What is the point of a different genders among alters?

I have some alters who are male.
I have some alters who are female.
I have one alter who is neither.
I have one alter who is both.
What's the point of all these variations?

One of the male alters is (probably) an introject, so I understand why he's male. I have theories as to why one of my children is male.

I can only guess as to why the females are female versus anything else.

The alter who is neither uses female pronouns for simplicity's sake but has no genitals and if pressed would call herself neither. What's the point of that? She is a protector. How does not having a gender help the body?

The who is both uses female pronouns and she has taken on the role of both mother and father. She is my ISH.I would guess because she's both a mother and a father. However, she is significantly more mother than father. Again, what's the point of having both genders?

This is a good question.

It makes sense why a system would make animals and male alters because they appear stronger. Perhaps female alters are made for compassion. A large system could probably find various reasons for their various male and female alters. Perhaps it is something like age in the system, where parts take on various ages to do a certain job.

I'm not sure I can answer this for you, but did want to say I can relate.

Helpers: My Observer is genderless, though will go by "he" for simplicity's sake. He is logical, rational, kind of like an internal science officer. Pick you're Star Trek, he is either Spock or Data. That's how he comes off inside, except maybe a little less naive. CT (caretaker) is female, but she might as well be genderless as well. If she were heavily female, not many of the kids would tolerate her. My "bridge" is male, but seems to have a sort of fluctuating existence of being what somebody (child parts) needs in the moment.

Toddlers: Girl, ? (not sure about the second one yet, if s/he is even an alter)
Kids: 5-year-old (girl), 10-year-old (tomboy), ? (somewhere between 7-10, boy, reports a traumatic experience from dad and might go by dad's middle name), 12 (girl).
Teens: 16-year-old (female), 17-year-old (male, protector/detacher)

My denial/invalidator part is male and at least partially modeled after dad.

The 5-year-old reports an animal inside, but it may just be her imaginary pet or something, and he is male too.

In my case, there was basically zero attachment to mom across the board. The only thing I've heard from anyone inside that is positive was that she was beautiful when she played music, like an angel (5-year-old). She was very neglectful at least in the early years from what I gather and emotionally abusive/neglectful/terrifying at times in the teens (which I remember myself, though still manage to doubt I remember correctly). She was very unstable and had a breakdown when I was little and I was the only one left to live with her during that time. I don't remember it at all and no memories from that have come up yet. She also brought at least a dozen men into my life as a young child and dozens in my lifetime. So, overall, internally, we have a pretty negative view of women as manipulative, crazy, drama, unstable, vindictive, threatening, etc. We have a view of men as cold, detached, invalidating and violating...but between the two, I guess men got idealized as safe/protective. Every transference figure I have ever had is male, all my best friends have either been male or tomboys, and being around groups of women gives me anxiety attacks. So, in my case, it makes sense to me that I have about half guys in my system.

My non-gendered alter stems from wanting desperately to not be male or female.

May Trigger





During the time when my mother would constantly call us a slut and say that our breasts were too big and that all the boys wanted was to sleep with me, I would desperately wish I was fat, ugly, and stupid. I would wish to not be a girl, or a boy. I think my genderlessness was from that.