QT: Do you support free speech? by pollyesther in GCdebatesQT

[–]cupidscupidity 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

There's a difference between the general concept of freedom of speech, and the right to freedom of speech as protected by the government. Yes, the government protecting freedom of speech "only" means that the government won't try to suppress your speech, but it's possible to support free speech outside of what's protected by the government, e.g. "freedom of speech in workplaces" or "freedom of speech on social media".

GC: How can sex be unchangeable, when the body constantly changes? And throughout evolution, unicellular organisms transitioned and changed to the multicellular organisms we call humans? by Tea_Or_Coffee in GCdebatesQT

[–]cupidscupidity 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

The bigger question is, how do you define "sex"? Because there's no way this discussion will get anywhere if we can't come to an agreement on that, first.

Interested in GCDebatesQT Dungeons and Dragons? Looking for a few players! by divingrightintowork in GCdebatesQT

[–]cupidscupidity 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Hi, unfortunately I am not really interested in DnD, but I am interested in the discord. Can I have an invite?

GC: What do "-sexual" and "-sexuality" mean? If sex is about reproduction, why are "homosexuality" and "same sex" not contradictions in terms? by ImageNotUploaded in GCdebatesQT

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

Two heterosexual men have the same sex.

Edit: I do feel like you're close to getting it though. Please try to follow up with any of the responses here because it feels like you're stopping right before the big aha moment.

GC: Male pregnancy blurs the line between male and female. But do the males of other species really get pregnant? And how come gametes and sex organs are put into categories of male and female? by ImageNotUploaded in GCdebatesQT

[–]cupidscupidity 11 insightful - 2 fun11 insightful - 1 fun12 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

Can you rephrase your question, but instead of "male" and "female" just use "sperm-producer" and "egg-producer" instead? Your terrible application of linguistics is obfuscating your actual point.

Edit: for example, "Why are sperm considered 'sperm-producer' and why are eggs considered 'egg-producer'?" Pretty thought-provoking, don't you think?

GC: Are there specific alternative treatments to SRS and HRT that have proven effective for successfully treating the most severe forms of gender dysphoria or transsexualism? by [deleted] in GCdebatesQT

[–]cupidscupidity 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Hi again, I just remembered this post by a doctor (?) on the detrans subreddit. He discusses how he treats gender dysphoria in a way that's different from HRT... It seems all experimental and doesn't seem to be backed up by any studies (he does post some studies in the post but they don't specifically discuss what he wrote about) so I'd take it with a grain of salt, but still, food for thought, I guess.

GC: Are there specific alternative treatments to SRS and HRT that have proven effective for successfully treating the most severe forms of gender dysphoria or transsexualism? by [deleted] in GCdebatesQT

[–]cupidscupidity 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

The closest thing I've got is this paper ("A New Theory of Gender Dysphoria Incorporating the Distress, Social Behavioral, and Body-Ownership Networks"). It was unfortunately retracted since it sparked some controversy, so I dunno if it's actually worth anything, but I'll offer it up as food for thought.

This piece discusses the paper and its retraction, and it's not really relevant to your question, but it does quote the initial version of the paper before it was corrected, which I'll also quote here:

“The use of gender reassignment as a therapy is sometimes motivated on the assumption that the distress is due to the individuals having a brain sex different than their gender assigned at birth and that the desire to change genders is based on a correct sense of true gender (...) Our new theory furthers the discussion regarding biologically-based treatments independent of gender identity affirmation that might address distress and body ownership in individuals with gender dysphoria. (...) treatments based on our new theory could instead involve targeting the distress and/or body ownership networks, perhaps specifically seeking to restore a sense of ownership over body parts perceived as incongruous.”

Of course there's nothing in the way of actual treatment here since the paper itself was just discussing a theory rather than anything in practice, but I thought it was pretty interesting to read about.

GC: Thoughts on xenogenders and neopronouns? Why should "male" and "female" not be defined to mean one's gender besides sex? And if gender identity is not a real thing, why do cis, trans, nonbinary, etc people exist who have an internal sense of whether they're male, female, both, or neither? by MissDimples in GCdebatesQT

[–]cupidscupidity 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Topic 2: The real problem is, upon shifting "male" and "female" to refer to gender identity, are we going to entirely remove words that refer to sex? I think there are disadvantages to that: particularly when it comes to health and medicine, without any distinction between the sexes it could lead to a lot of problems or confusion (e.g. medicine dosage, how diseases affect different sexes differently, sexual health). There's also the gender critical view of natal females experiencing sex-based oppression, and removal of terms to describe sex would make it harder to approach that meaningfully.

I'm a little different from gender critical views here in that I wouldn't necessarily mind a compromise--"male" and "female" can be used for gender identity, as long as we can find new words for sex. Let's just say they're "flim" and "flam", for example. A flim produces sperm and a flam produces eggs, flims and flams have distinct primary and secondary sex characteristics, a flim can't become a flam and a flam can't become a flim, etc.

However, I figure some trans rights activists will still find fault in this kind of compromise, because from what I can tell, the goal isn't really to just free "male" and "female" from sex. Their goal appears to be to make sure that "trans women and cis men" and "trans men and cis women" are never categorized under those categories, and freeing "male" and "female" from sex is simply one step in that process. So categorizing people as immutable "flims" or "flams" really defeats the purpose of their ideology, as I see it.

But it remains that "trans women and cis men" do form a real, observable category, as do "trans men and cis women"--so it only makes sense that the proper words exist to describe them.

(Ironically, the whole use of "menstruators" and other gender-neutral language should be transphobic for the above reasons, and yet it's the trans rights activists that are trying to push such language. I'm curious as to what people here think about this.)