Some significant energies were eaten because of some semi-known feminist profile in my home country came out as TERF. I have not read her thinkpiece, nor do I think I shall, but I saw commentaries and could not let go of the concern. When something attacks my basis like this, then it’s like a throwback to those greater angsts, the OCD-like response to existential threats. They used to be there with me all the time, now they are thankfully rare – only these things cause them, and that makes sense to me. I will dump some thoughts in response and let it go.
Several others have made the claim that a gender definition that is not strictly referencing chromosomes or assigned-at-birth anatomy will make it harder to describe and combat gendered oppression. This is clearly nonsense, as it is easy to simply read “women are at risk of death in childbirth/from intimate partner violence/etc” as “most/many women are at risk of death in in childbirth/from intimate partner violence/etc” and leave it as implicit that there may be statistical exceptions enriched for among trans women, woman-loving-women etc. It’s a non-issue.
More to the point, the person seems to claim that a definition allowing for experienced identity to play a part in the definition, will lead somehow to a discourse where the general public becomes more likely to come to embrace and propagate separate gender roles. I am not quite sure of the logic – that noting “gender is in the brain” would be commonly misunderstood to mean “gender roles are inborn and characteristic of birth-assigned sex by essential reasons”? I don’t think this is so likely to be a misunderstandng that will be widespread, and if it were, then we as activists could go out and try to counter it, making clear how gender identity and role are interrelated but fundamentally different concepts, just as gender and sex in some sense are. Do I risk thus doing memetic damage by transitioning? I don’t really think so, but if I do, I will do my part to counter it in turn.
This actually gives me a new life goal component – to effectively be a role model also for gender non-conformative cis women. I will do my best.
Some other worries creeping up as I slowly moved through the day, low blood sugar, tired, maybe hungover, en route, etc. Have I somehow misunderstood my own motivations, are the reasons for why transitioning makes me happier different than I believe them to be? Probably not. But if they are, the fact remains it makes me happier, even when playing on hard mode like this.
lost in transition 