Gender is not some cosmic yin/yang; it’s a fist, and the flesh that bruises. It is the mouth crushed shut, and the little girl who will never be the same.
Gender is not a binary. It is a hierarchy. It is global in its reach, it is sadistic in its practice, and it is murderous in its completion. Just like race, and just like class. Gender demarcates the geopolitical boundaries of the patriarchy —which is to say, it divides us in half. That half is not horizontal—it is vertical. And in case you missed this part, men are always on top.
Gender is who gets to be human, and who gets hurt.
Lierre Keith, Patriarchy vs. Planet Earth
Radfem Resistance League 