# What is wrong with having standards? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [April 17, 2016, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-wrong-with-having-standards/752513 "2016-04-17T23:30:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![DaphneBlack](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/daphneblack/32/5389_2.png) [@DaphneBlack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DaphneBlack)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2016, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-wrong-with-having-standards/752513/41 "2016-04-18T05:16:49Z")
The problem is the idea of “standards”. Standard, as a word, implies objectivity. That’s not what the things you talk about have. Standards can be measured in some independent way. That doesn’t mean they are totally inflexible, because they can have other influences, but your mindset is that “social facts” (gender roles, criminal justice) are the same as other categories: physical fitness, or educational achievement. What bothers you is variation in _social norms_. Social norms develop and change – and always have. They exist but their existence does not imply necessity or factuality. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2016, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-wrong-with-having-standards/752513/42 "2016-04-18T05:34:50Z")
> [@Chihuahua](#): > > I think the emergence of rampant subcultures and counter-cultures is a big byproduct of this phenomenon. Once I learned about Nietzche’s Genealogy of Morals, I started seeing the same phenomenon everywhere: Any subculture that doesn’t/can’t meet the standard stops trying and instead rejects the idea of conventional morality. You do realize Nietzsche considered the dominant Western Judeo-Christian culture of his era (that’s the one that holds those quaint gender stereotypes you prize) to be precisely one of those morally inferior subcultures, only one which somehow managed to infect the mainstream with its “slave morality”, right? You can’t use Nietzsche to put down modern subcultures without acknowledging the hypocrisy that _Genealogy_ was basically a book-length putdown of the very culture you’re trying to defend. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2016, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-wrong-with-having-standards/752513/43 "2016-04-18T05:54:01Z")
> [@octopus](#): > > I’d say what standards are valuable depend on the state of a society. In the modern USA we have the luxury of overwhelming military force that can keep out any conventional invader. We don’t need to worry about manpower relative to an enemy as we have higher productivity. These sort of advantages allows behavior that may be counterproductive for more marginal societies. It’s true of course that what standards are valuable depends on society’s needs and attributes at any time. What I’m saying is that it’s useful to ask that question, since there are other reasons such standards can exist that are less useful e.g. “It’s how we’ve always done it”. With regards to your warfare example, I’m not sure I follow. Being able to shoot a gun, and acting macho, are two different things. On my recent trip to Montana, the most highly-regarded hunter in the town I visited was a soft-spoken, elderly woman. And if there is some correlation between strength of a country’s army and how effeminate it’s culture becomes, the US is _against_ that trend. It’s still an overwhelmingly macho culture compared to many developed nations. Russia too. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2016, 9:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-wrong-with-having-standards/752513/44 "2016-04-18T09:42:08Z")
> [@Chihuahua](#): > > (1) I have a big problem with biological determinism or assigning biological components to behavioral problems. This is something that emerged very clearly in my other thread about root causes of criminal behavior. I cling to the idea that person behaves the way they do because they CHOOSE their behavior. As is pretty clear with the other thread on transgendered issues, I almost completely disregard the biological component of transgendered thought process or cognitive makeup. This is something many people have problems with. We’re used to the notion that when a baby comes out, you can look at its groin and determine if it’s a boy or a girl - it will always be perfectly clear, and it will always match their chromosomes. If the chromosomes are XY there will be a penis and two testicles, if the chromosomes are XX there will be a slit. Easy and nicely binary. Turns out, this is yet another way in which Mother Nature is a bitch. You may want to look up “sex chromosome trisomy” and “androgen insensitivity”, but I suggest not having any liquids close to the keyboard. They’re not the only ways in which the nice little binary exam is broken, just two of the most spectacular ones. Both are things we’ve only known about for a few decades; other issues such as the existence of micropenises or undescended testicles are old news. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2016, 9:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-wrong-with-having-standards/752513/45 "2016-04-18T09:47:57Z")
A few years ago there was a big ruckus when a person who tried to join the Spanish Army as a male (recognized as such in his ID) failed the medical due to “lack of a penis”. I remember an interview with a military doctor who explained that it wasn’t a matter of the doctors involved having an opinion, it was the regulations. When asked what could be done, he stated that “the regulations are in sore need of review, this isn’t the only item that needs to be updated”. Regs got updated; we’ve had several soldiers transition during service, in both directions. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2016, 9:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-wrong-with-having-standards/752513/46 "2016-04-18T09:56:59Z")
