Gradine
The Elephant in the Room (she/her)
Well, no--the point I'm trying to make is that gender exists because of gender dimorphism in the animal kingdom, which serves the purpose of reproduction. I'm agreeing that humans have made more out of it than that for ourselves, but the origin of gender is all about the origin of offspring.
Gender has nothing to do with offspring or sexual reproduction and everything to the way societies have constructed gender roles. Once again, there is nothing inherently biological in the formation or proscription of gender roles.
Hell, if gender roles were as linked to reproduction in humans as you suggest, we would all trace our lineage matrilinearly, and monogamy would not be the norm. The dominance of patrilineage and monogamy suggest that there absolutely no link between society's constructed gender roles and any biological imperative regarding reproduction.
You've made a couple of assertions which are telling. First was that no authority would consider gender to have anything to do with biology, and the second was your statement that no authority has ever considered the "singular they" to be bad grammar. These statements suggest the possibility that you consider agreement with your current position on these issues to be necessary for a person to have authority with regard to the issue. It suggests that you are A Believer, that you are a person of faith on this issue.
And that suggests that I should drop the discussion.
One of those was admittedly a hyperbole that I should have face-checked and corrected before posting; that's on me. That said, at least I'm appealing to those who would be considering authorities on the subject. You simply keep re-asserting that biology and gender are inextricably, as if these were simply common sense and not concepts obviously in dispute, with little attempt to back it up and absolutely no evidence that such a belief is backed by any sort of scientific community. If you have any -modern- studies to link to, please share them. I'm always happy to learn.
If a speak with a sense of confidence, I do so not because I have faith, but because I have the knowledge, study, and experience to understand what it is I am talking about. This is only an example of "belief" or "faith" in the sense that I have greater "faith" in academic research than I do in what appears to be your "gut" feel for "common sense".