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Started reading your PDF (I’ve still a ways to go!) Was taken aback by you writing that societies are not organized around identities. Made me think of all the religious identities societies are organized around! Muslim, Hindu, Jewish -- you name it. Wars are being fought right now over these. I hesitate to write more for fear, on clicking submit, this will require paying or something? Though I would like to engage with thoughtful people on this issue I understand people are being harassed for speaking opinions.

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Really interesting observation. I would argue that religious identities are more than the type of identity we are discussing when talking about gender identity. Religious identities include deep and very long established cultural histories that do, exactly, organise societies. Gender identity is little more than how someone thinks about themselves and how they want to express their gender.

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Thanks for your reply! Seems to me gender is strongly & deeply organized. It’s been said it’s our earliest identity. How we’re supposed to dress, what careers we should pursue, what restrooms we’re supposed to use ... so much! But the situations you discuss (like women’s shelters or prisons) get a bit tricky when you have men who (in bad faith) insist on entry because they ‘feel’ female or are a bit effeminate and probably would suffer for that in the men’s ward. Heck, I’m rather gender non-conforming (sometimes taken for a man when I’m not). I’d hate to be confronted with an interrogation as to my private parts.

I suppose I’d like to see more co-op spaces in place of segregated ones. Also wouldn’t mind doing away with expectations of frilly, feminine dress but I grant some people like that?

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