Adept42, there really are such things as sex differences, not just gender differences; the verdict of the experimental evidence on this is definite. See e.g. The Blank Slate by Pinker. (Though of course I’m quite willing to believe that there are alternate Everett branches where men wear skirts and women wear pants, etc.)
There are different reasons why people go transgender. But a transgender of the sort who’s always known, growing up, that they were one of the girls rather than one of the boys (or vice versa), knows on a very visceral that sex is hardwired into the brain at a level that transcends your suit of flesh or anything socially expected of you. In fact, a transgender did look at an earlier version of this essay and say, more or less, “Yeah, that’s right.”
I understand that there are a lot of things attributed to sex that ought to be attributed to gender. But if brains were not sexually typed, brains born into the wrong bodies wouldn’t be in such awful straits—they could just construct a gender that matched their body. Yes, there are androgynous men and women, bisexuals, people who go transgender for other reasons… But to deny that many brains are strongly sexually typed is to deny the very real problems of a male brain born into a female body or vice versa.
I’m transgender myself, currently a few years into transition, and I actually experienced some of the issues you predicted above.
I did need to relearn basic locomotion as my body shape changed over months. I started hormone replacement in early winter, and when I resumed distance running in the late spring, I was surprised to discover that I needed to relearn how to run. My gait was different enough that running took actual focus just to avoid falling down.
I also experienced a pretty bizarre period of about a year where my body had changed substantially, but my sensory map of my body hadn’t. That issue eventually corrected itself, and as it did, I became unable to remember what it felt like to have my original configuration. A bunch of old memories lost that detail, though the remainder of those memories remain intact.
...and that’s just from bodily changes.
I strongly agree with your thesis. Altering the mind is hard. Faced with a mismatch between my body and my mind, changing the mind to match my body or vice versa would have been equally good solutions. Changing the body is so much easier, which is why I chose that path.
Adept42, there really are such things as sex differences, not just gender differences; the verdict of the experimental evidence on this is definite. See e.g. The Blank Slate by Pinker. (Though of course I’m quite willing to believe that there are alternate Everett branches where men wear skirts and women wear pants, etc.)
There are different reasons why people go transgender. But a transgender of the sort who’s always known, growing up, that they were one of the girls rather than one of the boys (or vice versa), knows on a very visceral that sex is hardwired into the brain at a level that transcends your suit of flesh or anything socially expected of you. In fact, a transgender did look at an earlier version of this essay and say, more or less, “Yeah, that’s right.”
I understand that there are a lot of things attributed to sex that ought to be attributed to gender. But if brains were not sexually typed, brains born into the wrong bodies wouldn’t be in such awful straits—they could just construct a gender that matched their body. Yes, there are androgynous men and women, bisexuals, people who go transgender for other reasons… But to deny that many brains are strongly sexually typed is to deny the very real problems of a male brain born into a female body or vice versa.
I’m transgender myself, currently a few years into transition, and I actually experienced some of the issues you predicted above.
I did need to relearn basic locomotion as my body shape changed over months. I started hormone replacement in early winter, and when I resumed distance running in the late spring, I was surprised to discover that I needed to relearn how to run. My gait was different enough that running took actual focus just to avoid falling down.
I also experienced a pretty bizarre period of about a year where my body had changed substantially, but my sensory map of my body hadn’t. That issue eventually corrected itself, and as it did, I became unable to remember what it felt like to have my original configuration. A bunch of old memories lost that detail, though the remainder of those memories remain intact.
...and that’s just from bodily changes.
I strongly agree with your thesis. Altering the mind is hard. Faced with a mismatch between my body and my mind, changing the mind to match my body or vice versa would have been equally good solutions. Changing the body is so much easier, which is why I chose that path.