Thinking about vs. experiencing a concept

Hello, friends! I'm trying to dig into the difference between thinking about a concept and actually experiencing said concept. I'd like to share my process with you, in hope that you can help me understand whether I am on the right track, or just intellectualizing.

I've really tried to get the concept of "woman" as it is in *my* experience. (YMMV, but that is not the point at all!) There is of course the physical aspect, but also a whole universe of connected concepts, assumptions, judgments and whatnot. To try to dissect it, I've considered a couple of questions. First, if I take a (possibly macho) man and turn his body magically into a female one, would he fit into my concept of a woman? No. What about people born into female body, who do not feel as women and do not identify with their body? Again no. What about a transgender person born into a male body but feeling to be a woman, who went through the transition? Yes, that is a woman to me. What if I fell into a universe where there is absolutely no difference between women and men, aside of different bodies (let's say cubes vs. spheres) and their self-identification? There surely would be a concept of a woman, but my concepts of woman and men, as they are, would not make sense there. Let me stop here.

So the process is partly intellectual and analytical, leading to new questions. But the answers are, I believe, experiential. What "feels" right to me about the answer? Yet feelings are just disguised concepts so 🤷. But it seems to me that I am experiencing the concept more clearly, rather than just thinking about it. What do you say?

Thank you!

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