Gender Dysphoria

[Veritas6]

In this video the man responds to a Catholic Answers video regarding gender and sex:

He states XX and XY chromosomes correspond to hormonal changes and not sex. I think he might have a good counter argument, but I don’t agree with his views on gender reassignment surgery (even with positive effects, gender reassignment is still immoral). Is Father (in the CA video this video is responding to) correct, or is he missing something about biology as the man in this video says he does?

I don’t agree with this channel, the man is very atheistic, thinks apologetics is dishonest, and has misinterpreted Bible verses about perceived violence (that’s another discussion), but does he make any sense in this video? I think it’s best to learn more about biology, but still uphold the Church’s teachings about the sins of gender reassignment. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

God Bless

 

[adamhovey1988]

My mother’s background is in biology, she is not a Christian apologist, she said that gender is a biological fact. She knows this stuff. Has the student loan debt to prove it. She went to four different colleges. Two community (technical) and two universities.

 

[Veritas6]

Let’s set some definitions straight before we go on. I found this from GEddie, a fellow Catholic poster:

“Gender, technically, refers not to human life or the human body but to words in language.

However, the word has become used in English to refer to sexual identity. It seems that because ‘sex’ in the biological sense is inalterable, a word was needed for something more ‘fluid.’”

 

[ATraveller]

XX and XY chromosomes correspond to hormonal changes

As far as I’m aware, those hormonal differences activate or shut off certain genes. Those genes affect what body parts are built. At least in the womb. Does the person actually have a background in biology? If not, take every claim with a grain of salt.

 

[Lucretius]

He states XX and XY chromosomes correspond to hormonal changes and not sex

That’s an interesting view, and even possibly true, but this doesn’t justify mutilation by itself.

Gender reassignment surgeries don’t change one’s sex, they merely create a more permanent and sophisticated kind of crossdressing. Rearranging and removing parts into a configuration with no intristic relation to each other doesn’t create sex organs, but an appearance, and only to a certain extent, of sex organs. If it wasn’t like this, they would, say, actually function.

Christi pax.

 

[Rhubarb]

The issue is that when people are discussing gender, they often talk past one another. “Gender”, as a concept, is spoken about in so many different ways. Having a talk about it requires a breakdown of what people mean when they say ‘gender’. Are they referring to bodyparts? Are they referring to social roles? Are they referring to both a the same time? Or something else? Philosophy of Biology is a very active subject and this is a point that is fought about at conferences.

A lot of arguments about transgenderism starts from the base that gender and sex are distinct. Arguing against transgenderism without that premise isn’t really doing anything because different points are being argued.

 

[Rau]

“Gender”, as a concept, is spoken about in so many different ways.

Gender as a word is used in multiple ways. The mainstream meaning (and not in debate) is a linguistic term - some languages (eg. French, German, etc) assign nouns as either masculine or feminine. These are alternative “genders”, not sexes.

It is common for people to speak of a person’s “gender” rather than sex. This is nevertheless a reference to biological sex. Perhaps they use the word “gender” feeling it is a little less “embarrassing”, or more acceptable in broad company, than “sex”.

And in more recent times, “gender” is often used to refer to how people feel about or categorise themselves by way of an identity. So a dictionary might define gender identity as: a person’s perception of having a particular gender, which may or may not correspond with their birth sex.

 

[Rhubarb]

At least in the gender theories I’ve read, sex is the term used to describe one’s physicality in this context. Gender is used to describe the social gender norms that one engages in. People have used sex and gender interchangeably, or, used gender when they are actually referring to sex. I agree the terms aren’t " n debate" because in these sorts of arguments we can define our terms anyway way want for the sake of a tidy argument.

That’s why some say gender can be self-identified - one is very capable in choosing which behaviors (norms) one chooses to follow. This is also why the facetious “I self-identify as a fire truck, vroom vroom” misses the point - because in that case gender is not being meant to refer to sex.

That’s also why the phrase “sex change” has fallen out of favor, because nobody is claiming to change anyone’s sex. They are choosing to alter their bodies to conform to their identified gender.

 

[ThinkingSapien]

“Gender, technically, refers not to human life or the human body but to words in language.

It does. English has shed many aspects of gender within speech though. The word “Tablet” is diminutive masculine in french but in English we don’t generally classify words in such a way very much any more (if you look at older English you can find examples where it was). It can also refer to the views that someone has on whether something is more appropriate for a man or woman. So to some a Cosmopolitan is feminine and a beer is masculine even though neither drink has a sex.

Prior to the 1970s the word “sex” was used to speak of the biological aspect of a person. During the 1970s there was some research done on a child that was born with a penis, but the penis was messed up some how (birth defect, circumcision accident, something like that, can’t remember the details). It was decided the child would be raised as a girl (gendered female) even though the child were biologically a make. Here Gender was referring to how the child was socially engaged and the social markers that the child displayed such as wearing a dress or wearing hair in a certain way.

For what ever reason the word “sex” began to be used more to refer to “sexual intercourse” and people avoided using the word all together and started using the word “gender.” The transgender community often points back to this 1970s and earlier publication to show that their usage of the word “gender” is backed by how the word had been used over a longer period of time being consistent with their own usage.