Quote from: Evelyn K on August 24, 2014, 06:31:28 PM
What if your father and other relatives also had long hair? How old where you when you understood the differences between female vs male sex characteristics and what their functions are and what they represent in society?
See I ask myself these questions also.
Do I believe I would have these same feelings if I where born in Calcutta, India (which is extremely patriarchal, women's rights virtually don't exist there) or what about the New Guinea Jungle?
I can't answer for all people here, but I think yes I would. I think the issue here is that there's a difference between gender expression, gender identity and gender roles. These concepts are connected, but they are not interchangeable. Gender expression is that means someone uses to express their experience of gender, whether that's through clothes, attitude, demeanor, makeup, accessories, etc etc, gender expression often reflects gender identity, but not always. Most people have gender expression that reflect their gender identity, according to patriarchal notions of what's appropriate for each gender to wear/move/act. But there's always people who don't fit those roles. Like very butch women or very effeminate men. However, despite their gender expression, they never once doubt their gender. And there are very butch transwomen and very effeminate trans men. So it's not related to gender expression. Their mere existence proves that being transsexual is not a soically learned behavior. More like a brain map error, or just regular biological variance. Then there's the whole concept of gender roles, which is slowly decaying, women no longer are perpetually housewives and men are not the only "breadwinners". So I don't think it even fits this discussion anymore.
They (very butch women and effeminate men) identify as the sex they are, and this what makes us different from them. We experience body dysphoria because our gender identity is not alligned with our bodies. For me it's not really so much about gender expression, although I much prefer feminine expression over masculine. But I could live with a female body and male gender expression. I'd still transition because dysphoria is plainful. Although I do have to consider the circumstances. In New Guinea Jungle it's unlikely that I and we in generall would physically transition since there would be no resources and technical way to do it. That doesn't mean we couldn't transgress gender roles. A lot of African tribes are very tolerant about gender variance actually. In India, there's a community of transgender women who are called Hirja, they're cherished but they're also much much hated. They basically suffer from the hurdles we do, with the additional that most don't really transition with hormones at all. Some just have the surgery. They live at margins of society and are treated like dirt by society, often resorting to sex work. I think the hell they have to go through proves that even in the most patriarchal society and gender-imposing there will always be people transgressing these roles, and this unconformity can't all be socially acquired. But even if we lived in the most liberal and comprehensive society where boys can play with dolls and girls with action men, there'd still be transsexual people. Because the core point of transsexuality is the misalignment between gender
identity and body appearance/image, not gender identity and gender expression.
