Ripper
Зичу Вам успіхів
- Joined
- November 8, 2014
- Messages
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This point came up in the Hogwarts thread, and it's come up before. At the risk of attracting all sorts of unsavoury things, I do think this is an interesting topic of discussion.
I know two people personally who have complex gender identities. One is a woman who has androgen insensitivity syndrome. She discovered, as an adult, that she was chromosomally male, and though she had a womb, it was significantly underdeveloped. She underwent an experimental therapy to cause her womb to start developing again, and later conceived children. Now, she might possibly, at the point of discovering her male chromosomes, have decided to seek treatment to live as a man. But, she was absolutely content with her female identity that she had always known, and sought treatment in that direction instead. The main point being, anyone who tells you that human biological sex is a simple binary is most definitely misinformed. In that regard, the science is inarguable.
When it comes to the question of gender theory, that gets into the realm of social theory and the soft-sciences, and I think there, it is possible for people of good faith to have disagreements on specifics.
With regard to JK Rowling, she’s not someone that particularly interests me, but I know that her publishing name was chosen because she was advised that no-one would buy boys’ adventure books written by a woman, so best to hide behind initials. She wrote the books as a struggling single mum in government housing, and suffered domestic abuse. So, I can understand that she is quite attached to her identity as a woman. She was quite clear that she extends trans people the same regard as she would, say, gay people – to live their lives as they see fit, protected from abuse and discrimination. But, I do think the nature of being trans is inherently more complex than sexuality, and I can understand if someone like Rowling has an issue with someone else’s version of gender theory that redefines her identity as “People who menstruate.”
As I say, I’ve talked about the issue with someone who has a lot more understanding than most of us, and she can see the complexity of it, and the problem of people who don’t perfectly conform to a certain view on the matter being made pariahs.
I know two people personally who have complex gender identities. One is a woman who has androgen insensitivity syndrome. She discovered, as an adult, that she was chromosomally male, and though she had a womb, it was significantly underdeveloped. She underwent an experimental therapy to cause her womb to start developing again, and later conceived children. Now, she might possibly, at the point of discovering her male chromosomes, have decided to seek treatment to live as a man. But, she was absolutely content with her female identity that she had always known, and sought treatment in that direction instead. The main point being, anyone who tells you that human biological sex is a simple binary is most definitely misinformed. In that regard, the science is inarguable.
When it comes to the question of gender theory, that gets into the realm of social theory and the soft-sciences, and I think there, it is possible for people of good faith to have disagreements on specifics.
With regard to JK Rowling, she’s not someone that particularly interests me, but I know that her publishing name was chosen because she was advised that no-one would buy boys’ adventure books written by a woman, so best to hide behind initials. She wrote the books as a struggling single mum in government housing, and suffered domestic abuse. So, I can understand that she is quite attached to her identity as a woman. She was quite clear that she extends trans people the same regard as she would, say, gay people – to live their lives as they see fit, protected from abuse and discrimination. But, I do think the nature of being trans is inherently more complex than sexuality, and I can understand if someone like Rowling has an issue with someone else’s version of gender theory that redefines her identity as “People who menstruate.”
As I say, I’ve talked about the issue with someone who has a lot more understanding than most of us, and she can see the complexity of it, and the problem of people who don’t perfectly conform to a certain view on the matter being made pariahs.
- Joined
- Nov 8, 2014
- Messages
- 12,085