A couple of disorders for XY folks have been mentioned, but it’s not well know that there are XX men, too. That is, people with with the chromosome configuration XX who, nonetheless, look like men including normal-looking fully functional penis. Typically discovered when the man gets a fertility work-up due to failure of a couple to conceive a child but most of them are probably never discovered by medical science. Yes, mother nature is a trickster. Or maybe we could go with one of those myths that the creator god that makes people on a potter’s wheel or bakes them like bread in an oven or what have you got drunk off his ass, and that’s why people who aren’t quite normal happen, to cook was inebriated at the time and got the recipe slightly wrong. Like one god is saying to another “Dude! You use pink icing on the gingerbread man instead of white! And what’s with this? You got the icing on the _bottom_ of the cake instead of the top! Did you get into the fermented ambrosia again or was it the mead and magic mushrooms over in Valhalla this time?” ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2016, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-wrong-with-having-standards/752513/47 "2016-04-18T10:32:57Z")
> [@Una\_Persson](#): > > I’m going to address this point and be very polite and hope that you read it and take it to heart. > > On my radio show in December, the highest ranking openly transgender military officer that I know of in the world “came out” during a special 1-hour segment I did on military service. She is a newly-promoted 1-star general with more than 20 years of experience, including many combat citations. (I believe Secretary Ash Carter, who I have communicated with FTR, is going to highlight her service this May (but I’m not certain)). With her in my studio was a retired Lt. Colonel who served in combat in Gulf 1 and 2, and a Staff Sergeant who served honorably for 8 years. A good friend of mine was an Army Captain (Cavalry), another was a Sergeant in the Air Force, and another a Master Sergeant who was wounded in combat so badly she was discharged. Three others I know of served in the Navy, one a Petty Officer who unusually saw combat and was wounded severely in a terror attack against US servicemen, where she shot and killed two of the attackers. > > All of them transgender women. All of them brave and who served honorably. > > Think for a minute on this. Why are you pissed off at them? Was their honorable service, and that of thousands of transgender volunteer servicemen and women not what you would want? These are people who stepped up to the bar and said “I want to serve my country,” and did so with dignity and bravery. > > Maybe you’re pissed off at an abstract concept - transgender people in the military. Maybe you’re thinking of someone in a tube top and heels with a rifle, I don’t know. But think instead of the individual service people. > > All they ask is that they serve as their proper mental gender. They don’t want to shirk duty; on the contrary, they want to serve! The captain, one sergeant, and one naval person I mentioned above were specifically thrown out of the military - despite flawless service records - simply because it was discovered they were transgender. > > Where is the honor in that? Aren’t you pissed off that good and honorable men and women are being thrown out of the service based on their gender identity? How does that help this nation? Probably the best post I’ve seen in the thread. I think that the core issue is that the OP doesn’t really know enough about transgendered people to have an informed opinion on the topic. And I’m saying that to be critical of the OP – I don’t have an informed opinion, either. I have also had similar prejudices to those of the OP with regard to transgendered or transsexual individuals. I probably had similarly unfounded biases against gays and lesbians when I was younger and more sheltered. Your post is a reminder that transgendered people live and work alongside us, and sit down at a beer beside us and have a beer or two at 5 p.m. on a sunny Friday afternoon. Nobody seems to give a shit, provided they go on about their business as any other person, straight or otherwise, would. I’m reminded of an old quote that has been attributed to Barry Goldwater: You don’t have to be straight to fight and die for your country; you just have to shoot straight. The transgendered, like gays, straights, or anyone else, just need to go out and do their jobs and their civic duties. What they were born with or without…who cares? ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2016, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-wrong-with-having-standards/752513/48 "2016-04-18T11:13:33Z")
