What is most fluid according to TRA science: orientation, gender or sex?

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[–]bopomofodojo 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

Here is the easiest way to make it not confusing.

The current TRA/enby/TQ++ zeitgeist is basically a mix between a notion of a pseudo-religious "soul", and the philosophically idealist notion that reality is shaped by the mind, not vice versa. Note that below I'll just call this philosophical position "idealist" but this doesn't mean what that word normally means (i.e. "optimistic", read the link), and as an aside, this is why they aren't "Marxists" regardless of what they say they believe or what right-wingers say they believe, but that's a whole different discussion (the tl;dr is orthodox Marxism is materialist, not idealist, where reality > ideas/mind; but we all got silenced pretty early, even before the "TERFs").

Here are the key axioms of this belief structure:

  • There is an immutable "soul", whatever you want to call it, inside each person.
  • This soul has a "gender".
  • "Gender", in the context of the soul, is a vague notion based entirely on performative social gender roles and conceptions of what a particular gender "feels like" to them.
  • This "gender feeling" is entirely internal, and cannot be justified to anyone else; it must be taken as absolute truth by others on demand. It is also thus completely malleable.
  • Depending on the person's biological sex, this "gender feeling" either manifests as MtF, FtM, or "I hate both stereotypes so NB".
  • Because of the idealist philosophical bent, this "gender feeling" of the immutable "soul" inside the person is paramount and dominant over reality.
  • Because of the dominance of the "soul's gender feeling" over reality, biological sex is irrelevant; thanks to "modern medical advancements", they can "alter" this (or so they believe vehemently). Thus they "are" the "sex" and/or "gender" their "soul" claims to be.
  • Because, in their conception, this "soul's gender feeling" is paramount over biological sex, therefore all attraction to them must be rooted in this "soul's gender feeling" and not the objective, biological reality of their sex.
  • Due to this subservience of attraction to the "soul's gender feeling" over sex, sexual orientation is defined entirely in terms of the "soul's gender feeling".

Thus, following this progression of axioms, you can see where most of their ideas come from. A MtF attracted to men is "straight", and the male partner is "straight", even if both are biological men. Vice versa for FtM and women. MtF attracted to women is "lesbian" and FtM attracted to men is "gay" and those communities must bend their definitions of sexual orientation to the "soul's gender feeling" definition, or they're denying this philosophical justification and are thus "transphobic" (i.e. not completely and totally acquiescing to whatever the trans person says is correct vis-a-vis their "soul's gender feeling"). "[Biological] sex is a social construct" and "biological X is a TERF talking point" because they literally believe their "soul" is right, not their chromosomes or genitals. And so one and so on.

So, if we have to strictly rank this, it goes like this:

  1. Gender.
  2. Orientation.
  3. Sex.

But in reality it's far more nuanced than a simple ranking. These 3 things both complement and contradict each other at various points in the tree of axioms, and thus "ranking" them doesn't make a whole lot of sense in practice, since you're never going to trip up this construct with an "aha gotchu" moment. The axioms - even when believers refuse to acknowledge that they are axioms - must be attacked instead.

And another aside: this is why the thought-terminating cliches are so prevalent, why "TERFs" (i.e. radfems or less-rad fems that see through some of these axioms as bullshit) and orthodox materialist leftists must be silenced, etc.: because anyone seriously challenging the axioms will cause the entire chain of logic to fall apart. It's also why I think going strictly after "badly behaving" TRAs (i.e. focusing too much on the fetish aspect) also hurts, because that doesn't attack the axioms and question them, and the narrative doesn't change (attacker is dismissed as a "TERF", the "allies" repeat the cliches, the public yawns, etc.). Only by defeating some of the axioms can the house of cards crumble.

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

Note that below I'll just call this philosophical position "idealist" but this doesn't mean what that word normally means (i.e. "optimistic", read the link), and as an aside, this is why they aren't "Marxists" regardless of what they say they believe or what right-wingers say they believe, but that's a whole different discussion (the tl;dr is orthodox Marxism is materialist, not idealist, where reality > ideas/mind; but we all got silenced pretty early, even before the "TERFs").

It may be Nu-Marxism, (Some unholy Frankenstein creation combining traditional Marxism with Postmodernism and neo-liberal Western values) but it’s still following the Marxist template to a Tee.

Marxism is Q-anon conspiratorial type shit that divides the world into two types of classes, the oppressors (“Bourgeois”) and the oppressed (“Proletariat.)” with absolutely no room for nuance or complexity between these two types. Except the original Marxism was solely focused on the Oppressor/Oppressed dichotomy as applied to Economic Class and Wealth distribution only, meanwhile Nu-Marxists have taken that original Bourgeois/Proletariat template and have applied it to literally fucking everything! Race, Sexuality, Sex Gender, Interpersonal relationships, you name it Nu-Marxism can turn just about anything into the “The Eternal Struggle” as long as there’s some sort of power dynamic/inequality to be had. Because just like the original Marxists, Nu-Marxists have a black & white view on the world and can’t look at people as individuals, they can only see the world through an Oppressor/Victim lens.

Remember, Marxism was the original wokeism. “Woke” as in to “wake up” to the forces around you that seek to oppress and exploit you. It is no coincidence that Nu-Marxists continue to be as atheistic and religion hating as their forebears of old (that is at least when they’re not touting the benefits of so-called deemed “POC religions” like Islam and Hinduism because otherwise “dat’s RAcIsT!”) Traditional religions promote an ideology founded on the beliefs of redemption, salvation and man’s ultimate goodness whereas Marxism/Nu-Marxism is fundamentally cynical, pessimistic, and founded on hate, anger and resentment. Marxists take a dismal view on human nature and see it as an eternal power struggle that they must attempt to squash at every turn in order to keep up their fake notion of “equality,” even if they ironically end up becoming the Oppressors themselves. (Animal Farm actually perfectly illustrates this escalation)

Marxism/Nu-Marxism basically is a religion minus the concept of God/a Higher Power (Their main belief system is a belief in an uncomplicated neat and balanced “Oppressor/Victim dynamic” with their ultimate goal/Heaven being that of “true equality,” and and if you dare profess to see the holes in this system or express doubt in viewing the entire world in this way, you are deemed as one of the “privileged,” aka their religions version of a “Heretic.”) in all but name, and is trying to replace the traditional faith systems of old. But at least the latter offered some path to redemption and weren’t ideologies centered solely around the notion of revenge & toxic victimhood. According to traditional Marxism the only way for a heretic to be “saved” is if you gave up all your life savings, and now with this Nu-Marxism it’s to “identify” as a trans lesbian. (Because god forbid you happen to be born a cis white straight male, the very devil category itself!)