The right to mis-define oneself

[Longhorn]

I'm definitely in the skeptical party that feels like we're being mandated to play pretend. Bruce Jenner, for example, wants us to call him a her named Caitlyn. Sure, whatever. I don't give a shit. But us all pretending he's a woman doesn't make him a woman in my mind.

Except psychologically, Caitlyn/Bruce is a woman

And here, I'm not pretending, which is why I'm using the wrong pronouns, which would get me labeled transphobic, which is silly. I think the the obligation of others to 'play along' is an interesting social issue.

Play along? Tbh it's more about getting people you care about to recognize your true self and I don't see why anybody wouldn't want that

Perhaps my problem is that I'm pretty loose in my views of gender roles. If you're a male who wants to wear a dress, go for it. If you want to get fake tits, and get some type of vagina thing going, that's fine too. Which complicates the transgender issue, because all that's left in my mind for what defines gender is the scientific assignment of sex.

Except what makes Caitlyn/Bruce a woman isn't the desire to wear dresses out high heels, it's feeling with every fibre of your body that you are a woman

Being transgender is not about gender roles
The mental condition associated with it, gender dysphoria causes significant dissonance between the brain and the body

So when Bruce says he wants to be Caitlyn, nothing about Caitlyn is anything I would deem as necessary to identify as a female to do. It's all just superficial.

The superficial changes, like name and appearance, are made to make the person comfortable with themselves, because Bruce/Caitlyn already IS a woman and nothing about those changes makes that fact more or less valid

Transgender people are not a good example for this discussion, because they are not mis-identifying themselves, quite to the contrary actually