The Reality of Sex and the Lie of “Gender Self-Identity”

[PaulinVA]

Maybe people who think they are of a different gender than the one they’re born with may have a brain/hormonal difference? We do not fully understand how hormones play a part in a developing brain.

We just cannot tell them to snap out of it.

Yes, I agree.

Presently, gender dysphoria is treated by letting the person present as the gender they imagine themselves to be.

Is that the right treatment?

Should society change laws and social norms as part of the treatment?

 

[Sarcelle]

More research should be done that’s for sure.

However this could be in opposition to the current politically correct opinion.

 

[Inquiry]

This is my understanding as well. There is evidence that there is a detectable issue going on in some cases of gender dysphoria. However, based on depression rates and suicide rates it doesn’t look like transitioning (either in behavior or surgically) actually helps.

My general opinion is that radical but ineffective solutions are usually worse than useless as they get in the way of actually addressing the important issues.

 

[Sarcelle]

Is that the right treatment?

Going along with the delusion?

I don’t think so.

Let’s face it, someone who undergoes gender reassignment surgery is still of the sex they’re born with but this time they’re mutilated.

I think they deserve better.

 

[Thorolfr]

A biological and genetic male is male and will always be so, regardless of whether or not he is happy about that.

But don’t many trans-women acknowledge that they’re biological and genetic men who are unhappy because of the gender dysphoria they suffer and want to present themselves as women, not as a statement about “reality” but as a way to ease their dysphoria?

I don’t know any trans-women who claim to be biological and genetic females.

 

[Thorolfr]

PaulinVA:

Is that the right treatment?

Going along with the delusion?

I don’t think so.

Let’s face it, someone who undergoes gender reassignment surgery is still of the sex they’re born with but this time they’re mutilated.

I think they deserve better.

It all kind of depends on the outcome. If there are two options:

*No surgery and unhappy
*Surgery and happy

Then perhaps the surgery option is better if that is the only way to be happy.

 

[JMMJ]

not by assuming it is the body that is wrong rather than the mind

Last time I checked, the brain was a body part just like the rest of our body parts.

 

[PaulinVA]

It all kind of depends on the outcome. If there are two options:

*No surgery and unhappy
*Surgery and happy

Then perhaps the surgery option is better if that is the only way to be happy.

I don’t think that the choices are so obvious. You have to add

*Surgery and still unhappy

What then?

 

[JMMJ]

Then at least they tried, no?

 

[Inquiry]

That sentiment is great when the action taken is not permanent. It is easy to try things when there is no great harm in the trying. We are talking about something drastic and irreversible.

 

[PaulinVA]

Then at least they tried, no?

Mutilating ones body in an attempt at happiness seems extreme.

 

[Anrakyr]

That sentiment is great when the action taken is not permanent. It is easy to try things when there is no great harm in the trying. We are talking about something drastic and irreversible.

Maybe but the same could be said for marriage, certain jobs, facial reconstruction surgery. Change is inevitable but that doesn’t mean it should be taken lightly. We need to accept people will do what’s best for them if we guide them with compassion.

 

[Inquiry]

Exactly. The irreversible should be entered into with considerably more care than “it’s worth a try.”

 

[Brendan_64]

But don’t many trans-women acknowledge that they’re biological and genetic men who are unhappy because of the gender dysphoria they suffer and want to present themselves as women, not as a statement about “reality” but as a way to ease their dysphoria?

If adults wish to live their lives as if they are members if the opposite sex that is one thing, but making it the law that these people must be accepted by others as being members of the opposite sex is another matter. Mis-gendering someone, or claiming biological males are men and will always he so, could get you fired from your job in the UK and perhaps even end up with you in court.

We now seem to be entering a period where people are expected to view that being a man or a woman (male or female) is not determined by the biological and genetic nature of the person. Before long this ideology could well be routinely taught, and presented as a fact, to young children in schools.

 

[Rau]

We do not choose our identity, we are who we are

A meaningful statement might be : “we don’t choose our sex - it’s a physical given (almost always)”.

Mis-gendering someone, or claiming biological males are men and will always he so, could get you fired from your job in the UK and perhaps even end up with you in court.

These sorts of social developments should not be confused with medical treatments, though it is a fact that such treatments then give rise to practical / social issues which are not straightforward.

 

[Rau]

I’m not a mental health expert, but it would seem that mental health problems should be dealt with as such, not by assuming it is the body that is wrong rather than the mind.

Gender and other dysphoria have not found effective treatments as mental illnesses. There is no assertion by competent people that the body is “wrong”; what is asserted is that the body reality does not match the mental image, and that image is a reflection of brain formation. The treatments you see are what is possible, and believed to help the sufferer - that’s all.

 

[Rau]

Then at least they tried, no?

The surgical option is so extreme, and irreversible. Surely great lengths should be gone to to find an alternative, or to pursue it only if deemed necessary.

 

[Brendan_64]

Last time I checked, the brain was a body part just like the rest of our body parts.

I said “mind”, not brain, but regardless the brain has not got the power to alter a person’s biological and genetic identity.

 

[Anrakyr]

If that was true things like the placebo effect would never work.

 

[Inquiry]

I know this is not what you meant, but my mind leapt to doctors discussing how to run a double blind study to compare gender reassignment surgery against a sugar pill.