those with vaginas and produce children, but that&#x27;s where it ends, I figure.<p>What I personally don&#x27;t understand, at the moment, is what makes it different from anything else - identifying as working&#x2F;middle&#x2F;upper class, as a nationality, as whatever, really. They all seem like patterns of the same thing to me. If you&#x27;re working class and you waltz about in a suit with links, providing you can even afford such a thing, you&#x27;re not going to be treated well by your peers. And that sucks! But what does the identity help? Being able to find others who want to do the same things?<p>Is it just that we&#x27;re doomed to try to simplify our models about society by creating these groups, so gender identity is about trying to move the groups a bit to limit damage? Or what?<p>Fundamentally I&#x27;m not sure I even understand what it means to &#x27;identify&#x27; as an X. What if I think that all of the groups are nonsense? That I don&#x27;t feel working class, or middle class, or male, or female, or whatever? I sort of am one of them, by birth and inheritance, I guess, but my feelings about it seem kind of immaterial?<p>edit: Turns out that reading the whole article properly, rather than skimming it, means that my comment is almost entirely superfluous. :)