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Originally Posted by Gem
Yes, gender is associated with socially normalised masculine and feminine roles, and the way that is identified with.
The basic issue is, can the psychological self-image be adapted to sit well with the form, or should the form be surgically altered to resemble the image? I'm not sure that surgery is the appropriate intervention for healthy bodies. It's really a question: is it something wrong with the body that needs fixing, or a psychological issue which can't be resolved surgically? Suicide statistics aren't improved by surgical intervention, so I'm persuaded that sex reassignment surgery is not helping, however, psychological issues related to body image are a psycho-social problems, as there are no clear lines between individual identity and the environment in which it exists.
Yes, the 'male brain in a female body' doesn't really make sense because the brain is an organ of the body... not a 'different thing'. Basically, the issue of identity and body image can't be measured empirically, so gender theory is philosophy - not science.
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Hi....yes, I understand.
My opinion is that this is a psychological issue (though we should also situate this psychological issue within a broader cultural/social issue). I didn't know that the suicide rates remained about the same for those that had had the surgery....I seem to only hear about those that are happy with the surgery. I had assumed surgery is a generally useful fix...and maybe it is for some, but based on what you said, perhaps it isn't as useful as I had thought. Assuming that this is a psychological issue, the difficulty is that healing is hard. I suspect that many trans folks were dealing with a sense of isolation and alienation from a very early age. Even with help and support, it's not easy to heal from these kinds of wounds (perhaps to some varying extent we all have them). From my perspective, I also believe it is important to be addressing some of the incorrect deeper ideas about the nature of identity, that are floating around the media and society in general.
Specifically, I find the idea that being a 'man' or 'woman' is apriori to, and disassociated with the body, as incorrect and problematic, not least because I'm not sure where it ends. For example, I think I am correct in saying that we now have the idea that an apriori 'black person' can be born into a physically 'white person's' body (and vice versa). My other concern is that if we are willing to entertain the idea that identities have no association at all with the body, this could also potentially support a pedophile movement, in which it is argued that a child is actually an 'adult' in a child's body. I just don't see it as healthy to be divorcing identity from the body altogether, though as I said, I appreciate the emancipation that began last century which began to free many folks from their behavioural limitations. But I think we have gone too far ideologically, without actually taking the time to heal from the limitations that we collectively experienced. It strikes me that instead of doing the healing work, we are applying a misconceived solution to the collective wound, when perhaps what we all need is more love, kindness and care.
Perhaps at a more spiritual level, I also don't really believe that these arms and legs and organs etc are 'my' arms/legs/organs. I am more inclined to the idea that...in terms of 'belonging', they belong to nature. It is my role to tend to the body, to honour and steward the body, and be healthy as best I can, but I don't see it as 'mine' to do totally what I want with.