We need to finish naming all 12,000 mushroom genders before we can make laws about them
Comment on Why do we need legal genders at all?
otter@lemmy.ca 7 hours agoGender, and other factors that aren’t as “medically relevant”, might still be helpful if it helps the staff pick between two treatment options. The patient’s comfort and happiness can affect their overall wellbeing.
Say someone grows up in a culture where their gender (or some cultural group the person can belong to) usually has long hair. A particular treatment may have two options:
- shave the head
- something that doesn’t involve shaving the head
Knowing what gender (or other group) the person belongs to might inform their decision.
Note, this is about why medical staff might want to know about gender identity and not the original question of how many we should have.
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 1 hour ago
Nibodhika@lemmy.world 1 hour ago
For your shaving the head example I would argue that if the person is incapacitated and needing urgent care the solution with the most chance of success should be preferred regardless of gender norms. If both are equally likely the one that doesn’t remove hair should be preferred. You might be a man with attachment to your long hair even in a society where that’s uncommon, gender does not dictate anything of the sort. So I still don’t see a reason why gender is relevant medically.
Ghoelian@piefed.social 47 minutes ago
As a guy with long hair i can tell you i would be pissed if they shaved my head while an alternative was available.