LGBTAIitp Part 60: Still Going Strong

[TaiLiu]

I would add from my own experiences that realizing the cultural expectations around gender can often be a deeply personal and ongoing process that you engage with from the time that you're old enough to understand what gender is in the first place throughout the remainder of your life. For example, saying "it's a girl" creates the cultural assumption of pronouns and eventual romantic entanglement with boys...

Gender presentation and identity can shift a lot even for cis people. Everyone's journey, identity, and comfort is different. It's hard to give any absolute hard-and-fast rules, which is why the watchwords are about respect, understanding, and acceptance.

I really liked this post! A good way of showing how gender assignment is coercive for everyone, including cis people (although of course trans people face more violence regarding it). Also a good way of showing how coercive gender assignment is a society-wide phenomenon, which is socially reinforced and which shifts depending on culture and time.

I think that's in a large part because up to thirty years ago the "progressive" view on gender was the complete opposite of what it is now, and the language it used (and the meaning of words) was very different too.

Are you referring to gender abolition? Mr. Silver mentioned it, too. I guess in some sense it's "progressive," but I'd argument that it has problems with transphobia and transmisogyny. (Not that I'm calling you or Talakeal gender abolitionists or transphobes, of course.)

So people didn't have a gender: they were given a gender, by society.

One of the authors I cited, Wittig, argues this, too. In fact, it's the epistemology of gender that I prescribe to. I don't think I was born with my gender. I think social events have transpired and now I'm the gender that I am ...

If someone was transgender they would want to be the other gender - not they are the other gender (yet).

And with the premise that gender is purely externally assigned this makes sense. You are the gender you have been assigned, because that's the meaning of the word.

You can desire to change your gender, but until you transition (socially and/or physically) you are the gender you have been assigned. You will only be the other gender once you have convinced society you are. Because that's what the word means.

So I think that view matches Talakeals feelings more closely: all transgender people would be x to y, because your gender is solely what other people assign you.

... But just because I buy into one proposition doesn't mean I buy into all of them. I'd argue that these propositions don't follow from the previous one.

Again, not saying that you're arguing for this position. Just pointing something out.

From that view, most transgender people will not be x to y. They have always been y. Their inherent gender is y, and that's the real gender. The gender they have been assigned was just wrong. Transitioning (either socially or physically) is just the process of showing society who you have always been, rather than actually becoming a different gender. (And because of that, I think the word transitioning itself has become far less used - it's not really a transition anymore).

Yes, I think that's a good way of putting it. It's not a surprising epistemic move. The "born this way" argument has generally been the popular argument in the LGBTQ community. Understandably so.

What does gender therapy actually entail? ... I'm curious what the therapy does to help prepare you for life after you come our and/or medically transition.

There's differences depending on what direction you're going but typically you take medicine to suppress the wrong and medicine to generate the good.

I could be wrong, but I think Anymage is asking about gender psychotherapy and not hormone replacement therapy or gender-affirming surgery. (Sex reassignment surgery for Talakeal.)

Personally I have no idea. I've never been to a psychotherapist who specialized with trans people before. If you find a particular therapist, presumably you could ask what they could help you with.