Jaicee said:
I believe we've reached an impasse. When it comes to defining feminism, it doesn't get more basic than one's definition of what a woman is. If we cannot agree on that much, we cannot go forward on this particular subject. The crux of the issue here is that in essence you're defining womanhood culturally while I'm defining it biologically. The problem with embracing a cultural definition is that we live in a male-dominated culture; a culture where men define what it is to be masculine and feminine respectively. You're asking me to accept the validity of the Victorian-era theory of the gendered brain: the theory that men are this way and women are that way, and so if you behave "the wrong way" then on some level or other you have somehow crossed over from being male to being female or vice versa. The biological definition of womanhood, by contrast, offers limitless possibilities for how women (and men for that matter) might think and act. It is hence far more broad-minded, I would argue, to say nothing of more intellectually honest (as it better explains the nature of patriarchy, etc.). I understand that rates of depression and suicidal inclinations are high among trans-identifying people, but if you break down the survey data not just by self-identification, but also by sex, a clearer picture emerges. The demographic commonality of depressive and suicidal tendencies (thoughts, attempts) breaks down in this order: 1) Biological females who identify as male. It breaks down principally along biological lines, in other words. Trans-identifying men objectively are NOT more miserable than "cis" women in aggregate. The fact that the ordering is this way also illustrates the importance of recognizing trans-identifying women as women because that group is the most in need of help. A disproportionate percentage of women who identify as men today previously identified themselves as "butch" lesbians specifically. You can see why there's a disproportionate tendency for "masculine-expressing" lesbians (and for that matter "effeminate" gay men as well) to change to a trans identity. Butch lesbians are demeaningly referred to as "basically men" or "wannabe men" all the time for their whole lives. You don't think that messaging gets internalized at all? Yeah, I understand exactly the psychological place that transgendering comes from. In Iran, the country with the largest number of gender transition surgeries, homosexuality is a criminal offense punishable by torture. That's not a coincidence. Gay people transgender in Iran in order to avoid legal prosecution, and it's made easy by the fact that the state provides the surgery for free. |
I believe that gender dysphoria can be a biological matter too, as one can be uncomfortable with their body parts. I believe that a man and a woman does not does have to adhere to a specific personality according to their gender: so essentially a man can act in any manner, as can a woman. However, there are still those who feel that their body parts are foreign to their body and that they would be happier having sex reassignment surgery. I don't want a society where a man decides what is masculine and what is feminine, I want a society where people can associate with the gender that they're more comfortable with. So, I object to your refusal to refer to people by the pronouns that they're more comfortable with. Butch lesbians should be referred to as women as that's what they identify as, in the same way that trans women should be referred to as women. n any case, do you have a source of the study that trans men have lower suicide rates than cis women? I am genuinely curious.
