I used to believe in the standard leftist position on trans issues - that some people were inherently trans (which was presented as sort of an opposite gender soul) and that there was a lot of strong evidence that transitioning was the only way that these people could live. If they didn't transition, they would kill themselves. Childhood…
I used to believe in the standard leftist position on trans issues - that some people were inherently trans (which was presented as sort of an opposite gender soul) and that there was a lot of strong evidence that transitioning was the only way that these people could live. If they didn't transition, they would kill themselves. Childhood transition was presented as unquestionably good, and almost noone did it by mistake or regretted it afterwards.
However there were always quiet doubts in my mind:
1. I never felt like I had a "gendered soul" and I was sure that if I had been born in a male body, I would have been fine with that. For a long time I assumed that only some people have this, but I was also exposed to trans activists who insisted everyone have a gender identity, and this made no sense to me.
2. There were other statements from the trans activist community that were clearly wrong or contradictory as well. E.g. the position that males don't clearly have an athletic advantage and to say that they do is saying that women are weak.
Or the fact that the movement insists on "not pathologizing" trans identity but also insists on medical intervention.
3. The idea of changing the body to deal with emotional distress was clearly in conflict with how we treat mental health in general. I had an eating disorder as a teenager and once I started coming across more FTM trans people, it seemed clear to me that there were some parallels.
My brother sent me a podcast that was gender critical. Pretty risky move on his part but I had just moved and Twitter (where I interacted with my more left wing friends) was falling apart due to Elon, so I was speaking to them less and was more open to other ideas.
I think that a good way look at it is that there are two(main) aspects to "transness" with one being gender identity, which is a psychological thing built by our society which relates to the way you identify yourself. The other is a medical condition, which happens to be called "gender dysphoria" although it isn't really related to gender. Recent studies about trans people discoverd that there is an inherent difference between male and female brains, and that trans woman had brains that were closer to female than male and the same for trans man (with their brains being closer to male brains). The reason people with that condition need to change their bodies with medical procedures isn't because of a mismatch with their gender identity, which relates to pronouns and how you present yourself but is more about a mismatch between their brains and bodies which causes them difficulties with being able to function, therefore requiring medical intervention in order to attempt to correct the mismatch and make their bodies match their brains.
Your comment on the gendered soul is particularly interesting to me. The idea of a universal feminine spirit or essence sounds metaphysical, something which some people experience, and others really do not.
I used to believe in the standard leftist position on trans issues - that some people were inherently trans (which was presented as sort of an opposite gender soul) and that there was a lot of strong evidence that transitioning was the only way that these people could live. If they didn't transition, they would kill themselves. Childhood transition was presented as unquestionably good, and almost noone did it by mistake or regretted it afterwards.
However there were always quiet doubts in my mind:
1. I never felt like I had a "gendered soul" and I was sure that if I had been born in a male body, I would have been fine with that. For a long time I assumed that only some people have this, but I was also exposed to trans activists who insisted everyone have a gender identity, and this made no sense to me.
2. There were other statements from the trans activist community that were clearly wrong or contradictory as well. E.g. the position that males don't clearly have an athletic advantage and to say that they do is saying that women are weak.
Or the fact that the movement insists on "not pathologizing" trans identity but also insists on medical intervention.
3. The idea of changing the body to deal with emotional distress was clearly in conflict with how we treat mental health in general. I had an eating disorder as a teenager and once I started coming across more FTM trans people, it seemed clear to me that there were some parallels.
My brother sent me a podcast that was gender critical. Pretty risky move on his part but I had just moved and Twitter (where I interacted with my more left wing friends) was falling apart due to Elon, so I was speaking to them less and was more open to other ideas.
I think that a good way look at it is that there are two(main) aspects to "transness" with one being gender identity, which is a psychological thing built by our society which relates to the way you identify yourself. The other is a medical condition, which happens to be called "gender dysphoria" although it isn't really related to gender. Recent studies about trans people discoverd that there is an inherent difference between male and female brains, and that trans woman had brains that were closer to female than male and the same for trans man (with their brains being closer to male brains). The reason people with that condition need to change their bodies with medical procedures isn't because of a mismatch with their gender identity, which relates to pronouns and how you present yourself but is more about a mismatch between their brains and bodies which causes them difficulties with being able to function, therefore requiring medical intervention in order to attempt to correct the mismatch and make their bodies match their brains.
I hope this helps!
Your comment on the gendered soul is particularly interesting to me. The idea of a universal feminine spirit or essence sounds metaphysical, something which some people experience, and others really do not.