[AGTRT-BF48] Primary gender identity is about whether we feel male, female or neutral

Jan Bergstra & Laurens Buijs
Amsterdam Gender Theory Research Team

Our research team (AGTRT) is developing two new gender theories side by side: Androgyny Based Gender Theory (ABGT) and Formal Gender Theory (FGT).

FGT focuses on the concept of gender and exactly how it has evolved over time in science and beyond. FGT aims to clarify positions and eliminate confusion of speech. Thus, FGT wants to make room for more moderate approaches to gender than essentialism and co-essentialism, the two diametrically opposed trends of the moment.

ABGT aims to add substance to the concepts of gender and sexuality, and to elaborate on the interrelationship between them. ABGT also aims with the concept of androgyny to develop an interdisciplinary approach to gender, which includes biology, psychology, neuroscience, etc. in addition to sociology.

A central objective of ABGT is to substantively strengthen the concept of gender identity and make it more scientifically robust. Within ABGT, therefore, we do not speak of gender identity in a general sense, but distinguish betweenprimary gender identity (PGI) and secondary gender identity (SGI).

The PGI deals with the identity that develops in relation to physical gender (male or female, and in some cases neutral), the SGI deals with the identity that develops in relation to our androgynous consciousness.

Read more about the distinction between PGI and SGI:
The distinction between primary and secondary gender identity makes room for androgyny

We want to be able to develop ABGT and FGT side by side and in such a way that the interrelationships of the concepts are clear. We will therefore elaborate in this blog on how the concept of primary gender identity (PGI) from androgynous gender theory (ABGT) relates to the concepts from formal gender theory (FGT).

Primary Gender Identity (PGI)
To begin, it is useful to make more explicit here the role that the concept of primary gender identity (PGI) plays within ABGT. About PGI, ABGT makes the following claims:

• The PGI is about our relationship with our physical gender and how that relationship develops and takes shape in people’s identities.
• So the PGI is about the basic feeling “I am a man” or “I am a woman” (and in one case, “I am neutral”), and about how we develop that feeling further by developing the relationship with our bodies.
• Whether the PGI is male or female is determined in most cases by physical sex (defined within ABGT as biological sex according to the characteristics of chromosomes).
• The PGI is basically a given fact, and can be strengthened by strengthening our relationship with our male or female (or neutral) body.
• How the PGI is fulfilled through male or female personality traits is part of secondary gender identity (SGI).
• Biological (genetic and hormonal) factors play a central role in the formation and development of the PGI, because the PGI is so closely related to the body. There is evidence that formation of PGI begins as early as the embryonic stage due to exposure to certain hormones.
• The PGI, in its basic form, is anchored in the brain even before the age of two through a psychological process of “imprinting”; that is when most children already have an awareness of their own gender.
• Social and psychological factors play a minimal role in the formation of the basic feeling “I am a man” or “I am a woman”: this is primarily a biological process. These factors do play a role in how the PHI, or relationship with our male or female body, develops.
• The PGI and the SGI are developing largely independently of each other. This is not to say that they do not influence each other: a firmly developed SGI leads to the fact that the PHI can also be embraced more confidently, and vice versa.
• For most people, the PHI as male or female is an established and largely innate fact, directly related to their physical sex. Transgender and intersex persons can be seen as exceptions that confirm the rule.
• Gender incongruence occurs when there is incongruence between the PHI and physical sex. Within ABGT, it is believed that this incongruity is innate and fixed in some people, making treatment with medical “gender reassignment therapy” an appropriate option. This type of gender incongruence occurs in less than 1% of the population.
• In most cases, persons with incongruent gender identity have the PHI of the opposite sex, in a few cases with neither sex (neutral).
• Most people with an intersex condition still develop a PGI male or female. In some cases, people with an intersex condition may develop a PGI neutral. This is less than 0.5% of the population.

PHI and formal gender theory
Primary gender identity (PHI) is thus a concept from our gender theory of androgyny (ABGT). On the relationship between the concept of PHI and the conceptual framework of formal gender theory (FGT), the following observations and assumptions are relevant:

• PGI is not simply the same as gender identity in FGT. However, PGI (like gender identity) does emphasize the subjective aspect: it matters what the person thinks about it.
• PGI is a subjective form of bodily gender (see AGTRT-BF42), and a tentative one at that;
  • A person has a male PGI only if he is really sure of it;
  • A person has a female PGI only if she is really sure of it;
  • A person has a neutral PGI only if that person is certain of neutral (only in very exceptional cases of people with gender dysphoria or an intersex condition);
  • In all other cases, the PGI is unknown.
• We see this description of PGI as a starting point. Over time, the concept of PGI can change in meaning through concept engineering (see AGTRT-BF38). Concept engineering of PGI does work differently than concept engineering of formal gender, for example, because in PGI legal aspects hardly play a role.
• Thus, PGI as a concept becomes independent of formal gender (at least in principle). In each case, PGI becomes independent of results and views in FGT, and of (incremental) concept engineering concerning gender in FGT.
• PGI is not for filling out information questions on passports and IDs; PGI is not about access to safe spaces (“bathroom laws” etc.); PGI is not about personnel policies and regulations for equal opportunity and fair play.
• In discussing FGT, we also mention the notion of psychological gender, but FGT itself does not provide a theoretical framework for that notion. We see ABGT as a possible approach to the study of psychological gender, and we thus see the concept of “psychological gender” as a notion that belongs first and foremost in ABGT.