Freedom of Thought vs. Genetics – Round One
Hi ladies, gentlemen and all those who haven’t made up their minds yet.
Wait – is gender now about making up your minds or is it something predetermined? I don’t know what thought creeps me out more: that there is absolutely no freedom of mind and no choice about who you are or that someone comes around to blame you that it was your choice and therefore your fault. Basically it’s the same problem with both – they don’t leave you a lot of liberty. It’s not like I would deny a genetic, hormonal or more general a biological predisposition. It’s just not yet time that we see the big picture. And in opposite, why shouldn’t gender also be choice up to a certain point? Some may really hate me for that, but how small is the difference from a crossdresser to a transsexual or a gender-queer in general? I’d say that it’s absolute nonsense to draw strict lines there as it is with drawing strict lines in between male and female. Sometimes borders which are taken for strict tend to blur a lot more than people think. We make strict borders to exactly classify what and who we are and we don’t do this just with gender. Some guy might tell you: “I’m a salesman” or “I’m a manager”. Although he might be promoted from salesman to manager or work as both at the same time. Maybe he’s in construction as well? I don’t know whether you are going to see the point but it’s that we use names for things to classify them – also the TG community does. But sometimes when someone can be classified with several of these names, what is it then? You betcha, we get the same problem as those guys who are unable to classify us as male or female specimens. And when we see different things like transsexuals, crossdressers and so on, we want to know why they (or we) exist or are the way we are. Maybe a reason is just more justification than “you are sinners and go to hell anyway!” – maybe a reason also satisfies our curiosity.
So let me mess with biology first and start with the obvious things. There is an uncountable amount of studies that has been conducted on the hormonal, genetic and biological reasons for transgenderism but the fewest of them did more than point a direction. To someone like me an empirical study can only proof and not just suggest a fact when it’s done fully independent and includes a whole lot of test subjects which are expected to have something (i.e. transsexuals) as well as the same amount of people who don’t. Some studies even were large enough to be considered as proved but the larger amount points a direction because they don’t rule out every possibility or abbreviance. The only thing we can say for sure is that there are proved biological causes. But, we don’t know a lot about them except that genetic an hormonal ones had been found, despite all the studies conducted on the subject. We don’t know what combination and intensity is needed to make out of a straight man a crossdresser or out of a crossdresser a transsexual. Of course we have a lot of pieces of that puzzle and can state that some conditions have an influence but we cannot exactly determine the degree and combination of causes. And how should we define them? Maybe as intersex conditions? All we have so far are several facts, conditions and causes, isolated from each other but at least some even proved true. But we don’t see the big picture despite the fact that a lot of us believes that we do for it makes them feel more comfortable – it’s sometimes hard to admit not to know and even worse if that may be a moral loss; for then you can’t say: “It’s 100% genetically determined that I’m trans, so it’s not my fault that I’m a horrible abbreviation”. Wrong attitude – we don’t need to know it to justify our existence, damnit! Stop being paranoid about people who believe things that don’t match with your reality and start figuring out the biological background to know more about it, to understand more. Because that’s the real reason for science. Not to find an excuse for something that doesn’t need an excuse like personal freedom, not to find a cure – just to know like we also want to do with a lot of other things. It will rather change society’s view of gender than the identity of your own, my dear.
And on the other hand we have of course the absolute freedom of choice. Gender as a total social construct and nothing else. Deconstructivism deconstructing itself up to meaninglessness – nothing remaining, not even the slightest reason, because one can overthrow any determined thing. But this also has it’s problem. Why the hell, when gender is just a social invention, would it motivate people to alter their bodies, their roles and the whole shebang? It wouldn’t have any meaning then. It’s the point a lot of radical feminists still try to fight about with the transgender community. But there are some differences that cannot be denied – physical ones. Let me make a simple example: with a lot of estrogen in the body you feel temperature adifferences a whole lot better.
So is it all genetically predisposed and there is no freedom of choice at all? To me this would be a pretty frustrating fact and in the end even judges will convict genetics guilty of murder instead of the serial killers that committed it. To have a biological predisposition – no conviction! – to be transgendered may inflict your life but it’s still our choice how to deal with it. Of course will a transsexual eventually transition (makes sense, doesn’t it?) but how he or she does is their business. To be a transsexual woman doesn’t mean that I have the predisposition to wear dresses every day – it can be a shirt as well and maybe it’s written on it: “I transitioned and all I got was this lousy t-shirt”.
