# Gender identity - is it even a debate at all? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [April 26, 2010, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-identity-is-it-even-a-debate-at-all/537366 "2010-04-26T02:53:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 26
**Author:** ![lekatt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lekatt/32/7269_2.png) [@lekatt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lekatt)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2010, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-identity-is-it-even-a-debate-at-all/537366/26 "2010-04-26T14:37:50Z")
> [@umop\_ap\_sdn](#): > > You can know the attributes of a person without stepping into their shoes, which is what I’m talking about here. You can measure their height, shoulder width, waist-to-hip ratio, etc, but you won’t get any idea of what they’re thinking or what basic drives they have. Since it is impossible to actually be that person for just a moment, why not take their word for it as to how they really feel? > > There is a difference though between identifying as a specific gender and identifying as a nonhuman species or an inanimate object. Men and women are very similar in a lot of ways; both use language, eat pretty much the same foods, walk on two legs, and so forth. The differences are subtle but they’re there. What do you call someone who is male bodied but lacks the natural inclination to be “one of the guys” and has to constantly put on an act just to be socially accepted? Someone who envies female bodied people and wants nothing more than to be one? Certainly not a man - I’ve never known any men like that, have you? Perhaps a more accurate term would be: a woman in a male body? > > So if your definition of gender is the true and correct one, then should all transgender people just give up, convince themselves that they are deluded, and resign to being regarded as the gender that feels wrong to them for the rest of their lives? Wow, I predict a spike in suicide rates from that. Not to mention those who remain alive would be in the same boat as so-called “ex-gay” types. But hey, all that stuff has nothing to do with what is actually true, does it, so it’s a damn sad world we live in. It is not a sad world, just one that is not understood. I like the “woman in a male body” saying. I have talked with many homosexuals, and most will tell you that they have always felt, even as a very small child, they were in the wrong body. So what could be happening if you should believe in the spiritual nature of us humans, is that after having many lifetimes as a woman, the individual decides to try being a male. There is no gender or sex in the spiritual world, and when you decide to incarnate into the physical you choose which you will be. If you have incarnated and reincarnated several times as a woman, being a male may feel very strange. No one makes it through the physical “school” in only one lifetime. There is much to be learned and it is not uncommon to reincarnate 50-100 times in order to learn enough to graduate. Now if you don’t believe in the spiritual nature of man then you will just have to wonder about things like homosexuality, savant-idiots, 6 year olds that play the piano in Carnegie Hall, identical conjoined twins that have completely different personalities, and such other phenomenon. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-identity-is-it-even-a-debate-at-all/537366)._