> [@Chihuahua](#): > > I don’t mean for this thread to be entirely about transgendered rights. Rather, I use this as an example of how social standards have deteriorated over the years. It used to be that what constituted “good manners” and “proper conduct” was universally understood. Now society seems to have embraced the idea that anyone can do anything they want, no matter how vile, stupid, or criminal it might be. There is no universal standard for what consitutes correct behavior or achievement. This has led to mass anomie that is starting to be recognized by researchers as extremely detrimental to young adults: Without any agreed-upon basis for social roles or behavioral role models, we let our children just drift through life and deal with depression and suicide as a result. I suppose the short answer is that people are different. And the more different people you have in a society, the harder it is to create some universal standard of acceptable customs and behaviors. And America is a society that has a long tradition of accepting and integrating people of different cultures and nationalities (more or less), so what we consider “normal” tends to change over time. This is not necessarily a bad thing as not everyone can meet certain standards. What do you do with those people? They don’t just go away. You need to figure out a way to integrate them so they can participate in society, or they will get angry and resentful and lash out at the society that rejected them. Let’s take your particular standard of “manliness” - Men are expected to be strong and athletic, demonstrate integrity and courage, enjoy manly pursuits (most of which revolved around sports and beer) and, above all, display emotional control and stoicism. If everyone held to that standard, you wouldn’t have a Silicon Valley tech industry. You’d just have a bunch of nerds scattered all over America unable to find much success because they would have a hard time getting hired by “manly” hiring managers at traditional companies. And society would lose out on those innovations. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2016, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-wrong-with-having-standards/752513/49 "2016-04-18T11:25:48Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > Let’s take your particular standard of “manliness” - Men are expected to be strong and athletic, demonstrate integrity and courage, enjoy manly pursuits (most of which revolved around sports and beer) and, above all, display emotional control and stoicism. > > If everyone held to that standard, you wouldn’t have a Silicon Valley tech industry. Or Hollywood. Or Shakespeare. ---
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2016, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-wrong-with-having-standards/752513/50 "2016-04-18T11:38:09Z")
This OP reminds me of the language threads where posters insist that a fixed point in time and geography (usually the poster’s primary or secondary school) is “correct”, without any regard to reality. ---
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2016, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-wrong-with-having-standards/752513/51 "2016-04-18T11:51:35Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > Since physical fitness is an important part of military standards [And that may change](http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/oct/28/army-fitness-standards-for-fat-cyber-warriors-may-/). Want the best employees? Then maybe you want the fat nerd who can hack ISIS servers or fly drones from New Mexico. If being a stoic meathead doesn’t get the job done, then don’t require the guy or gal doing the job to be a stoic meathead. ---
**Author:** ![Stringbean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Stringbean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stringbean)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2016, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-wrong-with-having-standards/752513/52 "2016-04-18T12:18:32Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Can we move this to the Pit? It’s not up to GD standards, I feel. Weak. Weak. Weak. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2016, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-wrong-with-having-standards/752513/53 "2016-04-18T12:20:49Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > Let’s take your particular standard of “manliness” - Men are expected to be strong and athletic, demonstrate integrity and courage, enjoy manly pursuits (most of which revolved around sports and beer) and, above all, display emotional control and stoicism. > > If everyone held to that standard, you wouldn’t have a Silicon Valley tech industry. You’d just have a bunch of nerds scattered all over America unable to find much success because they would have a hard time getting hired by “manly” hiring managers at traditional companies. And society would lose out on those innovations. Heh. You know what you _would_ have, though? Once upon a time, an athlete named Jenner put in grueling hours building up the stamina of a distance runner and the upper-body strength to hurl spear good. This wasn’t the OP’s situation, with Nietzsche railing against folks who (a) couldn’t meet a standard and so (b) rejected ideas of ‘working hard’ and ‘achieving stuff’; this was earning Olympic gold by breaking the world record, which had been set by Jenner, when breaking the _previous_ world record, _also_ set by Jenner. If that person wants to then say _“Call me Caitlyn,”_ it’s not a sour-grapes reaction after failing to meet some standard of manliness; it’s exceeding that standard before simply declaring that _“This is who I am.”_ Picture a man who _doesn’t_ build up the strength and stamina to become a champion athlete; does it take hard work and courage to wear pants instead of a dress? Well, not really, no; you can meet _that_ standard with ease; with laziness; with cowardice. Does it take courage to go beyond that and do what Jenner did? Absolutely. