Generally a great essay, particularly in differentiating between gender and gender identity while underlining the problems caused by conflating the two:
"[many] made the recent and further distinction between culturally determined gender versus personally determined gender identity, while still often conflating this supposedly crucial distinction under the same generic, canopy term."
However, I think you're wide of the mark in anathematizing the term "gender" while rejecting the view that there's some utility in the term. For instance, the SEP article you quoted in your Quillette article argues that behaviour comes in under the rubric of "gender", and it also argues that personalities do likewise:
"Provisionally: ‘gender’ denotes women and men depending on social factors (social role, position, behaviour or identity)"
"Instead, she holds that gender is a matter of having feminine and masculine personalities that develop in early infancy as responses to prevalent parenting practices."
However, a great deal of solid evidence that our personalities and behaviours are not entirely "socially constructed" but are more or less, to a greater or lesser extent determined or heavily influenced by our genetics, by our sexes in particular:
"To summarize, there is a lack of understanding when it comes to the distribution of sex-related personality and behavioral differences."
"Feminists" of course have their own "reasons" for rejecting any and all influence of genetics on behaviours, but that is not a particularly tenable position.
But quite agree with one of your closing remarks: "In order for one to think clearly, one must be able to speak clearly." Entirely consistent with Voltaire's, "If you wish to converse with me, define your terms", a deficiency in which bedevils the whole "sex/gender/gender-identity" debate.
Seems to be a great deal of value in definitions that clearly differentiate between sex - functional gonads - and gender - behaviours and personality types typical of the sexes, some of which are socially constructed (pink or blue clothes) and some of which aren't (nurturing, neurosis, violence) - and gender-identity - almost entirely subjective, "a merging of science, magic, and religion":
Generally a great essay, particularly in differentiating between gender and gender identity while underlining the problems caused by conflating the two:
"[many] made the recent and further distinction between culturally determined gender versus personally determined gender identity, while still often conflating this supposedly crucial distinction under the same generic, canopy term."
However, I think you're wide of the mark in anathematizing the term "gender" while rejecting the view that there's some utility in the term. For instance, the SEP article you quoted in your Quillette article argues that behaviour comes in under the rubric of "gender", and it also argues that personalities do likewise:
"Provisionally: ‘gender’ denotes women and men depending on social factors (social role, position, behaviour or identity)"
https://quillette.com/2021/08/04/the-incoherence-of-gender-ideology/
"Instead, she holds that gender is a matter of having feminine and masculine personalities that develop in early infancy as responses to prevalent parenting practices."
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/feminism-gender/#GenFemMasPer
However, a great deal of solid evidence that our personalities and behaviours are not entirely "socially constructed" but are more or less, to a greater or lesser extent determined or heavily influenced by our genetics, by our sexes in particular:
"To summarize, there is a lack of understanding when it comes to the distribution of sex-related personality and behavioral differences."
https://4thwavenow.com/2019/08/19/no-child-is-born-in-the-wrong-body-and-other-thoughts-on-the-concept-of-gender-identity/
"Feminists" of course have their own "reasons" for rejecting any and all influence of genetics on behaviours, but that is not a particularly tenable position.
But quite agree with one of your closing remarks: "In order for one to think clearly, one must be able to speak clearly." Entirely consistent with Voltaire's, "If you wish to converse with me, define your terms", a deficiency in which bedevils the whole "sex/gender/gender-identity" debate.
Seems to be a great deal of value in definitions that clearly differentiate between sex - functional gonads - and gender - behaviours and personality types typical of the sexes, some of which are socially constructed (pink or blue clothes) and some of which aren't (nurturing, neurosis, violence) - and gender-identity - almost entirely subjective, "a merging of science, magic, and religion":
https://www.lexico.com/definition/male
https://journal.culanth.org/index.php/ca/article/view/3728/430