If we are gonna insist people have to be categorized into either biological male or female, a lot of trans women would most reasonably be placed into the female category and a lot of trans men into the male category.
FOREWARNING: highly philosophical bits incoming. Don’t read into anything i say too heavily lol.
this was my argument exactly, except a little bit backwards. I think people are in some capacity, a little bit too focused on the physical nature of things, because the physical body is quite literally not the determining factor here. It’s also a bit of the paradoxical nature of gender dysphoria.
My argument basically TL;DRs into “trans people are actually physically separated from their birth sex, rather than mentally separated from their physical birth sex”
the only reason the physical body is relevant here is because i consider it similar to other physical deformations. At birth or not, the physical body is not perfect, biology is not perfect, whether or not the physical sex or the neurological sex developed independently of the other is entirely irrelevant to what the actual perceived sex of the individual is. If we’re going to take one source as the true source, it’s probably not going to be the physical one, for various reasons, it’s going to be the neurological one.
The very fact that the existence of this separation causing problems with things like dysphoria, i think demonstrates that it is not the physical concept that matters, it is the neurological one.
TL;DR TL;DR if we’re going to adhere to an authoritative source of what determines the gender/neurological sex of an individual, following the neurological path seems like both, the path of least resistance, and most likely functional outcome you could come to. Both because neurology is very confusing and difficult (otherwise this would be a solved problem, one way or the other) and also because the body is inherently imperfect, and relatively trivial to adapt.
I really just don’t think there’s any legitimacy in the physical body in this context, even though it’s a huge pain point, i would argue that’s a secondary effect of the neurological function, rather than a primary function of the experience itself. I could theoretically get a full sex reassignment surgery. Which might change my physical appearance, but there’s very little that would do for my neurological existence. Therefore, i would argue i am still my original gender, even though my sex has changed. I.E. trans people, are by default the correct gender, their physical sex for whatever reason, is separated from their gender, causing the issue. Therefore you cannot conceptualize this issue as a “mental dysfunction” at all, completely destroying the entire conservative conceptualization of trans people.
FOREWARNING: highly philosophical bits incoming. Don’t read into anything i say too heavily lol.
this was my argument exactly, except a little bit backwards. I think people are in some capacity, a little bit too focused on the physical nature of things, because the physical body is quite literally not the determining factor here. It’s also a bit of the paradoxical nature of gender dysphoria.
My argument basically TL;DRs into “trans people are actually physically separated from their birth sex, rather than mentally separated from their physical birth sex”
the only reason the physical body is relevant here is because i consider it similar to other physical deformations. At birth or not, the physical body is not perfect, biology is not perfect, whether or not the physical sex or the neurological sex developed independently of the other is entirely irrelevant to what the actual perceived sex of the individual is. If we’re going to take one source as the true source, it’s probably not going to be the physical one, for various reasons, it’s going to be the neurological one.
The very fact that the existence of this separation causing problems with things like dysphoria, i think demonstrates that it is not the physical concept that matters, it is the neurological one.
TL;DR TL;DR if we’re going to adhere to an authoritative source of what determines the gender/neurological sex of an individual, following the neurological path seems like both, the path of least resistance, and most likely functional outcome you could come to. Both because neurology is very confusing and difficult (otherwise this would be a solved problem, one way or the other) and also because the body is inherently imperfect, and relatively trivial to adapt.
I really just don’t think there’s any legitimacy in the physical body in this context, even though it’s a huge pain point, i would argue that’s a secondary effect of the neurological function, rather than a primary function of the experience itself. I could theoretically get a full sex reassignment surgery. Which might change my physical appearance, but there’s very little that would do for my neurological existence. Therefore, i would argue i am still my original gender, even though my sex has changed. I.E. trans people, are by default the correct gender, their physical sex for whatever reason, is separated from their gender, causing the issue. Therefore you cannot conceptualize this issue as a “mental dysfunction” at all, completely destroying the entire conservative conceptualization of trans people.