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2016, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-wrong-with-having-standards/752513/54 "2016-04-18T12:34:59Z")
> [@Chihuahua](#): > > Okay, so it appears that I’ve diagnosed three points that I’m struggling with. > > (1) I have a big problem with biological determinism or assigning biological components to behavioral problems. This is something that emerged very clearly in my other thread about root causes of criminal behavior. I cling to the idea that person behaves the way they do because they CHOOSE their behavior. As is pretty clear with the other thread on transgendered issues, I almost completely disregard the biological component of transgendered thought process or cognitive makeup. > > I also don’t particularly understand the depth of the impulse. If I see a transgendered person say they “want” to be a different gender, I equate this with how I “want” to drive a Ferrari. My personal wishes are irrelevant when contrasted with the reality of the situation (eg I am poor). Clearly this analogy does not reflect the same depth of emotion that a transgendered person has to deal with. > > (2) I am very clearly wedded to the idea that a failure to meet expectations deserves punishment. This manifests in some of my posts where, for example, I display a borderline-psychotic desire to injure criminals. I suspect that between my upbringing and my military service, I have been very much indoctrinated with the idea that a person who does not comply with social, behavioral or performance standards is, at best, a nonentity (and, at worst, someone to be figuratively or literally attacked). I’m still struggling with this very much. > > WRT the specific example of transgendered issues, I don’t see a difference between being transgendered and being deceitful. You claim to be X, but you are in fact Y. This is basically the definiton of deception. Clearly, the transgendered people do not consider themselves to be deceptive at all, because in their mind their appearance is consistent with their mental state. I don’t pretend to understand it, but I am willing to accept that this is what they believe. > > (3) I think I suffer frequent bouts of cognitive dissonance with regard to changing circumstances and social expectations. I believe I have a very deontological ethical system… In that sense that if a person says “X is right,” that means they believe X is right in all times and in all places. For a person to say X is right in some cases but Y is right in others implies they are either deceitful or inept, because there should be a universal solution. Some of the other posts here have pointed out the multitude of competing value systems that exist even within the US, and that just frustrates the shit out of me. > > I don’t really get why we can’t have a world that agrees on a single value system. I mean, obviously we DON’T, and I acknowledge that. But it irritates me to no end. When I see someone propose an alternative value system, my first impulse is to believe they are either being willfully malicious or they are just incapable of complying with the existing value system and want to replace it with a system in which they can claim superiority (eg Nietzche’s slave morality). > > Clearly these are all things I will have to work on. With regards to transgender people – imagine that you are transported into a world that is otherwise identical to this one, except that most people look at you _and think you are a woman_. They think to themselves that you should be dressing like a woman, acting like a woman, going to the woman’s restroom, etc. Would you be able to acquiesce to their expectations/standards? Would you be content going through the rest of your life acting according to their wishes – in which you act in all ways as a woman? I doubt you would be. From my understanding, that’s pretty close to the experience of transgender people – the only way they can have a chance have a decent and happy life is to live as their identity tells them to. It can’t be fixed. Furthermore, _it doesn’t need to be_. They’re not hurting anyone by not living up to your standard. If the way they live bothers you, that’s your problem, not theirs. Standards can be okay, sometimes, I think. But when they get to the point that you’re bothered by something that has nothing to do with you and doesn’t hurt anyone, then I think it’s pretty clearly a useless and even bad standard. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2016, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-wrong-with-having-standards/752513/55 "2016-04-18T12:37:11Z")
You’re not understanding why we can’t have a single world standard value system? What colour is the sky in your world? Not since the dawn of time have the peoples of the earth agreed on anything! You’ve been in the military so long you’re starting to believe in the black and white of ‘our way or the highway!’. You should stay in the military, I think it’s the best place for someone like you. You needn’t consider if anything is right or wrong or due for change, just obey. It almost seems like maybe you’ve been in that environment so long you feel others in society should just obey and meet your/self evident standards. Without question. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2016, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-wrong-with-having-standards/752513/56 "2016-04-18T13:42:26Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > Heh. You know what you _would_ have, though? > > Once upon a time, an athlete named Jenner put in grueling hours building up the stamina of a distance runner and the upper-body strength to hurl spear good. This wasn’t the OP’s situation, with Nietzsche railing against folks who (a) couldn’t meet a standard and so (b) rejected ideas of ‘working hard’ and ‘achieving stuff’; this was earning Olympic gold by breaking the world record, which had been set by Jenner, when breaking the _previous_ world record, _also_ set by Jenner. LOL. Yeah, I kind of look at it as if Jenner basically went as far as possible in the “manliness” department. So what if he wants to try a different career path? ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2016, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-wrong-with-having-standards/752513/57 "2016-04-18T13:51:41Z")
