I’m not sure how much of the narration is about you in the present day, or exactly what you’re looking for from your audience, but there’s a bit I still want to respond to.
I’m a transhumanist. I believe in morphological freedom. If someone wants to change sex, that’s a valid desire that Society should try to accommodate as much as feasible given currently existing technology. In that sense, anyone can choose to become trans.
The problem is that the public narrative of trans rights doesn’t seem to be about making a principled case for morphological freedom, or engaging with the complicated policy question of what accommodations are feasible given the imperfections of currently existing technology. Instead, we’re told that everyone has an internal sense of their own gender, which for some people (who “are trans”) does not match their assigned sex at birth.
Okay, but what does that mean? Are the things about me that I’ve been attributing to autogynephilia actually an internal gender identity, or did I get it right the first time? How could I tell? No one seems interested in clarifying!
I have some sympathy here. It’s certainly frustrating when it seems no one has the patience to engage thoughtfully, even if no one is obliged to answer your questions. For things like this, it’s especially common to be tired of explaining or justifying oneself, or to be wary after getting drawn in by people asking similar things who turn out to lack genuine curiosity, or just to not want to speak for others.
Some trans people might be interested in making a principled case, but I think most just want to live the way they choose. That’s the outcome “the public narrative of trans rights” serves and (I think) ought to serve. I agree that morphological freedom is wonderful, but even if one thinks the public narrative makes bad philosophical commitments, I don’t see a way to get there from here that doesn’t go through pragmatic trans acceptance.
Some people feel they can choose whether to cultivate homosexual attraction or not. Some find that (real or illusory) choice liberating and meet new partners, while others find in it reasons to expect conversion therapy to work. “Born this way”, as a slogan, leaves some people out and raises objections from those who note that it shouldn’t matter whether it’s nature, nurture, or choice. But within my lifetime it seems to have become common knowledge that trying to force someone to change their orientation is ineffective and harmful.
Similarly for “man born in a woman’s body”, a distinction between sex and gender, or “anyone who wants can be trans”. Some trans people embrace one narrative or another with the relief of finally finding a description of their experiences. Many find ways to understand themselves in more nuanced terms, some philosophical, some psychological. These may try to steer the narrative, or they may publicly amplify the simplest available explanation that lets them get by rather than add nuance that they expect will be rounded off, misunderstood, or used against them. Some don’t really worry about it one way or another. Many do all of these at different points in their lives.
It seems part of your frustration comes from wanting the public discourse to do more than serve a purpose, perhaps to be more internally consistent or more uniformly settled. I don’t see you finding satisfaction here, and even less likely on your terms. Also, frankly, it sounds like your friends who egged you on, particularly in grandiose language, were not acting in your interests. I hope you have more stabilizing people in your life these days.
I also imagine it’s difficult to have your understanding of yourself rejected as a misinterpretation of your experiences or as politically inconvenient, and meanwhile to see people around you as so much like you while they deny fellowship, as it were. I’m sure you’ve heard this before, but I suspect your picture of others’ internal processes is misleading you. I don’t think you’ve stumbled on a taboo truth so much as on one of those nuances that get misunderstood or rounded off too easily to serve their purpose. As far as there’s a need to talk about it, it seems reasonable to be particularist and not immediately bring in the baggage that “autogynephilia” carries.
Poorly constructed public narratives, though, make for bad policy and bad culture. Yes, much of it carries the instrumental goal of pragmatic trans acceptance, but it’s often presented in such a way so as to not only elide the complexities of that acceptance, but to make any discussion of policy trade-offs or personal disagreements radioactive. More, people tend to be poor at distinguishing between “narrative-simplicity” statements and truths worth orienting one’s life around.
Morphological freedom is a powerful and unifying principle that is easily, intuitively understood and can rally a range of people with disparate metaphysical beliefs in support of simple, valuable quality-of-life policy, and it generalizes from issues around the transgender experience to groups that are treated more like strawmen or inconveniences in current discourse, such as therians/trans-species identity. “My body, my choice” has already been thoroughly absorbed by the abortion debate, but a similar approach encapsulating the essence of morphological freedom is an easy case to make and a hard one to reject.
The idea of gender as an essence separate to sex, intrinsic to all, is a much steeper request, one that demands people realign their view of what is rather than what ought to be. If they cannot or will not realign that view, whatever their perspective on morphological freedom, they are placed in the role of Enemy Of The Cause.
People like Zack are in a miserable position, because the narrative they present of their experience is deeply inconvenient for the majority of people who feel similarly to them and thoroughly convenient to those who hate them: if, rather than being a woman born in the wrong body, someone like Zack is a man with an orientation that makes him wish to be a woman, dismissing the whole thing as a perverted fetish is trivial for hostile actors, and it becomes almost impossible to make some policy cases activists wish to make.
You frame it as rounded-off nuance, and I almost see where you’re coming from with that, but it gets so thoroughly rounded off that to assert it becomes a threat and to examine its implications or propose it as a basis for policy is to all but declare war on the most vocal progressive trans activists.
