this post was submitted on 01 Mar 2026
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Showerthoughts

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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.

Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts:

Rules

  1. All posts must be showerthoughts
  2. The entire showerthought must be in the title
  3. No politics
    • If your topic is in a grey area, please phrase it to emphasize the fascinating aspects, not the dramatic aspects. You can do this by avoiding overly politicized terms such as "capitalism" and "communism". If you must make comparisons, you can say something is different without saying something is better/worse.
    • A good place for politics is c/politicaldiscussion
  4. Posts must be original/unique
  5. Adhere to Lemmy's Code of Conduct and the TOS

If you made it this far, showerthoughts is accepting new mods. This community is generally tame so its not a lot of work, but having a few more mods would help reports get addressed a little sooner.

Whats it like to be a mod? Reports just show up as messages in your Lemmy inbox, and if a different mod has already addressed the report, the message goes away and you never worry about it.

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[–] Voidian@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

I think it's fine to look at general biological markers and categorize people for healthcare reasons. Most of the time being in the ballpark works for most people. Maybe in the future we can have some full body scan thing that picks up the optimal healthcare setup for each individual but in the meanwhile, we'll go with what we got.

But that doesn't have to have shit to do with their internal experience of themselves, or how the social environment should react to them. And I reiterate: "most people". Meaning there's going to be outliers and that's okay, and they'll need more individualized care. Being abnormal is normal.

[–] Grail@multiverse.soulism.net -5 points 3 hours ago

Developmentally, babies don't even have gender yet. Gender develops in the brain between the ages of 2 and 4 (and keeps developing until the end of puberty). I don't think it's developmentally appropriate to gender babies. All babies are nonbinary, and we should encourage children to choose a gender and pronouns as a rite of passage on their fourth birthday.

[–] db2@lemmy.world 3 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

This would only make sense if humans were some neutral sexless gender until they decided, which would have to be biologically enforced until the brain was sufficiently developed enough to choose.

[–] Wataba@sh.itjust.works 3 points 4 hours ago

There's an episode of TNG where Data builds his child. He specifically says that he designed their base form to be sexless and speciesless, so that they could choose it for themselves.

If only the Trek fandom at large would acknowledge how unfathomably based that episode is. I swear there's still a massive contingent of right wing boomers driving the narrative.

[–] ArgumentativeMonotheist@lemmy.world 3 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago)

Do you really think people just behave in certain, sex-related ways, because they've been told they're this sex or the other? That sex-related behavioural differences don't appear naturally (and are perhaps reinforced) but are just learned? Also, you definitely can "choose who you want to be", lol, God made us all free-willed entities! But I cannot be a camel, nor can I be a non-material entity, or (ethnically) Nepali. We have degrees of freedom but we are fundamentally constrained by reality. If you deny reality (a very post modern, perspectivist approach that's been very popular in the West for some decades now), then sure, you're no longer constrained but then you lose the capacity to make any "objective" assertions about the world (because you denied an external reality).

[–] DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world 17 points 13 hours ago (14 children)

With only 1% trans, I think if we're just willing to ACCEPT when they tell us we got it wrong, apologize and leave it at that, that would be enough.

[–] definitely_AI@feddit.online 6 points 12 hours ago (2 children)

Is it possible that any of them ever got it wrong?

[–] arcterus@piefed.blahaj.zone 7 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

The amount of people who detransition is incredibly small compared to the overall trans population, and even then most people detransition because society didn't accept them and battered them down until they gave up.

[–] GalacticSushi@piefed.blahaj.zone 2 points 11 hours ago

"Wrong" is probably not the best term for it. People's understanding of their own identity can evolve over time, but their own assessment of their sense of self will always be the most accurate barometer to go by. Yes, some people detransition, but as others have stated they're a small minority and ultimately that's their decision to make whether it's due to a change in how they identify or pressure from external forces.

But to the original commenter's point, we should just allow people to be the masters of their own identity and meet them where they are at any given point. If that were the case, the idea of getting it "wrong" wouldn't be a big deal at all, they could simply give us an update and the world keeps turning.

