# I'm Liberal. Am I wrong in this one opinion about transgenderism? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 28, 2019, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-liberal-am-i-wrong-in-this-one-opinion-about-transgenderism/837746 "2019-07-28T05:44:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 11
**Author:** ![Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/half_man_half_wit/32/21766_2.png) [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Half_Man_Half_Wit)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2019, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-liberal-am-i-wrong-in-this-one-opinion-about-transgenderism/837746/11 "2019-07-28T12:17:11Z")
I’ve had some thoughts in a similar directions: > [@Some People See Me as THE STRAIGHT DOPE](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-people-see-me-as-the-straight-dope/799626/6): > > So one thing I always wonder (from the perspective of the straight white male) is how much of the LGBTQIA+ terminology implicitly reaffirms, or even depends on, just those stereotypical gender norms and social structures it seeks to question. > > For instance, take the term nonbinary: in order for it to make sense, one must first stipulate that there’s something that’s picked out by ‘binary’ in order to negate that; so if gender simply isn’t binary, it makes no sense to call oneself ‘nonbinary’, since there’s nothing there that’s being negated. > > […] > > I apologize if I’m going about this in a too simplistic way. Part of the above is the issue with the neatly delineated vs. continuous spectrum rainbow posted above: in a sense, the whole problem is people judging other people by what boxes they fall into (or are sorted into by others, often those doing the judging); but the reaction seems to be to build more boxes. To me, in my naive way, that’s always seemed sort of the wrong tack: shouldn’t we rather try to question the grounds for boxing at all? To just live with the fact that human beings and their identities (gender- or otherwise) are simply big, messy, fuzzy things, and that we’re actually pretty much all the same on that accord? But I think, in response, **AHunter3** made a good point: > [@Some People See Me as THE STRAIGHT DOPE](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-people-see-me-as-the-straight-dope/799626/7): > > Me, I’m trying to steer this conversation down the excluded middle: the notion that there are generalizations which, _as_ generalizations, do accurately apply, but that, as with most generalizations, there are exceptions to the rule, and that I speak as an example of one of those exceptions, and that we, the exceptions, exist as a minority. It’s closer to the first version but more nuanced — I’m seeking to modify the notions about the differences so as to _include_ more social awareness of the exceptions and what our experience is like, while still granting that the generalization is valid as a generalization. That’s different from insisting on the correctness of the existing notions of difference while wanting “special snowflake” status for myself and also different from attacking the entire generalization as flat-out wrong. So maybe one might hold that those who are ‘in tune’ with the generalizations prevalent in society simply are on different footing with respect to criticism—appearance or behavior-wise—than those who aren’t. The differences in gender—the normative aspects of what’s proper in ways of behavior and appearance for a woman or a man—are ultimately a fiction; but they are a fiction that creates a certain lived reality for those within a given social context. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-liberal-am-i-wrong-in-this-one-opinion-about-transgenderism/837746)._