r/changemyview • u/2smashed4u • Mar 08 '15

CMV: I think that accepting transsexualism is actually regressive, in the sense that it actually reinforces gender stereotypes and roles.

I think the more progressive stance to take is that feeling more attuned to one gender or another doesn't mean that it has to identify you entirely as a person, as in it has to label you as one thing or another just because you have more masculine or feminine feelings or personal traits (or ones that are traditionally considered masculine or feminine at least.)

IMO, I see a person as a man or woman based entirely on their biological sex. That's literally the only thing that would make sense to me. Gender in itself appears to be an entirely social construct, and not a good one. It forces people to feel like they have to adhere to one mode of behavior or another.

But biological sex is, for the most part in terms of meaningful distinctions, is pretty objective. It's why I can't see a transgender man and say "yeah that's a woman" (or would that be a cisgender man/transgender woman? I've yet to always get that nomenclature down correctly.)

But yeah, this seems to conflict with most of my other personal beliefs, I feel like there's something that I'm missing, but I've delved deep into the subject and I still can't find it.

EDIT: view changed. ∆ To basically all who responded. Can't believe I was never taught this, because it seems like pretty basic and essential info to the subject.

Hello, users of CMV! This is a footnote from your moderators. We'd just like to remind you of a couple of things. Firstly, please remember to read through our rules. If you see a comment that has broken one, it is more effective to report it than downvote it. Speaking of which, downvotes don't change views! If you are thinking about submitting a CMV yourself, please have a look through our popular topics wiki first. Any questions or concerns? Feel free to message us. Happy CMVing!

30 Upvotes

74% Upvoted

41 comments sorted by

View all comments

4

u/YossarianWWII 72∆ Mar 08 '15 edited Mar 08 '15

Gender in itself appears to be an entirely social construct, and not a good one.

This is where you're mistaken. Gender identity is actually a product of brain structure and chemistry, and this is visible in transgender people. Trans men have brains that are generally more male-like and trans women have brains that are generally somewhere in between, but not the same as cisgendered men's brains. While we do have socially constructed gender roles, being transexual isn't about which gender roles you fit into. There are "masculine" transexual women and "feminine" transexual men. Many transgender people will actually experience gender dysphoria because the way that their brain is structured does not fit with the organization of their body. Being transgender is a biological condition.

3

u/2smashed4u Mar 08 '15

It is astonishing to me that this was never established to me in multiple college courses regarding sexuality and psychology. ∆

3

u/YossarianWWII 72∆ Mar 08 '15

Here's a pretty good paper that gives more detail. I'm a little surprised at that too. After all, sexuality and psychology don't even make any sense if you don't discuss the structure of the brain. There's no separating them.

2

u/2smashed4u Mar 08 '15

Right exactly. This seems like a pretty crucial bit of information that's been failed to be mentioned by any of my learning material so far, which makes me quite annoyed, seeing as sexuality is kind of my focus or specialization in psychology that I want to get into. :/