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[–] BillibusMaximus@sh.itjust.works 4 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

I think it would be more interesting if you could change at will. Wake up and pick your gender line you pick your outfit for the day.

Ranma 1/2? 😅

[–] jtrek@startrek.website 2 points 9 hours ago

The "and" in the title is key. Humans can currently choose their gender expression, so that part can be stripped out with no changes to the world. Not assigning gender at birth is an interesting thought. Some people are really, from my view, weird about making sure their children perform gender correctly as early and often as possible.

Also I think it'd be neat if it was "genre" in English too. People understand there's more genres than horror and fantasy.

[–] yesman@lemmy.world 8 points 13 hours ago (3 children)

That's pretty much how it already works. It's just that the pressure to make the "correct" choice is fucking crazy.

[–] Luci@lemmy.ca 8 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

For some of us we didn’t know there was a choice

[–] Cocodapuf@lemmy.world 1 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago)

For all of us we didn't know there was a choice, we were all infants at the time. We were still figuring out which amorphous blob gives us the milk.

This is why others decide on sex for us through observation. That much is sensible enough, infants are not great at that kind of thing. But we're discovering more and more that this is an imperfect system and that more often than we realized the answer is not straight forward or in fact that our conclusions are sometimes incorrect even when it appears straight forward.

[–] GalacticSushi@piefed.blahaj.zone 1 points 10 hours ago

It's just that the pressure to make the "correct" choice is fucking crazy.

I feel pressured to only ever present as a cisgendered heterosexual person regardless of whether that's correct or not. The pressure is for LGBTQ+ people to simply disappear from public society. Correct has nothing to do with it.

[–] Horsecook@sh.itjust.works 2 points 12 hours ago (3 children)

To say that transgenderism is a choice is to argue that it’s not a result of anomalous brain development, and is instead an ordinary delusion, no different than believing you’re Jesus Christ. Which implies than gender-affirming care is harmful.

I suspect that’s not what you meant.

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[–] TheLeadenSea@sh.itjust.works 3 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

It's not really that it's a choice to not be cis, but yeah, we shouldn't assume people's gender at all imho until they tell us themselves (and as children can't tell us until they're older don't assume until they're older), and even when they do it shouldn't need to affect stereotypes or the way we grammatically refer to them or anything, just maybe what body they want to have and who can be attracted to them

[–] definitely_AI@feddit.online -3 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago) (1 children)

Why would you trust anything someone says about themselves outright? What if they're crazy? What if they're lying? What if they're wrong? Is that impossible, or does every person on Earth have perfect knowledge of themselves and their true selves at all times, and always speak the truth?

[–] TheLeadenSea@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 hours ago

Why would you trust what someone else says about them rather than what they say about themself? If someone says they're depressed, do you believe them, or do you need 'objective proof'? Gender [dysphoria/euphoria] is the same, it's an internal experience.

[–] frustrated_phagocytosis@fedia.io 2 points 11 hours ago

Stop segregating by sex too, there's no reason to do that unless you need a penis to complete an activity.

[–] s3rvant@lemmy.ml 1 points 10 hours ago

Check out the Fluidum comic on Webtoons

[–] devolution@lemmy.world 2 points 13 hours ago (3 children)

Let's be real. Who would actually pick to have a penis?

[–] TheLeadenSea@sh.itjust.works 10 points 12 hours ago

Probably men

[–] Ryanmiller70@lemmy.zip 7 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Penis vs periods. That's the ultimate battle.

[–] DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 1 points 12 hours ago

:(

Can we do the blood type thing where like it's O-Type?

[–] definitely_AI@feddit.online 1 points 12 hours ago

I would. Every single time the better choice by far.

[–] faizalr@fedia.io 1 points 12 hours ago
[–] Apytele@sh.itjust.works 1 points 13 hours ago (3 children)

How do you know you didn't and you just happened to guess wrong?

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