> [@elbows](#): > > You’ve been in the military so long you’re starting to believe in the black and white of ‘our way or the highway!’. You should stay in the military, I think it’s the best place for someone like you. You needn’t consider if anything is right or wrong or due for change, just obey. > > It almost seems like maybe you’ve been in that environment so long you feel others in society should just obey and meet your/self evident standards. Without question. From my experience, people who join the military tend to take a very myopic view of the world. Mostly because their world IS the military. And because the military is relatively important, they tend to view the “military way” as applicable (if not superior) in all aspects of life. In fact, for the rest of the “real world”, many of the practices of the military such as hierarchical organizations are becoming increasingly outdated, simply because they are not as effective as other styles. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2016, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-wrong-with-having-standards/752513/58 "2016-04-18T13:59:59Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > From my experience, people who join the military tend to take a very myopic view of the world. Mostly because their world IS the military. And because the military is relatively important, they tend to view the “military way” as applicable (if not superior) in all aspects of life. > > In fact, for the rest of the “real world”, many of the practices of the military such as hierarchical organizations are becoming increasingly outdated, simply because they are not as effective as other styles. My experience as a veteran is very different. Plenty of the guys (I was in submarines so it was all guys) I worked with in the military didn’t have myopic views – certainly no more than folks I’ve known outside the military. And while hierarchical structures may not be perfect for everything, they are (IMO) the most effective at accomplishing certain things, and well-run hierarchical organizations can be extremely effective and efficient and even flexible, in general. ---
**Author:** ![Gedd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gedd/32/4938_2.png) [@Gedd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gedd)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2016, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-wrong-with-having-standards/752513/59 "2016-04-18T14:34:25Z")
[This blogpost](https://scholarandgentleman.wordpress.com/2016/04/18/hb2/comment-page-1/#comment-8)I found (mostly about the NC law) sums up sex, gender, and gender identity. > [@](#): > > **Sex** refers to a person’s biological, genotypical, phenotypical classification as male or female, based on things like having testes and a penis or ovaries and a vagina, having XX chromosomes or XY chromosomes. **Gender** is the socially constructed set of roles, behaviors, activities, and attributes a given culture or society assigns to a sex. The important thing to note here is that gender is not some static thing that is the same across cultures and times – an easy example is that while men generally do not greet each other with a kiss on the cheek in 2016 USA, this is/has been a common behavior in other places and times. **Gender identity** is an individual’s perception of their own gender. The term gender is used here instead of sex because whether someone has certain genitalia or chromosomes is not the question, but their experience of being male or female is. Also, unlike sex, gender identity is not present from birth; rather, developmental scientists would suggest it develops often in early childhood. Sex (which still isn’t binary, see [Klinefelter Syndrome](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klinefelter_syndrome)) is not the same as gender or gender identity. Which do you want make standards based on? Do you see any issues with the “standard” that my daughter should focus on brushing her hair and dressing like a princess when she wants to play soccer and win footraces against the boys in her class? ---
**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2016, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-wrong-with-having-standards/752513/60 "2016-04-18T14:43:34Z")
Standards are imperative. What does commerce look like if everyone gets to choose what a kilogram is? What do courtrooms look like if children are allowed to run free in them? What if everyone spelted and grammerated how ever they feeled like too it? These are all _reasonable_ standards, there’s a very very good reason to have these. However, some standards are unreasonable or have very poor reasons. I actually learned my current governor was openly bisexual from the national media, we here don’t care as long as she’s doing a good job and her bed-partners are over the age of 18. If we had the standard of “The governor _must_ be heterosexual”, then we’d have lost out on a fine State leader, one of the best in recent years. I’ll vote for her again, in a second … her bisexuality is a problem for the rest of you, not us. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-wrong-with-having-standards/752513.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-wrong-with-having-standards/752513.md?page=4)