You’re very welcome, Jeff! Gender is a fascinating phenomenon that structures so many aspects of our contemporary human existence, which makes it difficult to study because it is to some extent both everywhere and nowhere. I think of gender like the water within which fish are submerged, and upon which fish depend for both movement and existence. To challenge or deconstruct gender is like pulling fish out of water, which results in panicked thrashing and yearning to return beneath the surface.

I think of human “beings” more like human “doings”, and think that gender is a solution to problems that it also introduces. This “problem” is sexual difference, and the “solution” gender provides is an attempt to make sense of sexual difference. Gender is like the “menu” that represents the “meal” that is sexual difference, and so when we shift attention to the sexual differences that underlie gendered behaviors (as you mention with regard to reproductive functions), we are examining the material stuff out of which gender differences emerge as a sense-making project that is historically, culturally, and socially contingent. I think it’s important to connect sexual physiology with gender performativity, and think important parallels can be drawn between masculine gender norms with the erect penis (i.e., the phallus) and feminine gender norms with the womb (e.g., the act of “holding space” is a feminine gender performance that also imitates the womb).

There are my understandings of gender, though, and there are lots of other resources out there that vary in terms of accessibility and comprehensibility. Judith Butler’s Gender Trouble is where the idea of gender performativity was first discussed, but it is also a difficult text that was (and continues to be) systemically misunderstood by scholars and laypeople alike. One of my goals as a writer is to make gender theory more accessible to general audiences, and so I hope that reading my work has helped you understand and think about these ideas. If you have any specific questions about theory or other resources in this area then feel free to reach out as I would be happy to talk with you more about them.