Quote from: alex82 on May 07, 2017, 08:02:38 PM
Sure, good call.
But really? "Girly brain makes me a bit dumb and I can't stop eating chocolate and I haven't been able to listen to anyone finishing a sentence or a story because I'm a slave to my hormones and I have a ponytail to play with, and I can't park my car because lingerie is so pretty and OMG that man who just walked across my rear view mirror smells like sex even though he's probably an ->-bleeped-<- because men usually are." Really? Come on.
These stereotypes have damaged millions if not billions of people in multiple societies and continue to do so. Using out of context studies on whether marmosets with vaginas have a slightly marked preference for looking at the genital area of dolls or playing with toy cars, dropped in by social scientists of unknown success looking for a conclusion to their hypothesis, is doing nobody any favours, trans or cis, male or female.
Those types of posts were from a few years ago, granted I don't think the stereotypes have changed THAT much, but I do note a distinct change in how often the girl = ditzy argument is mentioned in 2017, that's clearly some sexist bull, but still it doesn't mean there's no difference in how men vs women think, or that it isn't tied to hormonal balance... You also can't just discount their experience as patently false, it may be that they have trouble focusing on estrogen, but I suspect that's more on how their particular brain interacts with it than any general effect, and I believe a general fogginess is a side effect of certain anti-androgens that nowadays are avoided for that reason among others. (in reference, I know some potential causes of ADD may be treated with estrogen! I can't find any scientific paper or evidence other than at least one endocrinologist (not mine, though I haven't asked either) mentioning that their patients have seen improvement of their symptoms (IE: focus better) on HRT)
As I said though, I don't think these stereotypes have persisted among trans people in 2017, other than men smelling nicer, I've seen that mentioned a number of times, and basically made note of it as a possible real effect of MTF HRT. They aren't saying that their sexual preference has changed because of it though, on the contrary I've seen the caveat that they still like women and would never consider bedding a male because of other reasons, that is... Just because men smell differently now doesn't mean that they want to bed them, or that it makes them view them as sexier, it's just different. I've not seen FTMs noting the inverse (women smelling better/different), but that may be because I've also seen it said that the sense of smell improves for MTFs, it may degrade slightly for FTMs. (A quick google around would seem to indicate that they tend to go the other way if they experience any change at all, if they liked women before T, they find they start to like men more after T, I did find a few mentioning that they "stayed straight" in their transition (went from liking men to liking women), but they seem to be fewer in number)
So it seems that's probably just down to sense of smell getting better for MTFs, smelling what they couldn't before.
What I mean about "acute girl brain" is more about subconscious tells, like my motions, posture, and the like. I've noted at a couple support meetings MTFs sort of moving their feet while legs crossed like women do, compound that with having mentioned it to my cisgender (ex)girlfriend, and she said she was never aware she was doing it, and I don't do that currently (even when sitting in feminine posture purposely), it may very well be something caused by how the sex hormones interact in the brain, it affects almost the entire body, I can't imagine there are no changes to thought process (conscious and otherwise).
That said, I'm still very skeptical of any sudden changes in interests, it seems more likely that they're now just more free to pursue interests they like better rather than the hormones having changed what they like (that's too big of a change, I think it would be far more subtle). I don't particularly like shopping now, but that's only because I can't shop in the right part of the store yet I think. That isn't a "female activity" either, plenty of men enjoy shopping, buy nice clothes, etc. A not unlikable interest will always lose out to your favorites, but if your favorites are behind a stereotype gender wall you might not partake, and instead do the thing that is not unlikable (like how some trans folk do hunting and fishing before transition, and after they start transitioning they note that while they don't like them any less, they partake far less often, a case of "better things to do")
