Waterstar314

Transmasculine non-binary person here. The experience of going through my life in the wrong body, being referred to as the wrong gender is awful, and of course I’d love to have not had to deal with that. If I could hit a button to have my same experiences but have the world treat me as if assigned the opposite sex at birth and have the corresponding body, I’d do it. But on the other hand, I like the perspective I have - I know what it’s like to be perceived as female and how awful men can be, and can use this to be more empathetic. I was also raised with the expectation that showing emotion is okay, and I feel like my relationship to emotion and traits deemed ‘feminine’ is healthier than it would be if I was cis. It gave me the chance to realize that I truly enjoy things like dance and hanging out with women and bright colors, and which people assigned male at birth don’t often get to do.

TLDR: two different readings of question

The statement could mean two things - either that one gender is more intelligent than the other, or the way society conceptualizes intelligence is connected to how we understand gender.

Interpreted the second way, I feel the statement is true - society tends to consider those who are analytical to be intelligent whereas those who are nurturing to not be intelligent. This is tied into how society places values on traditionally masculine traits and demeans femininity (as defined in a traditional sense - feminine people can be analytical and vice versa), so by this reading of the statement, intelligence (as a concept) is gendered.

In the other sense, no, I don’t believe any gender is more intelligent than another.

Private boarding school kid here, and I only say mixed because I know I’m very fortunate to be in one and should feel grateful enough to support somewhat. I’m on essentially full financial aid (partially need-based, partially merit-based), so personally, private school gave me a number of opportunities that I wouldn’t have had - my aid helped not only with getting an education, but having access to health services, nutritious food, and extracurricular opportunities that I can carry through higher education and a career. Though I’m glad to be there, it also feels wrong that my friends that I went to (public) middle school with don’t have the same opportunities, when they were smart too. My passions (math, physics, computer science…) just happen to coincide enough with what capitalism, hence the school, wants of me, and I like a wide enough variety of things (art and dance) and am considered ‘diverse enough’ (I’m queer and trans) to look good. There’s also a lot of issues within administration as well - numerous sexual assaults and mental health crises and lord knows how many other things covered up for the sake of maintaining the school’s name. I’m appalled by the amount of wealth I’m surrounded by, and how frivolously it can be used, by students or administration. On one hand, private schools can provide resources and opportunities to students who can benefit, but overall they are a product of a capitalist system, and are designed to perpetuate it, which is wrong.