Calling sex a true binary is strange for a talented biologist, intersex people definitely exist.
Transgenderism is a bit different though. Personally I think gender is a repressive, outdated social norm, and I disagree with transgenderism precisely because it reinforces this obsolete notion. Anyone should feel free to dress, act, and identify however they please, including but not limited to any body modifications they wish. But “switching” your identity to align with another set of stereotypical expressions only reinforces those stereotypes.
I can’t even see the point in “fitting in”, because those who care about how you express yourself aren’t going to accept you as transgender anyway, and the people who are going to accept you aren’t going to care if your expression matches the stereotypes they’re used to.
I dunno if that’s his objection because paywall, but I can certainly understand opposition to transgenderism that isn’t actually intolerant of transgender people themselves.
This is an interesting article but it’s a little superficial. I wish it addressed where that internal gender originates from. It’s something I’ve been trying to understand. We know gender dysphoria is real and transgender is something that needs to be addressed through presentation (I hope I’m saying this right). But doesn’t that presentation ultimately conform to arbitrary societal norms on gender presentation?
It’s because we are social creatures who are not entirely in control of our schemas, or conceptualisations. We can’t just decide to have logical opinions and have it work instantly. There’s always a difficulty, and the difficulty scales with personal relevance and importance. When we aren’t in control, society decides how we define things like “man” and “woman”. And the internal sense demands that we be able to categorise ourselves as the preferred gender, to the standards of not just our ego but also our irrational id.
Calling sex a true binary is strange for a talented biologist, intersex people definitely exist.
Transgenderism is a bit different though. Personally I think gender is a repressive, outdated social norm, and I disagree with transgenderism precisely because it reinforces this obsolete notion. Anyone should feel free to dress, act, and identify however they please, including but not limited to any body modifications they wish. But “switching” your identity to align with another set of stereotypical expressions only reinforces those stereotypes.
I can’t even see the point in “fitting in”, because those who care about how you express yourself aren’t going to accept you as transgender anyway, and the people who are going to accept you aren’t going to care if your expression matches the stereotypes they’re used to.
I dunno if that’s his objection because paywall, but I can certainly understand opposition to transgenderism that isn’t actually intolerant of transgender people themselves.
This article may have some direct relevance to you: https://medium.com/@viridiangrail/so-you-found-out-youre-agender-because-you-don-t-understand-trans-people-886fdee6f178
This is an interesting article but it’s a little superficial. I wish it addressed where that internal gender originates from. It’s something I’ve been trying to understand. We know gender dysphoria is real and transgender is something that needs to be addressed through presentation (I hope I’m saying this right). But doesn’t that presentation ultimately conform to arbitrary societal norms on gender presentation?
It’s because we are social creatures who are not entirely in control of our schemas, or conceptualisations. We can’t just decide to have logical opinions and have it work instantly. There’s always a difficulty, and the difficulty scales with personal relevance and importance. When we aren’t in control, society decides how we define things like “man” and “woman”. And the internal sense demands that we be able to categorise ourselves as the preferred gender, to the standards of not just our ego but also our irrational id.