I found this passage in your comment very apt. (Sorry for not fixing the quotation marks, too hard with my thumbs.)
“" I myself am old enough to remember when transgenderism was described with the phrase "I feel like a woman trapped in a man's body." Today, the narrative has changed. Today, the body is no longer acknowledged to be a man's…
I found this passage in your comment very apt. (Sorry for not fixing the quotation marks, too hard with my thumbs.)
“" I myself am old enough to remember when transgenderism was described with the phrase "I feel like a woman trapped in a man's body." Today, the narrative has changed. Today, the body is no longer acknowledged to be a man's body. Today the phrase is "some women's bodies have penises."”
Exactly. You know, I think this is the best possible steelman argument for the idea that trans women are women. It’s not only genitals and hip width and mammaries that vary between male and female. It’s also brains. If this were not true, stereotypical gender roles would either be entirely socially determined, and would vary wildly from one society to the next rather than having at least some commonalities across the globe, or they wouldn’t exist. I could imagine theorizing that treating an individual with such a brain as if they were a woman might produce a happier individual. That would depend on outcome data, which at present are not terribly favorable to this position but who knows, new studies might demonstrate otherwise. And if this were the ask for the minuscule number of actual persistent dysphorics, most people would be fine going along.
But this isn’t about that anymore. It’s about proclaiming all of reality is socially determined and thus up for radical, revolutionary change.
I found this passage in your comment very apt. (Sorry for not fixing the quotation marks, too hard with my thumbs.)
“" I myself am old enough to remember when transgenderism was described with the phrase "I feel like a woman trapped in a man's body." Today, the narrative has changed. Today, the body is no longer acknowledged to be a man's body. Today the phrase is "some women's bodies have penises."”
Exactly. You know, I think this is the best possible steelman argument for the idea that trans women are women. It’s not only genitals and hip width and mammaries that vary between male and female. It’s also brains. If this were not true, stereotypical gender roles would either be entirely socially determined, and would vary wildly from one society to the next rather than having at least some commonalities across the globe, or they wouldn’t exist. I could imagine theorizing that treating an individual with such a brain as if they were a woman might produce a happier individual. That would depend on outcome data, which at present are not terribly favorable to this position but who knows, new studies might demonstrate otherwise. And if this were the ask for the minuscule number of actual persistent dysphorics, most people would be fine going along.
But this isn’t about that anymore. It’s about proclaiming all of reality is socially determined and thus up for radical, revolutionary change.