Rethinking Gender: What Makes Us Male or Female? - Newsweek
Fascinating read, this definitely has me thinking about GID and how hormones influence the brain. Studies have proven that testosterone has a significant effect on the brain, high levels of testosterone create a male brain and a lack of it creates a female one, and so men and women with a normal hormonal balance have different brains and ways of thinking.
There have been tests where male rats are castrated before puberty and as adults exhibit more female like behavior, and the likelyhood of them developing this kind of behavior is decreased when they are castrated in adulthood. Vice versa when female rats were injected with testosterone they became more aggressive and exhibited more male like sexual behavior. I think this is also something you can observe in the behavior of male cats and dogs if they are neutered at a very young age.
A lot of transgender people have gender dysphoria obviously and a lot of them had a pre-existing hormonal imbalance and this is why a lot of trans women already looked rather feminine as males and while a lot of trans men already looked rather masculine as females. They have a genuine imbalance between their sexual organs and their brain.
That being said I want to discuss the issue of transgender people who really don't have this condition, and thus the desire to go transgender is affected by other things. And also discuss how this desire may not be permanent and may lead to regret in the future. I think this is something that sex reassignment surgeons and people wanting to undergo such surgery need to take into consideration first.
Some transgender people don't suffer from hormonal imbalance or genuine GID and this is a concern for me, because these are people who could end up regretting their decision, and when they have a normal hormonal balance they will be less convincing as the opposite gender and thus their transgenderism will be more obvious to people and thus these people have a greater risk of being persecuted out of bigotry.
You may say that you're a woman trapped in a man's body or vice versa but you could be wrong. One thing we need to realize is that there's genuine masculine and feminine traits that have direct biological causes, and then there's "musculine" and "feminine" behavior that are simply social contructs and not truly influenced by hormones.
Are tomboys necessarily gender confused or homonally imbalanced? No, they may simply have different tastes in fashion and different interests like more physical activity. This doesn't always mean they have higher levels of testosterone than normal and that's a myth that needs to be debunked. Girls DO have testosterone, so if girls want to be physical and play with the boys, that could be normal.
Some transgender people are confused with their gender not because of a direct biological cause but because of social influence, this distinction needs to be made to have a better understanding of what true gender confusion really is.
Some people might be confused because they had a wacko mom who dressed them up as the opposite sex or because they hate the socially constructed roles and "rules" of their gender or because they're under the incorrect impression that because they have homosexual feelings that means they have GID.
I think for most people on MB who voted on this poll voted based on how they feel about their gender role and not based on how they feel about their sex. There is a difference between cultural gender roles and gender/sex. Oh and having passing thoughts of what it would be like having the physical body of another gender is probably normal and shouldn't be confused with GID. Even crossdressers don't necessarily have GID, it could just be curiousity or role playing for fun.
For those who are unsatisfied with their sex because they suffer from real GID, then sex reassignment surgery is probably the best option for them as it gives them a body closer to the gender they feel they truly belong to, though there will never be a genuine cure for GID as unfortunately those who are born males or female will always be biologically male or female in terms of sex.
For those who are only dissatisfied with their socially constructed gender role and don't have the true characteristics of someone with GID, then I think rushing to go transgender is a bad idea, even if it's their choice and their right. Such people have more complicated emotional problems that have nothing to do with GID, thus there are alternative solutions and sex reassignment surgery for them is about as much of a "treatment" as giving a cutter a razor blade.
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