Oh, do elaborate. I love when people claim that I have somehow “proved myself wrong.”
All of a sudden, transgered people have a “problem,” now. God, if I’d claimed something like that, I’d be lambasted. What “appears to you,” is the same unsupported assumption that everyone is taking at face value. But, as I’ve said before, you can’t separate mind and body. A male mind operates as a male mind. That’s true by definition. Now, a male mind can operate in a more “feminine” (a cultural definition) manner than in a “masculine” (yep, cultural definition) manner.
Your confusion comes from the fact that you do not understand the distinction between sex and gender. It’s been explained quite well by matt_mcl, but I’ll lay it out again. A person’s sex is the body they were born with, male or female. A gender role is a culturally defined categorization and determines the stereotypes we have as to how the sexes are supposed to behave.
A male cannot feel and think as a female, but he can believe that his method of thinking and feeling fits the characteristics he has been conditioned to believe are characteristics of women. This does not mean he has the mind of a female. That is an impossibility. The “maleness” or “femaleness” of a mind is an all-or-nothing proposition. It’s hardwired. Males have male minds. Females have female minds. Such is the nature of the human animal. Indeed, all animals.
Don’t put words in my mouth. He may feel more comfortable as a woman because he fits the female gender role better than the male one. And since he lives in this culture, he may want to live as a woman so he can follow this gender role instead of the male gender role. It’s not ignorance. It’s an understandable desire that he has every right to fulfill. Why should he have to follow an artificial set of rules set up by our culture just because the culture think that all penis-having people should follow them? The answer is, he doesn’t. He should, if he so desires, live like a woman, and have surgery if he wants to.
Now you’re getting to the heart of the matter. However, gender roles are very much culturally induced. The difference between a male and female mind is not, but this difference is a physical one, an insurmountable one. How any particular mind fits into cultural definitions is a separate, discrete issue from whether a mind is a female mind or male mind.
Mistakes are made all the time by genetics. They produced a little something called complex life. However, it would be some process that could create a female brain inside a male body. Since there are so many people that weren’t born into the right body, how about some examples. I’d be very interested to learn of a case study where a male’s brain has been shown to respond consistently in the ways we have observed female brains to respond. When I see that case study, I will admit that I am wrong, that a female mind can be born into a male body. (Or vice-versa. God, that phrase has become necessary more in this thread than any other I have posted in.)
A person is not born into the “wrong body,” they are born into the wrong culture, the wrong gender role. (Or rather, the culture has set up the wrong gender roles for him/her.)
Not quite. Transgender people realize that their personality and nature fit the opposite gender role in their culture. This happens. It’s bound to happen. It’s completely understandable and even expected, from my perspective. They know that they would be happier if they could live fully within the opposite gender role, so they do so. Often they feel that a physical change is necessary for them to be completely comfortable in their role. Great! A person is living a life that makes them happy and living the role that they feel most appropriate living. That’s a great thing, and they should have the right to do that.
Also, a not-so-trivial nitpick, you are using the words sex and gender interchangeably. While they are often used in such a manner in casual speech, this can only lead to confusion. You could imagine sex and gender as two different axes:
^ Masculine
|
A|B
Male<---+--->Female
C|D
|
V Feminine
Male and female are sex distinctions. Masculine and feminine are culturally defined gender roles, with males expected to be masculine, females feminine.
The nature of a person’s mind, as far as the M/F distinction goes, is determined by their sex. Where they fall on the masculine/feminine axis is simply determined by the way culture judges their personality and way of life.
So A is a male who fits the gender role of a “man.” B is a female who fits the gender role of a “man.” C is a male who fits the gender role of a “woman.” D is a female who fits the gender role of a “woman.” This kind of thing happens all the time. It’s a byproduct of trying to shove people into boxes and categories, assuming that males would/should act according to the masculine gender role, and females the feminine role. It seems to me, correct me if I’m wrong, that most of the other posters seem to, perhaps subconsciously, believe this, then explain the fact that sometimes people don’t fit their gender role by claiming, oh well, they were actually a female/male all along. If you ask me, that is what is ignorant. That fails to accept the variety in human beings and falls again in to the trap of shoving people into one of two “slots.”
That’s what I’m sayin’! However, mistakes don’t happen that magically create a female mind in a male body. The mistake that is happening is the mistake of cultural gender roles.
But I don’t believe that WHO a person is is dependent on the cultural gender role they fit. That transcends cultural dividing lines. How they fit cultural definitions depends on their nature as an individual, and if they don’t match up with the cultural expectation, that does not mean that they somehow have the mind of the opposite sex. That’s a cultural expectation, not a true difference between the sexes!
Claiming that a person who fits feminine gender roles must have the mind of a female is gender stereotyping to the extreme. You’re applying cultural stereotypes where they have no place, the human mind.
I will deal with a person who takes on the opposite gender role in the same way as I deal with other people in that gender role. (who happen to be the opposite sex as the first person, no problem there)
It would be impossible for you to have all the feelings you have, the mindset you have, and the longings you have in a male body. Hell, it would be impossible in a different female body, too. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, there’s no separating mind and body. Each mind is unique, and the nature of a person’s mind is dependent on their body, especially the makeup of the brain and hormones. The nature of a person’s mind may fit the opposite cultural gender role, but that has no effect on what sex they are, and what sex their mind is.
I respect your viewpoint, but I believe you are wrong. Your arguments are made with good intentions, but they don’t make sense.
I believe it is wrong to tell someone, “You don’t fit the idea we have of a man/woman. Therefore, you are a mistake.” People who become transsexuals are not mistakes. They are people with wholly unique experiences. They were born as one sex, and that is the sex they are. That is the sex that influences the working of their mind. But that distinction is a minor one. If they fit the opposite gender role better, they may feel more comfortable and happier living that gender role. If that is the life that will bring them happiness, they should live that life. But that does not mean that they are a mistake.
It seems to me that if anyone has a “problem” with transsexuals, it’s those of you that think they are “mistakes.”