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TenWildBadgers t1_je722j4 wrote

Humans are the only species we know able to express a more complicated relationship with gender than agree with biological sex.

If my biologically male dog had the... [Sound of a hard drive defragging itself as a very Cis Male who does not understand the trans experience well enough to articulate this tries to anyway] I guess the mindset and identity of a girl dog, do you think we'd be able to tell the difference? How much would the dog understand the disconnect, and would they be able to express anything of the sort to us?

I would interpret it much more that we don't know how animals feel in a lot of cases, only how they act. With language, we're relatively skilled at communicating how we feel to other humans, which is the only reason very Cis people like me can know that trans and nonbinary people are who they are.

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tb5841 t1_je74bck wrote

There was a very interesting interview with someone on the radio a few months ago (Radio 4, UK) who had written a book about primates.

He said that idea of a dog having a gender (i.e. distinct from its sex) was ridiculous. But he told us about his observations of chimps that were born female yet followed all the typical male-chimp behaviours, joined in male friendship groups, etc. It really sounded like a female chimp that identified as male, from what he said.

Difficult to really know what was going on since - as you say - they can't communicate with us.

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Imstadot t1_je75e9j wrote

Yeah, it's impossible for us to tell how other species experience these things, or if they're able to tell the difference at all. To us, it seems to hinge on cultural expression of self experience, conceptualised through language. Do other animals even have the capacity for any of this?

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