It is also wrong to treat persons with gender dysphoria as powerless victims. I have a dear male friend who, if born in a different time would probably have transitioned. However he is married to a woman with health problems of her own and severe insecurity because of them. He realizes that his raising the question of transition would hurt her. So, he has resolved to live with it. I may be one of the only people he has trusted with this secret--probably because I had a transwoman husband many years ago. We were divorced and went our own ways but are still in contact.
Here is another thought that is currently unsayable. We have allowed and encouraged, in my view, children and youth to use the threat of suicide as the ultimate 'get your own way' weapon against parents. Parents are told "you can have a live daughter or a dead son". A threat of suicide must always be seen as a cry for help, never as an attempt to manipulate others. Society seems to have abandoned any expression of disapproval for suicide--still a sin for many religions, but even there a minister who refused funeral services for a suicide would be branded as heartless. People are allowed the language of "you're making me do this", "It will be your fault" etc. with no one daring to say--"no, if you chose to die over this, it is your decision. You are the bully, not we." I'm not sure how to turn this around--but someone needs to be thinking about it.
So we feminists fought for years to avoid the imprisonment of stereotypical womanhood. Now if you are a woman who wants to be a lumberjack, you must be a man. And the men who “transition” present basically as an exaggerated fe male stereotype. Amazing.
You could also add to Matt Walsh’s list re xenomelia ( a new term to me) that we don’t identify them as “trans-paraplegic”
Actually, it seems the trans community is trying to slide closer to the science. The notion that gender is a social construct is demonstrably disprovable by scientific data. Claiming gender identification to be the result of a body chemistry manifestation allows them to acknowledge the existence of only two genders that are biological based. The "born with" chemistry argument has not yet been disproven for the homosexual community.
I am a believer in this sort of argument. You have explained gender dysmorphia more intelligently and respectfully than any of the attempts by gender theory proponents I've encountered. I think I've seen the word "dysphoria" used which is a trivializing word. Maybe that's intentional, since it's meant to suggest a mood disorder caused by the moral failure of others, rather than suggesting, correctly I think, that the problem is a pathological rejection of one's own body. I strongly suspect that many people with this disorder are able to achieve self acceptance, but they must do so while being told, by people who seem as if they're caring and intelligent, that their bodies are indeed wrong and should be surgically altered. They might as well be living in medieval Europe for all the good that advice does them. Being male and feeling female, or vice versa, must be confusing enough for a person without being stigmatized as a freak either explicitly by hateful people, or insideously by people who think they're being supportive.
It is also wrong to treat persons with gender dysphoria as powerless victims. I have a dear male friend who, if born in a different time would probably have transitioned. However he is married to a woman with health problems of her own and severe insecurity because of them. He realizes that his raising the question of transition would hurt her. So, he has resolved to live with it. I may be one of the only people he has trusted with this secret--probably because I had a transwoman husband many years ago. We were divorced and went our own ways but are still in contact.
Here is another thought that is currently unsayable. We have allowed and encouraged, in my view, children and youth to use the threat of suicide as the ultimate 'get your own way' weapon against parents. Parents are told "you can have a live daughter or a dead son". A threat of suicide must always be seen as a cry for help, never as an attempt to manipulate others. Society seems to have abandoned any expression of disapproval for suicide--still a sin for many religions, but even there a minister who refused funeral services for a suicide would be branded as heartless. People are allowed the language of "you're making me do this", "It will be your fault" etc. with no one daring to say--"no, if you chose to die over this, it is your decision. You are the bully, not we." I'm not sure how to turn this around--but someone needs to be thinking about it.
Rita
So we feminists fought for years to avoid the imprisonment of stereotypical womanhood. Now if you are a woman who wants to be a lumberjack, you must be a man. And the men who “transition” present basically as an exaggerated fe male stereotype. Amazing.
You could also add to Matt Walsh’s list re xenomelia ( a new term to me) that we don’t identify them as “trans-paraplegic”
What progressives want is to turn society into Hogeweyk, a dementia treatment center in Holland:
https://hogeweyk.dementiavillage.com/
My bird twitches when I read academic jargon deployed against academics
Actually, it seems the trans community is trying to slide closer to the science. The notion that gender is a social construct is demonstrably disprovable by scientific data. Claiming gender identification to be the result of a body chemistry manifestation allows them to acknowledge the existence of only two genders that are biological based. The "born with" chemistry argument has not yet been disproven for the homosexual community.
I am a believer in this sort of argument. You have explained gender dysmorphia more intelligently and respectfully than any of the attempts by gender theory proponents I've encountered. I think I've seen the word "dysphoria" used which is a trivializing word. Maybe that's intentional, since it's meant to suggest a mood disorder caused by the moral failure of others, rather than suggesting, correctly I think, that the problem is a pathological rejection of one's own body. I strongly suspect that many people with this disorder are able to achieve self acceptance, but they must do so while being told, by people who seem as if they're caring and intelligent, that their bodies are indeed wrong and should be surgically altered. They might as well be living in medieval Europe for all the good that advice does them. Being male and feeling female, or vice versa, must be confusing enough for a person without being stigmatized as a freak either explicitly by hateful people, or insideously by people who think they're being supportive.