Atheism and transgender metaphors

[MadeleineG]

I'm an atheist. I'm a monist, materialist, one-substance girl. As such, I'm very uncomfortable leaning on the common metaphors people use to explain being transgendered. I can't bring myself to describe myself as essentially x embodied in y (chromosome joke intended) because I don't believe in any kind of spiritual essence. I'm assuming I'm not alone in this and am wondering what non-dualistic explanatory metaphors other atheist transfolk have used and how they've been received.

[Ltl89]

I've never struggled understanding my transgender nature without spirituality.   I suppose that I explain things in biological or mental terms.  I actually think most theists have it more challenging because of rhe negative beliefs most religions espouse towards the lgbt community.

[suzifrommd]

Our scientific understanding of gender identity is that the brain plays a role in gendered behavior. Human brains are wired from before birth to expect us to be a certain gender. For us, this gender happens not to match our physical sex.

Nothing spiritual about it. Just neurons and synapses.

[Dreams2014]

No metaphor required. Science allows us to physically change our gender. So if you want to transition, get it done. Simple as that really.

[EmmaS]

I agree with the others on this thread. To put in simplest terms would be "The gender of your brain doesn't match the gender of your body." Taking that quote, it's easy to see you have to sync your body and your brain. You either have to change the gender of your brain or the gender of your body. As of now, it's impossible to change the gender of your brain, so transition of the body is required for those who want to remove/lessen GID. Not sure if that is what you were looking for at all but I hope it helps.

[suzifrommd]

As of now, it's impossible to change the gender of your brain, so transition of the body is required for those who want to remove/lessen GID.

Interesting that you mention this. Even if it were possible to change the gender of my brain to match my body, I wouldn't do it. My feminine gender is a precious part of me.

[MadeleineG]

It's interesting for me to read the responses to this thread. To clarify, I have no problem reducing gender to a mechanistic of biological functionalist perspective. I view gender and all other manifestations of personality, as an emergent function of neural complexity.

My challenge is with society at large, which I feel relies on dualistic metaphors (two-spiritness, man in a woman's body, etc) to explain (and, by extension, guide response) to trans issues. I'm just saying that, in the larger social discourse, it's time to move beyond metaphors.

Maddy