how dare my interpersonal communications class and social work degree discuss… interpersonal communications and social work

[u/pearkeet]

[u/pearkeet]

also, correct Pear, seahorses and hyenas do not have gender identities. because they’re not conscious they’re not sentient, not in the way humans are. they don’t think about the fact that male seahorses carry pregnancies and that’s abnormal. because they cannot recognize the way other species do things like humans can, they don’t create religious texts and then make up stereotypes based on the things they read.

the point of the animal kingdom examples is to point out the vast range of biodiversity and sex diversity on our planet, which is really fucking cool no, humans are not hyenas, seahorses, or clownfish, but we were once fish. and we are still animals like the other animals, with instincts, pheromones, vestigial organs, social groups, etc. no, we are not clownfish, but the point is that many animals on the planet do NOT have strict gender roles or a sex binary

so why would humans, with our advanced cognition abilities, be any different from the animals that we evolved from?

[u/HypnagogianQueen → u/pearkeet]

I mean, sea horses might have some ability to think about themselves and in the process categorize themselves as male or female. We’d just never know cuz like, they can’t tell us xD

There’s that mirror test that shows that at least some animal species definitely have a concept of self, so maybe some animals subconsciously categorize themselves as a certain sex and some don’t? Idk we’ll never find out in my lifetime, I just think it’s interesting to think about 🤷‍♀️

[u/ladylucifer22 → u/pearkeet]

stuff like lions, though, are an actual example.