Thank you my friend, but I am intrigued by your response. So when you say you don’t think of yourself as a gender…well first that is very evolved and I commend you for striving to go past gender. But, and I hope this does not seem frivolous for I do not intend it that way: but how do you dress for your encounter with society. Your profile picture suggests you wear make up. [and beautifully done!]. You see it is not us that creates the gendered box on the forms which need to know are you a boy or girl. It is societies which demand our allegiance to a gendered role. So if you are indeed beyond this I need to know how you walk through this life as a non gendered being, for I believe that is the ultimate in personhood. To be human, and not this kind of human or that kind of human is the loftiest material goal one can achieve, and perhaps the most difficult path to walk. Please share more. I need to learn. Namast with metta!
Hi @Rosie, good points. I would say that I place the intellectual and spiritual realm way above the physical realm. I mean that I place intellectual and spiritual development way above physical frivolities. For example, my sexuality is not important to me. I don’t give a rat’s donkey about being attractive or having a sexual partner.
Of course, I keep myself clean and presentable, but not because I want to be attractive and certainly not to show ppl what gender I am. I keep myself clean and presentable for the same reasons monks and nuns do so. I can’t relate to women that strive to be women, or men who strive to be men. As Mark Zuckerberg said, he always wears the same clothes because finds those things silly and frivolous. On the other hand, I can relate to ppl that strive to develop intellectually and spiritually such as nuns and monks. I do understand why monks and nuns wear uniform clothes and why they are not interested in sexuality or being attractive and all that stuff. So, my intellectual and spiritual development is way more important than clothes or other gender stuff, just like it is for nuns and monks.
By the way …is my attitude any different to that of a monk or a nun? I take it that nuns do not place much importance in their gender. They are not interested in sexuality or being attractive. They shave their heads. They always wear the same clothes. They focus on intellectual development (reading suttas) and spiritual development (meditation and loving kindness). Haha…I never thought about that before.
I am basically an independent nun or monk. Not a perfect one, far from perfect, but I’m certainly in that mode.
Hi DaoYaoTao
So are you a man or a woman? Who is it in the picture and why did you choose that photo?
@DaoYaoTao I feel the same way 
If you are not involved in sexuality, gender becomes much less important.
People think I’m a woman and I don’t really care about that. That’s just not how I feel inside. I just feel bothered when people tell me I have to do something 'cos I have a female body. That doesn’t change my mind.
I have to follow different social rules etc. - Why? 'Cos of a couple of pounds of flesh here or there? No thanks! 
Sooooo, why is that important, and what is your definition of man or woman?
[quote=“Peter_Durham, post:44, topic:3915”]
So are you a man or a woman? Who is it in the picture and why did you choose that photo?
[/quote]I don’t want to put words in DaoYaoTao’s mouth, but (s)he is probably “genderqueer”, a movement that eschews traditional gender binaries. So neither “male” nor “female” would be an adequate answer, I assume.
Hi Rosie
It is not so important. I asked as you had in a previous post referred to DaoYaoTao’s profile picture and I was curious as to if that was DaoYaoTao’s actual picture or a selected avartar.
For the most part my perception of who is a man or woman will be determined by the other party.
Please accept my apologies for interjecting into this thread which I hope will be of great value and should be kept on topic.
Early Buddhist doctrine is about dependent origination, not establishing the ultimate existence or non-existence of things. Dependent origination is the middle way between those extremes. Unless you’ve attenuated ignorance sufficiently by cultivating the necessary conditions, identity comes to be and is continually propped up by ignorant kamma. This process is not something that can be brought to an end via further construction of views and clinging to them. Instead, it requires the cultivation of kamma connected with wisdom.
In this identity’s constructed view, of course. 
Not a problem Peter, and I meant no disrespect to you, for I do believe in the legitimacy of questioning with the ‘right’ motive. And I do not question yours. I was really just wondering. I could have asked that question myself. Not sure what the topic is at this point in the discussion. lol I welcome your input, and wish you only happiness.
