monstro:
I appreciate that she’s concerned that teenagers are being encouraged to transition before they are certain they are truly trans. That’s not a particular worry of mine, but I can appreciate that concern. Seems to me that such “oopsies” don’t HAVE to be a big deal. We choose to make them a big deal. Maybe that’s what we should address rather than the “oopsies”.
You don’t think it’s a big deal if teenagers are given irreversible hormone treatment and surgery to remove parts of their bodies due to a faulty diagnosis?
monstro:
I admit to feeling frustrated over how much the discourse seems to be all over the place. It seems like one day we were all learning about how gender is a social construct. I was totally down for this message because it makes sense to me. But today the message seems to be gender is whatever an individual says it is, damn the societal millieu and the biology. And if you don’t agree with this idea, it’s not that you’re just a person who disagrees with idea. No, you’ve got to be a TERF. You think the term “woman” should mean something besides “a person who claims to feel like a woman”? TERF!!! I admit I’m not the most enlightened person on every single social issue, but I don’t think it is bigoted to want one’s identity–the one they’ve had for over 50 years–to be turned into a subjective, undefinable feeling that anyone can claim to possess for whatever reason they want, whenever they want. Rowling may be overly worried about the abuses that will result if we move to an “open door” approach to gender identity, but I don’t think that makes her hateful.
Sounds like a good description of what’s going on.