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[–]Metis 8 insightful - 1 fun8 insightful - 0 fun9 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

For me being gender critical and not believing in trans ideology isn't so much about whether gender dysphoria is innate or natural. I have no problem believing that some people suffer from it and are happier presenting as the other gender. Whether they are born with it or it's due to social contagion or a mixture of both I can't say for sure. However, being male or female is still a matter of biology as much as your skin color, hair color or whatever else is coded in your DNA is. What I'm sceptical of is the claim that sex is somehow the only biological catagory where the concept that people are born in a wrong body is valid and the only course of action is to alter your body accordingly. Transitioning to another race for example is completely unacceptable and I've seen people claiming to feel like they belong to another race made fun of. The same goes for people with Body Integrity disorder (a mental condition where people want to be amputees, they refer to themselves as transabled). Let's see what wikipedia has to say about treatment for BID: “There is no evidence-based treatment for BID; there are reports of the use of cognitive behavioral therapy and antidepressants.“ Somehow no one is denying these people's existence or literally killing them by denying their wish to mutilate their bodies and live as their “authentic self“. Even though they would actually become amputees if we applied the same treatment as we did with gender dysphoria and therefore they wouldn't have to force people to believe they were actual amputees. And don't get me started on trans species which is becoming more acceptable than people wanting to get rid of their limbs? It's all completely arbitrary and it sounds highly illogical to me that one person claiming to be born in the wrong body should be believed and supported while the other is made fun of when both are solely based on feelings that are not verifiable parameters in reality.

Now, let's assume some people indeed are born in the wrong body and accept that the best course of action is to let them transition. Why does believing that one can help these people by letting them transition necessarily mean that one must also believe that trans people are really and have always been the sex they claim to be? Because that's what I have a massive problem with - forcing others to share their belief that they actually can change sex and become the other sex and are no different from the sex they claim to be. I can verify whether someone is male or female because it is a biological reality whereas the other is only a mental reality of some people. Why does the mental reality of some people believing they really are the opposite sex trump biological reality? Why am I considered hateful and transphobic if I don't share their belief and pretend that our realities are not only completely the same but also support the erasure of my sex in everything that is related to female biology. And why is no one concerned with renaming men as ejaculators and penis-havers, why are only females and female spaces targeted? Furthermore, the sex segregated spaces we have are exactly that - sex segregated because it makes sense in terms of anatomy and biology. Abolishing these spaces in order to come off as politically correct should not be more important than protecting the people for whom they were made and who need them.

I think GC people don't have a problem with trans people but the ideology that comes with it that is misogynistic and based on outdated gender roles. I've grown really tired of people claiming their desire for wearing pink tutus is as much evidence of their womanhood as women menstruating or giving birth and therefore they should be included in spaces that are dedicated to functions of the female bodies (breastfeeding groups etc.)

Also, I am not an expert but have been very interested in the Lakota from an early age and I just want to add that a winkte was never considered a woman. They had a completely seperate role from women and no woman could have ever become a winkte and vice versa. So it's not really the same thing as being a trans woman today because no one forced anyone to believe that winktes were actually women.

[–]MarkTwainiac 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Now, let's assume some people indeed are born in the wrong body

But why assume this even for the sake of argument? How on earth can someone be born in the wrong body?

This daft idea of being born in the wrong body only make sense to those who have no clue about how human conception occurs and what happens afterwards during implantation in the uterine wall, followed by all the various stages of embryonic and fetal development over the next 40 weeks, followed by all the millions of things that happen during the long course of infant and child development, puberty and adolescence. How babies are made and what happens to infants, children and adolescents as they grow into adulthood are not mysteries. It's all been well studied and well documented.

The human brain, neurological system and reproductive organs develop along with all the rest of the body. Development of brain, mind and body are all of a piece. Coz we are our bodies. We don't exist as disembodied minds apart from our bodies. And every one of the cells in our bodies from the time we are conceived until after we die contains our sex chromosomes. If we are buried and our bones are dug up centuries later, our sex will be still be clear from the shape of the pelvis and our DNA.

[–]Skipdip[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Yeah i think this is the underlying thing that gets me. I am a bodyworker-in-training (cranial osteopathy/BCST and somatic therapy for repairing early/developmental trauma and attachment dysfunction). No matter how accepting I try to be, at the end of the day there is something I just can’t let go: mind/body split.

There is nothing inherent about it. It is a mental illness, a wounding. Having numerous “mental illnesses” myself (as you’ve probably intuited from my posts haha). I don’t think the term is actually beneficial or accurate when describing these compensatory patterns of suffering. “Mental illness” in itself implies a mind/body split. Kathy Kain describes this psyche/soma split as a foundational wound in our culture.