03-05-2021, 01:16 PM
(03-05-2021, 11:44 AM)Crazyjdawg Wrote: Here's the thing:
Outside of sex determination and during intercourse with a person, their sex is essentially irrelevant. It's their gender that is important and relevant in society.
When a person is walking down the street, you don't pull down their pants and check their genitals before you say "that's a woman" or "that's a man." You just look at them and, based on their gendered characteristics and traits, you make a determination. You're not correct 100% of the time, as with androgynous people, but you have probably a 95% success rate.
So Transgendered people (gender is even in the word, as the term "transsexual" is no longer a word we use in society due to its inaccuracy) will often appear to be the gender they identify as, so identifying them by their sex makes no sense except if you want to "otherize" them (basically saying they aren't what they say they are.)
If you want to get EVEN more technical, sex is not even determined by your genitals. It's determined by your chromosomes. And a doctor can't even check those when a baby is born. Genitals obviously are nearly synonymous with chromosomes, but it's not 100%.
Overall, Gender is just a much better way of categorizing people, in my (and most everyone's) opinions.
I have no problem with however it is people choose to live their lives, in whatever way that brings them as much happiness as possible (as long as it doesn't in some way afford me the same in return).
I'm not chiming in on these issues to be the guy that's drawing the line in the sand about sex and gender, and applying it evenly across the entire spectrum of debate. To be honest, I don't really care all that much. As long as "you're cool with me, I'm cool with you".
Using someone's preferred pronouns takes as much effort as my "please's" and "thank you's". No skin off my back. I will also respect a person's wish to transition their apperance much in the same ways I would in more convential examples (being a goth, being a hippie, being into cosplay). People can choose to act, dress, speak, and identify any way in which they wish, and I will allow them all an equal right to do so.
And you're right, there's tons of people who transition that I'm sure you can't even tell when walking past. Again, why would I care? That would appear to be just another women walking past (or man, depending on the example)
The only issue that I would I have is that I don't think it's abhorent for some people to still hold sex above gender, in their own personal views. That's not to diminish much of what I just wrote above. Even if they do use sex, and not gender, that doesn't mean trans individuals shouldn't me afforded the same respect and protections.
We may disagree here, but as an example, if someone is unwilling to accept that the "It's Ma'am" person from Gamestop is actually woman then I can in no way fault them for that. That doesn't mean they should behave in any way to bring hurt onto this person, but I think it's perfectly reasonable to see that person, and recgonize that is clearly a man wearing woman's clothing.
Biden's recent cabinet pick is another example. That person is clearly transgender. That person is not a woman. Socially she might identify as one, and people should respect that. But I'm sorry, that is not a woman. It's just not.
Beyond genitalia, there's naturally occuring hormones, bone structure, the ability to birth a child, menstruation, menopause, etc. These things don't just disappear with a transition. You can't fault people for personally feeling that these are things that make up a female, and defaulting to sex over gender.
Perhaps some of us will just have to disagree on some of this. Or maybe there's something lost in the translation. Either way, I appreciate the conversation.