Well said, and ideologically correct, but I have not yet met a person who may walk through the world without gender. Non-gendered identity is not tolerated in this material world so the struggle to be free of gender based consciousness is one in which we are necessarily juxtaposed with a world which demands gender. In fact purposeful attempts to live a gender-incongruent life can get one one assaulted or killed. So on one hand…ideologically I agree completely that gender is a large construct which needs to be bypass in order to be liberated. On the other hand my 65 years as a Trans woman prove the inherent dangers of asserting a non gender. I have written extensively on gender as the PRIMARY CONDITION of human existence as it is the first rule we humans are made to follow. Failure to comply or later attempts to modify this social assignation creates much suffering. In fact I would challenge anyone in the nicest way to disprove my subjective theory, for I would have much to learn from that person. Namaste with metta!
@Mkoll, Shouldn’t that be: “in this constructed identity’s constructed view” ?
Read AN 7.51 and SN 22:44 for more on this. The Buddha makes it clear that clinging to gender or personal identity is a barrier to nibbana.
“Not delighting, not caught up in her femininity…This is how a woman transcends her femininity.”
“Not delighting, not caught up in his masculinity…This is how a man transcends his masculinity.” AN 7.51
“And what, bhikkhus, is the way leading to the cessation of identity? Here, bhikkhus, the instructed noble disciple … does not regard form as self … nor feeling as self … nor perception as self … nor volitional formations as self … nor consciousness as self … nor self as in consciousness. This, bhikkhus, is called the way leading to the cessation of identity. When it is said, ‘The way leading to the cessation of identity,’ the meaning here is this: a way of regarding things that leads to the cessation of suffering.” SN 22.44
Hi Rosie, (@Rosie)
With love and respect, there is a huge online movement to do with Agender or Neutrois or non-gender individuals and genderqueer (I don’t like that term), but anyway:
Check this link : http://neutrois.com/what-is-neutrois/
and try google for the terms above:
adjective: gender-queer
1.
denoting or relating to a person who does not subscribe to conventional gender distinctions but identifies with neither, both, or a combination of male and female genders.
"the genderqueer community"
noun: gender-queer
1.
a person who does not subscribe to conventional gender distinctions but identifies with neither, both, or a combination of male and female genders.
“a younger generation of self-proclaimed genderqueers explicitly reject ‘transgender’ as an identifier”
Dear…Thanks for the respect, and I will be the first to confess that I was Trans before Trans was a word, so my point is that I am OLD and therefore no longer keep up with trends. Although I do recall that the first time I heard that was in Berkeley around 1970 where you would see men in beards and dresses and I got it, and continue to think of it as the cutting edge of gender.
Though I call myself Trans-because we must somehow refer to gender-I have always thought of myself as Two Spirits which is actually a Third Gender. But back to the discussion, I am wondering if you think this GQ movement will advance human rights…increase enlightenment…or just continue to muddy the waters of identity?
Fascinating! With Metta. Yours!
My point was regarding the formation and clinging to views in a general sense, as a process common to all of us who are mired in ignorance and craving. And though that’s relevant to this thread’s subject, it’s not exclusively addressed to it and I have no horse in this particular race. My apologies for not making that clear.
Then what do you want? And isn’t the act of ‘wanting’ a means to create more suffering? Isn’t ‘wanting’ the antithesis of liberation?
The ultimate paradox is that people cling to Buddhism and Buddhist views. Even the Buddha said the dhamma is just a raft,. No point in carrying it after you are awakened. 
Is gender more important than eye colour, age or IQ?
With metta
do you think you have a mindset of a male?
disregarding conventionalities, if i asked you to help me in lifting some furniture to the upper floor, would that be appropriate?
UPD: after Coemgenu’s response below, let me stress that these two questions are completely unrelated to each other