QT oriented question but anyone can comment: How much of a choice do we have over our gender identity (assuming for the sake of argument that gender identity exists in all people)?

submitted by DistantGlimmer from self.GCdebatesQT

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[–]loveSloaneDebate King 7 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 0 fun8 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

I’m obviously not QT at all, but I’d say it wouldn’t make any sense for QT to say that anyone has any choice in their “gender identity”. It would undo all of the argument for making “gender identity” a valid explanation or argument to use. It would have to be something that’s not a choice in order for it to make sense. It has to be something so ingrained that we “cis” people don’t even notice it because it matches our sex. The problem for me is that even if we accepted gender identity as something meaningful, if it’s some personalized understanding of your identity as it relates to your sex (And it would have to be personal/individualistic, since no trans person I’ve come across has adequately explained it, and many have said they can’t explain it), gender identity wouldn’t have anything to do with actual gender (gender can’t really be a societal thing unless we agree to it’s confines and distinctions as a society)- it would just be your own personal interpretation of gender and its roles/stereotypes, regardless of your sex, but likely inevitably influenced by your sex.

Or it’s what the other poster I commented under said, but that’s obviously not how trans people would ever want us to see it.

I’m also staunchly opposed to considering trans people as a third category for a few reasons.

[–]DistantGlimmer[S] 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Yes, the big issue for me is that the way the law is set up now with self-ID it is legally a very fluid thing. You can convince a doctor that you "feel like" the opposite sex [whatever that even means] and you can legally get your gender changed which results in you legally being treated as the opposite sex. So QT TRAs are essentially saigng that gender identity is only a feeling and a feeling that can change and develop. Like I said in my response to Worried19 I don't see how this benefits GNC people or transsexual people. The only real benefit I see to it is for fetishists who are allowed to access women's spaces to carry out their fetishes.

I do think it makes sense as a psychological concept that we have some kind of relationship to gender as it is (unfortunately) a very strong force in our society. I guess even rejecting all gender roles very strongly and attempting to be androgynous could be viewed as an identity so I agree that it's not so much that gender identity just "doesn't exist" as it is such a fuzzy and impossible to define concept that making laws and policies based on it is a terrible idea. Ifwe limited the category of "trans" to people who had exhibited severe dysphoria in a clearly documented way for most of their lives making policy around this much smaller population without hurting women's rights would be a lot easier.