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So can one say that a trans-man is biologically a women but expresses their gender as female? But wouldn't their expression be grounded in some standard of gender (which is reinforced by the difference in biological sex)? It just seems to end up being meaningless if one tries to fundamentally deny gender and then claim that ones gender is the opposite sex.
I'm so confused. Does any of this make sense?
Gender expression is external, and is often heavily related to societal norms. This is generally what you see and observe from people.
Gender identity is internal. This is what a person's brain tells them what gender that they are. In most cases, the internal gender matches the biological sex. Those people are termed 'cisgender.' For a small percentage of the population, the gender that their brain tells that they are does not match their biological sex. If their internal gender is opposite, they are considered 'transgender.' If their gender is somewhere in-between, they would be considered 'genderqueer.'
So yeah, a trans-man (FTM) would be biologically female but internally a man. It can be very confusing, and at times I don't know what I'm talking about. But it's not about denying gender, but rather that sex and gender don't always fit in a neat box. For most of us it does (like for example, I'm both biologically male and identify as a man, and I and nobody around me thinks about it much and considers me male.) But there are some people where they don't match.
Gender expression is external, and is often heavily related to societal norms. This is generally what you see and observe from people.
Gender identity is internal. This is what a person's brain tells them what gender that they are. In most cases, the internal gender matches the biological sex. Those people are termed 'cisgender.' For a small percentage of the population, the gender that their brain tells that they are does not match their biological sex. If their internal gender is opposite, they are considered 'transgender.' If their gender is somewhere in-between, they would be considered 'genderqueer.'
So yeah, a trans-man (FTM) would be biologically female but internally a man. It can be very confusing, and at times I don't know what I'm talking about. But it's not about denying gender, but rather that sex and gender don't always fit in a neat box. For most of us it does (like for example, I'm both biologically male and identify as a man, and I and nobody around me thinks about it much and considers me male.) But there are some people where they don't match.
It sounds like you do, but I imagine you need to throw in that disclaimer from time to time lest you be accused of mansplaining, cis-splaining or whatever the current put down lingo is among people who discuss such things.
I know my lady would heartily agree that male and female brains work totally different, and I'm on board with that as well. Unless some outside force is projected on either men or women from a young age, brainwashing I believe its called, the sexes think divergently from each other. We prioritize differently, approach problem solving differently, respond to stimuli differently, and our emotions are expressed and coped with differently.
Its not even close to being an affront to women to recognjze the differences in their thinking, compared to men's. From where I'm sitting, these differences between us help us balance out, when mixed together in a proper relationship match. I know that when I become angry over something, and am not thinking straight, my lady acts as a calming influence, and her input helps me put things in perspective. When she is upset and crying, I can up her by being steady and strong. We are supposed to think differently. It is a balancing force.
Yes. I don't believe there is a thing called male or female brains. I play sports and love electronics. I rarely wear dresses or buy shoes. I hate to cook and clean too. I'd rather play video games over
Watch "chick flicks". I'm not sexually confused, nor am I gay in anyway.
Back when Lawrence H. Summers was president of Harvard and suggested that they did, the reaction was swift and merciless. Pundits branded him sexist. Faculty members deemed him a troglodyte. Alumni withheld donations.
But when Bruce Jenner said much the same thing in an April interview with Diane Sawyer, he was lionized for his bravery, even for his progressivism.
“My brain is much more female than it is male,” he told her, explaining how he knew that he was transgender."
What makes a woman? According to my former basic biology class, by definition, a woman has XX chromosomes, but science changes with new discoveries and there are always potential exceptions.
For example, XX males or XY females (see androgen insensitivity syndrome). Additionally, an abnormal number of sex chromosomes (aneuploidy) may be present, such as Turner's syndrome, in which a single X chromosome is present, and Klinefelter's syndrome, in which two X chromosomes and a Y chromosome are present.
And those are just the things we know about. We are still a long way from understanding how genes produce human social behavior - although it's obvious that genes have a strong influence, the mechanism(s) are not at all obvious
People think of genes as dictators. They are not. They must be expressed in an environment, and that environment includes other genes, as well as the external environment.
Regarding Caitlyn - like a lot of other people, I am a bit puzzled as to why she chose to "come out" as a pure sex object. I surely hope that she is not under the delusion that she can live out her life wearing a corset and makeup, and nothing else.
Oh well, life will trundle on pretty much unchanged for all the rest of us.
Yes, there are differences between men and women, but there are mistakes in nature. What about the child born without genitalia who is raised as a girl? Then, later when chromosome tests are done the child is male. How many kids are born one sex that inside identify with the other sex? I don't have the answers, and I believe Jenner is into the attention, but I do think there truly are people born the wrong sex.
Rather than "wrong", I think it is more accurate to say that not everyone expresses their genetic heritage in "standard" ways, and we really don't know why.
What is a mismatch, really? Surgery and hormones are pretty drastic, but what about the person who challenges all gender norms? Is that a mismatch?
Google images of "Bev Francis". Keep in mind she's married to a man.
As the public begins to embrace people who identify as transgender, the trans
people within the disability movement are also seeking their due, or at very
least a bit of understanding in a public that cannot fathom why anyone would
want to be anything other than healthy and mobile.
But this has been met with great resistance in both the disability activist
community and in transgender circles, argues Baril, a visiting scholar of
feminist, gender and sexuality studies at Wesleyan University in Middletown,
Connecticut.
“They tend to see transabled people as dishonest people, people who try to
steal resources from the community, people who would be disrespectful by denying
or fetishizing or romanticizing disability reality,” Baril says, adding people
in both transgender and disabled circles tend to make judgmental or prejudicial
statements about transabled people. “Each try to distance themselves.”
Baril — who is himself disabled and transgender — believes the transgender
community distances itself because it has worked very hard to de-pathologize
what’s known as ‘gender dysphoria,’ and sought its removal from the Diagnostic
and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
And those are just the things we know about. We are still a long way from understanding how genes produce human social behavior - although it's obvious that genes have a strong influence, the mechanism(s) are not at all obvious
People think of genes as dictators. They are not. They must be expressed in an environment, and that environment includes other genes, as well as the external environment.
Regarding Caitlyn - like a lot of other people, I am a bit puzzled as to why she chose to "come out" as a pure sex object. I surely hope that she is not under the delusion that she can live out her life wearing a corset and makeup, and nothing else.
Oh well, life will trundle on pretty much unchanged for all the rest of us.
This is interesting and not something I gave much thought. I took this question as something outside of the Jenner situation and haven't gave that situation much thought as I'm not going to solve anything there but now that you say this..........
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