Quote from: kate durcal on March 19, 2011, 09:14:53 AM
I read in our own forum and in other blogs, that some ultra feminists Transphobia. They basically claim that it does not mater how much you change your body, you are still a male! This is a poison borne out of total ignorance on the conditions that lead to GID.
The evidence accumulated over the last 10 years by neurobiologist on the function, anatomy, embryonic development, and physiology, in both, humans and animals studies clearly points to a small center, the "Bed Stria Terminalis (BST)," as the brain's "gender identity center."
Whether your BST develops as a female or male is determined by genetic and epigenetic factors before the 8th week of gestation. Mutation to the estrogen or androgen receptor genes, and/or the Aromatase gene in XY individuals results in an individuals with a female BST and the external genitalia of a male. This tragic biological error, termed in medicine GID, is a medical condition not a "mental disorder" or a "life style choice."
So what defines as a male or as females is a small center on your brain (BST). If I take the most radical feminist and do "Sex Rearrangement Surgery (SRS)" on her and turn her into an anatomically correct male, what is this individual? This individual is still a female and a feminist;. But what if I was to change her BST (via genetic engineering) to a male BST the individual? She would wake up feeling like a male and demanding SRS like any other XX individual who has been borne with a male BST.
What would have happen to her "rabid" feminist beliefs? Probably they would be "tapered" by his new psychic, as gender roles, and concepts of womanhood, masculinity, femininity, are but sociological and cultural constructs that evolve and change, and deeply influenced by your own psychic
Kate
From the abstract of the famous study done with 42 subjects on the BSTc:
"The number of neurons in the BSTc of male-to-female transsexuals was similar to that of the females (P = 0.83). In contrast, the neuron number of a female-to-male transsexual was found to be in the male range."
P= 0.83 is not statistically significant, it merely shows the potential for correlation. Apparently the relationship between FtM the male range wasn't even worth quantifying in the abstract.
I know there was a later study done to attempt to get more definitive results with more brains (including the original 42) but to my knowledge those results were not significant either (just cannot find the study to show the numbers atm). I do not believe we have the answer yet to what part of the brain is involved in gender identity or for that matter gender dysphoria. We might once day, but the problem of finding it is not as simple as merely looking for sexually dimorphic areas of the brain in people who claim GID. If this BSTc finding is replicated and its results significant, you can bet my neuroscience lab will be all over it - and I look forward to that day if it ever arrives. Until then, any implication that these studies are proof positive of the location of portion of the brain the controls gender identity or that it is in ANY way involved in transsexualism is exaggeration at best and deception at worst.
Oh and to the feminism remarks in this thread, I consider myself a feminist - I seek equal rights for men and women in whatever sphere I have influence.
