Quote from: Bacon on December 13, 2016, 03:00:55 PMEveryone always says they are "constructs" but they are based in physical reality. By transitioning, most trans people actually accept and embrace those constructs anyway; trans men realize that to be "male" is to have certain physical features and that's why they go through transition, to get them. So they are buying into the categories just as much as anyone else.
Then let's talk of what it means for a category to be "constructed." The categories are constructed from the perceived physical differences of our bodies. And yes, there are underlying biological processes involved for such differentiation, but they are not absolute; there is no "essence" to a category. A category is not a logical "set," where some set of singular properties are "necessary" to belong to the category, as so much of analytic philosophy believes. Rather, according to neurological research, categories are formed around "images" or "schemas" in the brain, and extend radially. We will categorize something as "x" not according to necessary properties, but rather to a
sufficient number of them.
Now, you're right, we have to conform to the categories as they are constructed. But they are not actually constructed
a priori with some sort of essence! To change categories for ourselves is simply a matter of changing our bodies sufficiently for everyone to recategorize us, automatically, without even thinking of it. This is an automatic neurological process, how we assign gender to other people. We do it subconsciously, instantly.
QuoteAll this talk of interiority just doesn't do it for me either. I wish it did. I really do! I want to believe that I can be a man just because I want to be. But it still doesn't sit well with me.
For example, let's say a kid was raised to be a lawyer and got his law degree, but as he grew up, he realized he actually wanted to be a doctor! Looking back, it all makes sense: he loved playing Operation as a kid and he always hated watching crime dramas. So it's settled then: he was always really meant to be a doctor. And now, despite the fact that he has a law degree, he claims he already IS a doctor. He insists that everyone calls him Dr. Smith and come see him for medical care. He even goes as far as getting a fake medical degree printed out, and it looks legit enough that most people who see him think it's authentic.
This is actually a really good example of what it takes to really transition (or perhaps "transsex") across the gender binary. So, you were raised to go to law school, and you've got your degree. But you really want to be a doctor! So what's the course of action to take to fulfill your interiority, to become a doctor? Go to medical school. Get a new degree. Yes, it takes time and work, and no, to rely on just a narrative isn't going to cut it in the real world. But there's no reason you can't become a doctor just because you've been a lawyer. They're not mutually exclusive.
So there's more to it than just getting a new document (like a birth certificate, or a drivers' license). And there's more to it than just looking the part -- ask anyone who got clocked just for opening their mouth. And beyond that, there's even more, learning about social expectations, some of which were observed from afar and simply not practiced, and others which only dawn on you as you're immersed in your field. (Which is actually true for everyone, because cultural expectations are local, and what flies in a rural community doesn't fly in a big cosmopolitan city.)
Now, if you're practicing medicine without an actual degree, are you still a doctor? Depends on whether you know your stuff, if you're actually good at it. If you're good at it, no one will question you; everyone will agree you're a docotr. Likewise, just because some actually has a medical degree doesn't mean they're not actually a butcher when it comes to the actual
practice of medicine. So, obviously, "authority" doesn't really make doctors, people make themselves doctors by studying and practicing medicine.
QuoteThis is sometimes what it seems like to me when trans people say they ARE the gender that they weren't assigned at birth.
This "narrative" of saying what you "are" is a ritual. It's called "coming out," and it's based on the LGB ritual of coming out in a heteronormative society. For gays, lesbians, and bisexuals, all it takes is a narrative to have people treat you differently, and you have to participate in the ritual or you won't find other like-minded people to have non-hetero sex with.
It doesn't quite work when it comes to gender, does it? Well, to some extent, yes -- but what "coming out" as a different gender than the one everyone (constantly, daily, automatically, subconsciously) is assigning you actually does is move you into the social category of "trans." And for a lot of people, that's good enough! Because at least being treated as "other" is different than being treated as being on previous the gender binary, and for a lot of transitioners this actually accurately captures their own interior experience. Couple that with the fact that many people are gracious enough to "see" the preferred gendering and adhere to it, thanks to compassion and empathy in the face of the coming-out ritual, and it makes sense why "narrative" is so popular.
For others, though, that's not what's actually needed, because what's actually needed is a particular kind of
gendering, which is when physical transition is actually necessary. Because it's our bodies that elicit gendering, nothing more. And if this is what you want, all the narrative in the world isn't going to cut it. If you, Bacon, want male gendering, from yourself and others, it starts by changing your body. And then, funnily enough, actually accepting that gendering when everyone is giving it to you.
You cannot change what you need, any more than you can wish away hunger or thirst.
May you never hunger. May you never thirst.