I am, thankfully, not personally invested in the same way Zack is. While I can full-throatedly support a morphological freedom–driven initiative, though, I cannot accept the truth claims progressive trans activists ask people to accept, and find Zack’s descriptions to come much closer to what appears to be the underlying truth of the phenomenon, inasmuch as it is knowable, and in a way that enables a consistent approach as I wrestle with phenomena like trans-species identity that seem closely connected and aim to keep the whole consistent with my own observations and experience. Not precisely—I have my own nuances and quibbles I’d add. But close enough to be legible. I agree that pragmatic acceptance is the way to go, but disagree that the most popular public narratives are really serving that end in sustainable, healthy ways.
There’s not just acceptance at stake here. Medical insurance companies are not typically going to buy into a responsibility to support clients’ morphological freedom, as if medically transitioning is in the same class of thing as a cis person getting a facelift woman getting a boob job, because it is near-universally understood this is an “elective” medical procedure. But if their clients have a “condition” that requires “treatment”, well, now insurers are on the hook to pay.
A lot of mental health treatment works the same way imho—people have various psychological states, many of which get inappropriately shoehorned into a pathology or illness narrative in order to get the insurance companies to pay.
All this adds a political dimension to the not inconsiderable politics of social acceptance.
Poorly constructed public narratives, though, make for bad policy and bad culture.
Do they, though? I’m honestly not too worried about this. That’s one reason I mentioned “born this way”. Of course, I think even just going by self reports “internal sense of gender” is a reasonable first approximation with wide coverage, I think the current policy and cultural agendas for trans rights are pretty much the right ones, and I think that’s true pretty much regardless of “underlying truth of the phenomenon”.
“My body, my choice” has already been thoroughly absorbed by the abortion debate, but a similar approach encapsulating the essence of morphological freedom is an easy case to make and a hard one to reject.
You’d think so! But people are really weird about sex, and I think it’s going to be a tough fight without addressing that head on. Also, related to Ben Smith’s comment, the political/medical aspects are generally more material.
Regarding
The idea of gender as an essence separate to sex, intrinsic to all, is a much steeper request, one that demands people realign their view of what is rather than what ought to be. If they cannot or will not realign that view, whatever their perspective on morphological freedom, they are placed in the role of Enemy Of The Cause.
and
to assert it becomes a threat and to examine its implications or propose it as a basis for policy is to all but declare war on the most vocal progressive trans activists.
This seems hyperbolic? Both in terms of the hostility and the “demand” to accept truth claims. I’m sure you can get that reaction from some people, but they don’t speak for everyone; and you only have to live in a society with the most combative activists, not make them think you’re a good person. Outside of prominent Twitter figures and what gets amplified in certain media circles, people tend to be willing enough to talk in good faith and accept you as an ally of convenience if you’re respectful. They’re just (understandably!) wary. (Edit: This is just my perspective. I don’t speak for anyone else—I just don’t see this kind of melodrama on everyday scales.)
a consistent approach as I wrestle with phenomena like trans-species identity that seem closely connected
I wouldn’t expect any underlying consistency here. Honestly, I think “underlying truth of [transgender identity]” already presupposes too much consistency and leads to bad predictions.
I’m not sure how much of the narration is about you in the present day, or exactly what you’re looking for from your audience, but there’s a bit I still want to respond to.
I have some sympathy here. It’s certainly frustrating when it seems no one has the patience to engage thoughtfully, even if no one is obliged to answer your questions. For things like this, it’s especially common to be tired of explaining or justifying oneself, or to be wary after getting drawn in by people asking similar things who turn out to lack genuine curiosity, or just to not want to speak for others.
Some trans people might be interested in making a principled case, but I think most just want to live the way they choose. That’s the outcome “the public narrative of trans rights” serves and (I think) ought to serve. I agree that morphological freedom is wonderful, but even if one thinks the public narrative makes bad philosophical commitments, I don’t see a way to get there from here that doesn’t go through pragmatic trans acceptance.
Some people feel they can choose whether to cultivate homosexual attraction or not. Some find that (real or illusory) choice liberating and meet new partners, while others find in it reasons to expect conversion therapy to work. “Born this way”, as a slogan, leaves some people out and raises objections from those who note that it shouldn’t matter whether it’s nature, nurture, or choice. But within my lifetime it seems to have become common knowledge that trying to force someone to change their orientation is ineffective and harmful.
Similarly for “man born in a woman’s body”, a distinction between sex and gender, or “anyone who wants can be trans”. Some trans people embrace one narrative or another with the relief of finally finding a description of their experiences. Many find ways to understand themselves in more nuanced terms, some philosophical, some psychological. These may try to steer the narrative, or they may publicly amplify the simplest available explanation that lets them get by rather than add nuance that they expect will be rounded off, misunderstood, or used against them. Some don’t really worry about it one way or another. Many do all of these at different points in their lives.
