RE: How Do You Respond to Transphobic Arguments?/I'm back!
March 27, 2014 at 3:58 pm
(This post was last modified: March 27, 2014 at 4:00 pm by Angrboda.)
Spits on hands and warms up.
We are biological beings, and as biological beings, we reproduce by way of sex between two compatible biological sexes, male and female. If our biology were a perfect reflection of this fact, a person would be born with a body which, during development, is given the signals to become a female body, complete with the reproductive organs of a female. In order to fulfill her role as a biological female, at the appropriate time, she would develop sexual desires for the opposite sex. In both these instances, her body and sexual orientation would be "typed" according to her genetic sex. However, there's a third part of the equation which also develops in sex appropriate ways at the appropriate times during development, and that is the brain. Just as a woman's sexual orientation may be "typed" in a way which conflicts with how her body is "typed," and develop attraction for the same sex, her brain may also end up typed in a way which is inconsistent with the way her physical body is typed. It isn't an abnormality, it's just a mismatch between two elements of how sex is expressed among a sexually dimorphic species. The sexual orientation may be typed contrary to how the body is organized, and the psychology of the brain may be typed in conflict with the body. It's not simply a "desire" to be a different sex; in the brain, "she" is a different sex / gender. So its not an unnatural wanting the body to be different than what it is, it's a healthy desire for the body to match what the brain feels.
You wants intellectual. You gots intellectual.
In general I agree with Captain Awesome though. Change from transphobia comes from experience and empathy. Knowledge helps, but it usually can't lead the way.
We are biological beings, and as biological beings, we reproduce by way of sex between two compatible biological sexes, male and female. If our biology were a perfect reflection of this fact, a person would be born with a body which, during development, is given the signals to become a female body, complete with the reproductive organs of a female. In order to fulfill her role as a biological female, at the appropriate time, she would develop sexual desires for the opposite sex. In both these instances, her body and sexual orientation would be "typed" according to her genetic sex. However, there's a third part of the equation which also develops in sex appropriate ways at the appropriate times during development, and that is the brain. Just as a woman's sexual orientation may be "typed" in a way which conflicts with how her body is "typed," and develop attraction for the same sex, her brain may also end up typed in a way which is inconsistent with the way her physical body is typed. It isn't an abnormality, it's just a mismatch between two elements of how sex is expressed among a sexually dimorphic species. The sexual orientation may be typed contrary to how the body is organized, and the psychology of the brain may be typed in conflict with the body. It's not simply a "desire" to be a different sex; in the brain, "she" is a different sex / gender. So its not an unnatural wanting the body to be different than what it is, it's a healthy desire for the body to match what the brain feels.
You wants intellectual. You gots intellectual.
In general I agree with Captain Awesome though. Change from transphobia comes from experience and empathy. Knowledge helps, but it usually can't lead the way.