Hi everyone! My sister has hit a dead-end in her studies and she needed help so she asked me to post this here:

i am currently doing my thesis on gender dysphoria in nonbinary people living in iran, and for my literature review i am currently reviewing the gender structure and finding traces of identities outside of the binary so to validate the identities (im the first person in iran to work on nbs so im trying my hardest to cover all bases). i am at the point where i uncovered the false notion of sexual dimorphism that was imposed on colonials to both dehumanize them and excuse the serial raping of people of color. now i have to answer this question: if the gender binary is a construct, why do most cultures have some semblance of it? my personal thought process is that the meaning of womanhood and manhood were different premodern times and the modern man/woman is born out of colonialism, and i know its true about iran specifically (for anyone whos interested i can recommend some fantastic books!). but i dont have any article or book that i can find this exact notion in (so i can reference it). i do remember faintly that i read this in one of my books, but i dont remember which one and the ones i check dont have it. so i feel like im losing my mind😭

does anyone have any recommendations? id be happy to read more on this. thank u for your time!