Your lousy Liz
I’ve commented on the limitations of the biological evidence related to transsexualism at length on my own blog.
My own personal belief is that there are significant biological factors involved that we are only beginning to understand – and whether we understand them fully within our lifetimes seems doubtful.
However, we also have to take individual responsibility for our decision to transition. While biological factors and the emotional content of the transsexual narrative cannot be ignored, we must accept that it is still a decision that each of us makes individually – and hopefully consciously.
Those who choose to transition do so because they see it as a necessary path for them to walk. Those who choose not to are not lesser beings because of their decision. They have looked within and found that they do not need to make that step.
Hi Michelle
Thanks for your comment – I can fully agree on that.
PS: I took the liberty to link yur blog
Greetings
Hello Michelle. I met your blog earlier and really liked it.
As Liz knows, I am abolutly 100% thinking it is proven that the brain is female in trans woman and otherwise in tranmen. But please, please, please dont’t mix that with me beiing in the HBS crowed. The hikacked science. And I had lengthy discussions with so called true transsexuals and HBS admirers with that. The brain thing simply is true for most so colled TG conditions too. There is no binary, just an axis for multible variations of GID.
See: http://drdrantz-sciencesexuality.blogspot.com/2009/01/what-hit-me-with-your-slides-was.html
For that.
By the way, there is fare more than swaabs post death studies, and the german fMRT studie with non HRT but diagnosed TS finally showed it without doubt (the only doubt was the low numbers of subjects and the fact that brain changes itself over time)
And for Liz theres a bridge i think many people don’t know between, where is the brain relevant in me knowing I am? We are biased: We look from the very first moment to the people we identify with – female or male. And so we first learn, this and that, and then that its wrong, because our bodys make people expect us otherwise. And sooner or later, we are in denial of our very selfs. We can do and survive (rare) with societies expactions till a natural death and thats when the freedom comes into place. And thats where that freedom to do as expected only harms ourself.
Sarah
Hi Sarah, (and Liz!)
I agree with your basic position – I suspect strongly that in transsexuals the brain is female-differentiated. I remain guarded about the research I have seen to date because of the relatively small sizes of ‘n’ in the studies, and the limited understanding we have of what it means for a brain to be ‘female-differentiated’.
Right now, I feel that the evidence puts the hypothesis well on the path to being a fairly concrete theory, but does not do so conclusively. (yet!)
That said, I think we agree that there is something very fundamental about being trans* that cannot be adequately described in the language of pure psychology.
Hi Sarah and Michelle.
@ Michelle: Just for confusion, in real life, we’re both named Sarah
To topic now… I would also agree with a partially male/female biological development in transsexuals (genes, brains, hormones, sometimes even social attitudes and self-image). And I would agree with Sarah on the feminine brain – besides, good question about the freedom of mind. But I still think that it depends of a lot of other influences as well whether someone transitions (like social environment, cultural background, knowledge of the subject…). if Iwouldn’t have had some friends trying to be supportive I’d still live in a male role and if I would have talked about it with the age of ten I might have transitioned way earlier. So we could make the theory that it’s about a biological precondition and a question of what e learned, how strong the feeling is and what possibilities we have in this world whether we transition and how far, in case we do.
And I fully can agree as well on Michelles’ last statement.
I did a lot of writing while saying nothing new here – you know me
I think the point is – why does having a scientifically proveable “cause” matter? And the answer is that there is still a perception that the need for some people with GID to reassign their physical selves is somehow stronger by proving a medical need. Unfortunately I think Michelle is right in what she says – there are people who do not wish to transition and the idea that somehow they are lesser is appalling. And the only person I have ever met to say this was a TG activist talking to a group of police recruits – a scary situation. She actually told them that people who were not referred to surgeons for further treatment were “perverts.” It is chilling to hear somebody who has managed to somehow make a name for themselves as an activist come out with crap like that.
Hello Laura,
while it shouldnt matter, it does:
http://web.hku.hk/~sjwinter/TransgenderASIA/WAS2007paper.htm
Studies on Intersexed people who transition from natural causes suggest that some people are BiGendered, just as some are BiSexual. Though even a trinary is an approximation, it’s actually a continuum. Only those who are strongly (cross)gendered end up being TS and having to transition. Others weakly crossgendered don’t feel the same degree of discomfort.
See http://aebrain.blogspot.com/2008/06/bigender-and-brain.html
Thanks a lot for the links – there are a lot of new studies and withiot help it’s sometimes difficult to fin the good ones.