Pdxfashionpioneer wrote:Hello Stu,
Where did you get the idea that this mother forced her son to wear a sparkly party dress to feminize him? I reread both the Texan article and the CNN piece. Neither mentioned a party dress. I’m also very sure that if such a thing had been done, the father’s attorneys would have brought it up, and if it was such an effort the judge would have ruled it child abuse. But the judge stipulated NEITHER parent had abused the child.
However, it was entered into the record that the American Pediatricians Association says that children have a stable idea if they are a girl or a boy by age 4 and this 4-year old child told the duly appointed therapists that she is a girl named Luna!
Why don’t you take the child’s word for it?
Hello Dan,
I used an awkward construction, but I meant what I said. I was asserting that no one takes the drastic step of changing sexes just because they weren’t allowed to wear skirts as a child. I don’t know where that notion originated, but it doesn’t work that way.
I know that’s pretty blunt of me, but again, I’ve met and talked with enough transsexuals I feel I can say that with confidence. Have you met any or read about any who meet your model?
I knew one, now dead from suicide by jumping in front of a subway train, who was desperately trying to transition back to male after having made the mistake of having himself surgically altered in an attempt to become what he wasn't.
I also know one person who seems to have made the M2F transition quite well. She became a tradesperson in a male-dominated field just a little while ago, long after her M2F transition. Partially thanks to her support group (whose parties I attended), I've also met a lot of other people in the trans community.
But, your argument from authority would be invalid even if I hadn't had these experiences or personal affinities.
Your assertion that "no one takes the drastic step of changing sexes just because they weren’t allowed to wear skirts as a child" is a mischaracterisation of what is being said. Along with other typically gendered attributes, the desire to wear skirts CAN lead to the conclusion of being "transgendered". After all, what else other than typically gendered attributes would even give a person the idea of being "in the wrong body" to begin with? So, wearing skirts instead of pants signifies much more than merely that. It signifies one of many gendered attributes that taken together could lead a person to conclude the person is in need of "transition".
We don't yet know if complete acceptance of all those gendered attributes for persons whose sex doesn't align with the gendered stereotypes would result in fewer people concluding they were "in the wrong body", but we do know that it is those attributes that people use to affirm someone's trans status. "Everyone always said he seemed like a girl in a boy's body" is heard often enough. Affirmation of an idea is a potent thing, and the idea of "wrong body" has had so very much affirmation. The idea that mind and body are separate and separable is deeply rooted in western culture, and in fact has religious roots. It's neither objective nor inevitable.
The example of
the muxe is suggestive that people
can accept a differently gendered set of attributes
without leading to the conclusion that bodies need to be medically altered to match minds.