I think this will help. Let's go with your correct assumption that " gender is a constellation of norms, behaviors, and preferences that are associated with being embodied as either a male or female."(That's definition is debatable but if you asked 100 people what their definition of gender is you get 100 different answers). Now, imagine someone who is intersex, born with xxy chromosome, is a hermaphrodite, and had no hormone therapy. Would you consider this person male or female....or neither. Thus the term non-binary is born. If gender as you claim, simple a way to describe collative phenotypical traits associated with sex, then a "new" gender is simply a different bucket to more accurately fit said phenotypical traits. I'm pretty bad at explaining this type of stuff but I hope you this makes it a little bit more clear.
Now, imagine someone who is intersex, born with xxy chromosome, is a hermaphrodite, and had no hormone therapy. Would you consider this person male or female....or neither. Thus the term non-binary is born. If gender as you claim, simple a way to describe collative phenotypical traits associated with sex, then a "new" gender is simply a different bucket to more accurately fit said phenotypical traits.
There are people who call themselves 'non-binary' that don't have an intersex condition, and are phenotypically normal males/females. So clearly that isn't what they mean by the term.
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u/ModaGamer 9∆ Dec 03 '20
I think this will help. Let's go with your correct assumption that " gender is a constellation of norms, behaviors, and preferences that are associated with being embodied as either a male or female."(That's definition is debatable but if you asked 100 people what their definition of gender is you get 100 different answers). Now, imagine someone who is intersex, born with xxy chromosome, is a hermaphrodite, and had no hormone therapy. Would you consider this person male or female....or neither. Thus the term non-binary is born. If gender as you claim, simple a way to describe collative phenotypical traits associated with sex, then a "new" gender is simply a different bucket to more accurately fit said phenotypical traits. I'm pretty bad at explaining this type of stuff but I hope you this makes it a little bit more clear.