Books which I read out loud to Jo over the course of a week. This is going to provoke you. It is about sex and gender, and it is primarily about non-human primates. De Waal is very compassionate and acknowledging of the facts that a) transgender humans definitely exist and definitely interact with sex/gender in a way different from the relations of non-human primates with their sex (and, arguably, gender) and b) we live in an exceptionally sexist and transphobic society and that is why we have so few studies on the biology/neurology of trans people.

He also cites extensively studies finding sex-based differences in play behavior in chimps and bonobos, as well as in human infants and toddlers. Studies finding sex-linked differences in behavior in adult humans–some large, some small. Mostly related to affiliative behavior and conflict strategies, especially between sexes.

It made me reflect on the parts of me that are genderless, and the feelings I have around that, and which parts of me are at all biologically female, if any at all. He reminds me again that dualism is a pretty lie, I am a biological creature and my identity exists, always, in my biology. My brain is different than that of a cis woman’s, and I think a lot about emergent complexity (the ability of small, simple structures with simple rules to produce incredibly complicated outcomes), identical twins have different sexualities sometimes, and statistics is never a study of one, it’s about the population, there are and will always be outliers.

Extremely, extremely thought provoking. Still turning over what this means for my positions on gender.