Sure, but none of this changes the fact that trans is an umbrella term and anyone who is not cis falls under the trans umbrella. That's just the way those words are used in LGBTQIA spaces. I speak from experience in this matter.
I don't doubt it. I'm not challenging you on the point, I'm just lingnerding out.
Worms, which feed on entropy.
I don't really have any more comments about the Krill except that these words make my science brain cringe. Somehow, even more than the mention of actual-factual
magic in the game. XD
No, they have an identity. Their culture has no concept of gender, but they still have an identity. Another culture that does have a concept of gender will assign certain aspects of identity to certain genders, and when a person's identity does not match what their society says it should be based on whatever criteria it uses to assign gender, there is going to be conflict.
They may well have a strong preference for the aspects of their identity that human culture dictates are "for women."
Sure, but what aspects exactly are we talking about here, and how does this conflict play out?
I'll try to explain what I mean. Take sexual orientation. I know we're on the same page that sexual orientation is absolutely, totally not the same thing as gender identity. But it's also obviously an important aspect of identity. And traditional society has assigned the "likes men" aspect of identity to women. So, as you say, there is conflict between society and people who like men and are
not women. Most of these people, however, are cis men, and object rather strenuously to the suggestion that they are women or womanlike. The conflict, then, plays out by challenging their society's assignment of this sexual orientation to that gender identity, not by adopting that gender identity. And if our eladrin likes men, and runs into conflict with human society over it, they can say, "I'm a gay man."
They can repeat this exercise for almost any culturally-gendered aspect of identity. Emotional disposition? There are
tons of quiet, sensitive men, regardless of how machismo values those traits. If our eladrin is quiet and sensitive, they can say, "I'm a quiet and sensitive man." Profession? The history of women's rights is all about busting up the assignment of certain fields to men, and men also struggle to be taken seriously in traditionally female fields. If our eladrin is a nurse, they can say, "I'm a male nurse." Fashion choice? In the words of Eddie Izzard: "It's not a woman's dress, it's
my dress, I bought it." If our eladrin likes dresses -- okay, this one is a little weird, because it's completely culture-based, and they'd be accustomed to eladrin clothing which is presumably unisex in our scenario -- but if they took a shine to human dresses, they could say, "See Eddie Izzard."
To get around to my point, the only aspect of identity I can see for which the fundamental problem is
not society being overly restrictive in assigning that aspect to only one gender, but rather the aspect having a fundamental conflict with the gender, is gender identity itself. There seems to be something in all of us which says "I am a man" or "I am a woman" or something of a nonbinary nature. And it must stand irrespective of any other aspects of our identity, or what society has to say about those aspects. As we've seen, somebody can be a cis man and still like men, be quiet and sensitive, work as a nurse, and wear dresses. What's more, somebody else can be a trans woman and still like women, be ambitious and competitive, work as a cop, and absolutely
hate dresses. All that matters is that the first person feels he is a man, and the second feels she is a woman. And I don't believe for a moment that when I say any of this I'm telling you anything you don't already know. But I hope I've framed it in such a way that you can understand why I think that the eladrin describing themself as a "woman" under the circumstances strongly suggests the presence of an underlying
gender identity.
Depends on whether or not those dwarves try to assert their own cultural norms on the human. If unak aren't allowed to be warriors, and this right-handed human is a warrior, how do the dwarves resolve this dissonance? Do they write it off as "not our way" but leave the human to his own people's way? Or do they shame him for behaving in a manner unbefitting an unak, which he so clearly is? In the former case, sure, I'd assume the human would most likely live and let live just as the dwarves are doing. But if a dragon attacks and the dwarves don't want to let the human help because the other warriors refuse to stand beside an unak on the field of battle... Might be a different story.
Hmm. Fair warning: I'm running out of gas after the above and am not going to come to any conclusions in this paragraph, just thinking aloud. (Well, not
aloud...) Speaking of different stories, there is no shortage of stories about the parallel case, where sexists won't let a woman fight because she's a woman. When (movie) Wonder Woman wants to fight for the Allies, she plows through their resistance and does it anyway, as a woman. When (movie) Mulan wants to fight for China, she disguises herself as a man, but shows no sign of truly identifying herself as one and returns to womanhood once the disguise has run its course. But in both these stories, the protagonist had an existing gender identity as a woman, and that's not prone to changing for the sake of expediency. Which makes them not such close parallels to our human with no strong handedness identity, or our eladrin without a gender culture. Or, wait... Diana of Themiscyra is from a one-gender society, so gender roles can't exactly have been a part of her upbringing. Isn't she basically what we're looking for after all? And despite being an outspoken warrior and leader, she emphatically does not become a trans man upon encountering English culture where they see those as manly qualities. But on the other hand, the Amazons are
aware of men, and (more so in the comics than the movie) define themselves oppositionally to "Man's World", so maybe gender roles are still there in the background. Nevertheless, they can hardly be an everyday thing. Hmm...
.
