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Can we just be perfectly clear: are we talking about people who suffer sex-specific body dysmorphia in the sense that they feel they have the 'wrong' genitalia and secondary sexual characteristics, or people who suffer from dysphoria related to gender roles, who feel that they are forced into adhering to sets of performative norms based on their appearance and/or biological sex that do not match their senses of self? I ask because transfolk are a very diverse bunch, and it is not only wrong but very confusing to conflate those who are unhappy with the fact that they were assigned a gender and therefore role from birth based on the fact that they had or didn't have a penis between their tiny legs, and those who are primarily interested in changing their bodies to suit an internal perception of self. There are transpeople who have absolutely no interest in changing their bodies but reject absolutely their assigned gender (or even the notion of gender itself)], and there are transpeople who do not have such a huge problem with gender but who feel extremely uncomfortable with the reproductive organs and sexual characteristics that are the result of their chromosomes, and will seek above all to change their bodies to alleviate the stress of being unable to present to the world as they see themselves in their minds' eyes. There is a growing proportion of this second group who are increasingly frustrated with the focus on gender within trans activism and theory, and some who are in favour of bringing back the word 'transsexual' (which has quite clearly fallen out of vogue) to complement and contrast with the term 'transgendered.' Not all transgendered people suffer from sex-specific body dysmorphia, nor would want to call themselves transsexual. But many do, and there are even some transfolk out their who are concerned very little with what set of gendered norms are applied to them by the outside world (these are typically very fiercely independent and unique people who don't give a single gently caress and can't be easily pigeonholed anyway) but who would do almost anything to alleviate the pain that goes with living in a body that is fundamentally unacceptable to their sense of self. I don't think all dysphoria related to gender would disappear even if everybody on earth took a magic pill that forced their brains to accept their bodies as true and correct representations of their identity. Perhaps all dysphoria specifically in relation to sex would go away, but this is where it's important to distinguish between sex-specific body dysmorphia and gender dysphoria. I mean, I'm a cis dude who gets pissed off on a daily basis about the fact that people assume all sorts of stuff about me based on the fact that I'm a large human with a deep voice and facial hair. It pisses me off that just about everybody on the planet has to deal with this. It pisses me of that I participate in it. This is because I think gender is a fundamentally flawed idea that serves no real purpose and that humanity should disabuse itself of it as soon as possible. But it is extremely important to recognise that not all transpeople think this way, and equally important to acknowledge that many of the transpeople who are most in favour of smashing the entire gender binary system are also entirely comfortable with their bodies.
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Dec 6, 2014 09:42
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Ponsonby Britt posted:Alternately, what if the pathology of gender dysphoria isn't in the person's brain, but rather in society's response to that person? And the magic pill only treats a surface symptom, leaving the disease to rage on unchecked within the body politic? That this (I assume semi-ironic) suggestion will actually be true for some but not all transpeople was the crux of my previous post.
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Dec 7, 2014 06:23
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Xandu posted:Is this fundamentally different than a pill to fix gay people? I understand the point that gender dysmorphia is not easily treated (through surgery/hormones), but if it's a part of one's identity, then it can't and shouldn't really be changed. I get the objection you're raising, but don't you think there's something not quite right about treating gender, or dysphoria related to gender, or one's body, or even one's sex, as something immutable? A lot of people do want to change these things about themselves. Just because they've incorporated as aspect of their person into their identity doesn't mean they're happy with it.
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Dec 7, 2014 14:16
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