It seems part of your frustration comes from wanting the public discourse to do more than serve a purpose, perhaps to be more internally consistent or more uniformly settled. I don’t see you finding satisfaction here, and even less likely on your terms. Also, frankly, it sounds like your friends who egged you on, particularly in grandiose language, were not acting in your interests. I hope you have more stabilizing people in your life these days.
I also imagine it’s difficult to have your understanding of yourself rejected as a misinterpretation of your experiences or as politically inconvenient, and meanwhile to see people around you as so much like you while they deny fellowship, as it were. I’m sure you’ve heard this before, but I suspect your picture of others’ internal processes is misleading you. I don’t think you’ve stumbled on a taboo truth so much as on one of those nuances that get misunderstood or rounded off too easily to serve their purpose. As far as there’s a need to talk about it, it seems reasonable to be particularist and not immediately bring in the baggage that “autogynephilia” carries.
Poorly constructed public narratives, though, make for bad policy and bad culture. Yes, much of it carries the instrumental goal of pragmatic trans acceptance, but it’s often presented in such a way so as to not only elide the complexities of that acceptance, but to make any discussion of policy trade-offs or personal disagreements radioactive. More, people tend to be poor at distinguishing between “narrative-simplicity” statements and truths worth orienting one’s life around.
Morphological freedom is a powerful and unifying principle that is easily, intuitively understood and can rally a range of people with disparate metaphysical beliefs in support of simple, valuable quality-of-life policy, and it generalizes from issues around the transgender experience to groups that are treated more like strawmen or inconveniences in current discourse, such as therians/trans-species identity. “My body, my choice” has already been thoroughly absorbed by the abortion debate, but a similar approach encapsulating the essence of morphological freedom is an easy case to make and a hard one to reject.
The idea of gender as an essence separate to sex, intrinsic to all, is a much steeper request, one that demands people realign their view of what is rather than what ought to be. If they cannot or will not realign that view, whatever their perspective on morphological freedom, they are placed in the role of Enemy Of The Cause.
People like Zack are in a miserable position, because the narrative they present of their experience is deeply inconvenient for the majority of people who feel similarly to them and thoroughly convenient to those who hate them: if, rather than being a woman born in the wrong body, someone like Zack is a man with an orientation that makes him wish to be a woman, dismissing the whole thing as a perverted fetish is trivial for hostile actors, and it becomes almost impossible to make some policy cases activists wish to make.
You frame it as rounded-off nuance, and I almost see where you’re coming from with that, but it gets so thoroughly rounded off that to assert it becomes a threat and to examine its implications or propose it as a basis for policy is to all but declare war on the most vocal progressive trans activists.
I am, thankfully, not personally invested in the same way Zack is. While I can full-throatedly support a morphological freedom–driven initiative, though, I cannot accept the truth claims progressive trans activists ask people to accept, and find Zack’s descriptions to come much closer to what appears to be the underlying truth of the phenomenon, inasmuch as it is knowable, and in a way that enables a consistent approach as I wrestle with phenomena like trans-species identity that seem closely connected and aim to keep the whole consistent with my own observations and experience. Not precisely—I have my own nuances and quibbles I’d add. But close enough to be legible. I agree that pragmatic acceptance is the way to go, but disagree that the most popular public narratives are really serving that end in sustainable, healthy ways.
There’s not just acceptance at stake here. Medical insurance companies are not typically going to buy into a responsibility to support clients’ morphological freedom, as if medically transitioning is in the same class of thing as a cis person getting a facelift
woman getting a boob job, because it is near-universally understood this is an “elective” medical procedure. But if their clients have a “condition” that requires “treatment”, well, now insurers are on the hook to pay.A lot of mental health treatment works the same way imho—people have various psychological states, many of which get inappropriately shoehorned into a pathology or illness narrative in order to get the insurance companies to pay.
All this adds a political dimension to the not inconsiderable politics of social acceptance.
Do they, though? I’m honestly not too worried about this. That’s one reason I mentioned “born this way”. Of course, I think even just going by self reports “internal sense of gender” is a reasonable first approximation with wide coverage, I think the current policy and cultural agendas for trans rights are pretty much the right ones, and I think that’s true pretty much regardless of “underlying truth of the phenomenon”.
You’d think so! But people are really weird about sex, and I think it’s going to be a tough fight without addressing that head on. Also, related to Ben Smith’s comment, the political/medical aspects are generally more material.
Regarding
and
This seems hyperbolic? Both in terms of the hostility and the “demand” to accept truth claims. I’m sure you can get that reaction from some people, but they don’t speak for everyone; and you only have to live in a society with the most combative activists, not make them think you’re a good person. Outside of prominent Twitter figures and what gets amplified in certain media circles, people tend to be willing enough to talk in good faith and accept you as an ally of convenience if you’re respectful. They’re just (understandably!) wary. (Edit: This is just my perspective. I don’t speak for anyone else—I just don’t see this kind of melodrama on everyday scales.)
I wouldn’t expect any underlying consistency here. Honestly, I think “underlying truth of [transgender identity]” already presupposes too much consistency and leads to bad predictions.