What’s in a gender?
Published: 11 February 2010
Author: Janie Lawrence
[ 5 ] Recommendations
[ 29 ] Comments
It’s estimated that 1% of the UK population is transgendered
Imagine you wake up tomorrow morning and you find yourself trapped in the body of the opposite gender. How would it make you feel? Distraught, desperate? These, counsellor for transgendered people David Hawley told Sideways News, are precisely the emotions of a person with gender dysphoria - unable to reconcile the mismatch between brain and body.
“You can’t get on with your life because it dominates everything until you get it sorted out.” Hawley said.
American Scott Moore, 30, is a transgender man married to Thomas, also formerly a woman. Legally married to Thomas because he still has a female birth certificate, Scott became pregnant by artificial insemination and is expecting a son, Miles. Scott says, “We know some people will criticise us but we are blissfully happy and not ashamed.”
It’s a scenario that begs questions. If a woman transitions into a man, is it not reasonable to suppose that the female biological urge to give birth vanishes, along with the removal of her breasts? If not, can Scott genuinely be classified as a man? Sounds suspiciously like a person wanting their gender bread buttered on both sides.
Too judgemental? Quite possibly. Most of us are happy in our birth body and gender remains a resolutely binary affair. For the transgendered, the psychological torture can produce deeply unhappy children and end in tragedy. Cameron McWilliams (10) from Doncaster said he wanted to be a girl; in February 2008 he hanged himself.
I hate every part of my body as a woman - every pore of my skin. I feel like a doll that's been put together back to front
It’s estimated that 1% of the UK population is transgendered, a figure equivalent to a city the size of Sheffield. In a primary school of 300, that equates to three pupils. Government policies introduced to combat transgender bullying could result in pupils caught being transphobic facing investigation by police. Heavy-handed or overdue protection for children such as Cameron? Hawley believes, “If nobody challenges society it will stay the same. I’d like to see the issue of gender being far less significant”.
Teenager Theo was born as Emily. The 16 year old recently told the News of the World that he was four when he felt different: “I think that's when the daily fight I have with myself started. I can honestly say I hate every part of my body as a woman - every pore of my skin. I feel like a doll that's been put together back to front.”
Is someone born transgender?
Dr Polly Carmichael, clinical psychologist and director of The Gender Identity Development Service for children at the Tavistock Clinic, told Sideways News she believes it is a “multifactorial” condition but consistently many children identify themselves at a similarly young age to Theo. Where in the past referrals included more boys - it being easier for a girl in jeans to pass as a tomboy than a boy to withstand sissy taunts for wanting to wear a dress - that’s changing and the clinic is seeing increasing numbers of girls.
“80% of those referred to us pre-puberty will not go ahead with sex reassignment surgery and will find another solution such as living as a lesbian or gay man. Post-puberty 80% of referrals will go ahead with it.”
Currently in the UK, children are not given hypothalmic blockers (sex hormone blockers) until they are 16 years old. Other countries are prepared to begin treatment at 13, a move that is now being seriously considered here although they affect fertility and long-term effects on bone-density and the central nervous system are unknown. The argument for earlier intervention is that a boy whose testosterone has been blocked will, should he go ahead with reassignment surgery later (legal at 18), be less tall, less heavy and therefore be a more aesthetically convincing woman.
Countering this is whether a pre-pubescent child knows their own mind sufficiently for such a key decision. In principle Dr Carmichael is not opposed. “If one was to offer it at this earlier stage a key element of that is the assessment of a young person’s competence to consent.”
A form of child abuse?
Liberal received wisdom may be in line with Dr Carmichael but not everyone agrees. Award-winning feminist journalist Julie Bindel is strongly opposed to any age lowering, calling the suppression of puberty “child abuse”. Since she wrote an article claiming that gender dysphoria has “no proven genetic or physiological basis“ and denounced the use of reassignment surgery she has been labelled transphobic and received a stream of hate mail.
She argues, “Medical science cannot turn a biological male into a biological female - it can only alter the appearance of body parts. A trans-sexual 'woman' will always be a biological male... sex-change surgery is unnecessary mutilation.” Her argument is that a man who has transitioned into a woman is simply a man without a penis.
What of a woman who transitions to a man?
Brutal though the process is for men transitioning to women (scrotum hair removal registers high on the pain scale), it is possible to fashion a convincing clitoris but no surgery can provide a woman with a functioning penis. Is Scott Moore then simply a woman with facial hair?
Moreover, where does this leave Scott’s son Miles? Are we too hasty in jumping to the conclusion that he won’t be eager to share pictures of his pregnant dad with his school chums? And similarly too narrow-minded in hoping the couple are already saving for their son’s therapy? David Hawley maintains we are,:
“Whatever a child grows up with is normal to a child. He may have problems when he goes to school but that’s society’s fault for making a fuss of it. Fifty years ago it was the same for homosexuality but society was wrong.”
Whether Miles grows up to see it that way remains to be seen.
SIDEWAYS News for fresh perspectives
Comments
"It’s estimated that 1% of the UK population is transgendered,"
And so we see one of the big problems with using a term like transgender in this context. The reality in this article they are speaking about people with transsexualism.
Transgender is an umbrella term which encompasses so very many different communities, which can include those with transsexualism, just as it includes those with intersex conditions, gender benders, effeminate men, butch women, drag kings and drag queens, bois and so on and so on.
And as for the Julie Bindals , just what is she/they using to back up their opinions? Just because they say so, only means that's what they say. Nothing more
Thank you Rika and Rachel for clarifying the medical issue here. Made it much more understandable and answered my question. I think the issue calls for caution, but agree puberty blockers seem advisable.
Rachel wrote:
"In fact, a legal argument could be advanced if puberty blockers are withheld as an appropriate medical intervention from the gender dysphoric child who later goes on to transition on the grounds that withholding puberty blockers when medically indicated constitutes willful negligence or nescience."
Well-stated, Rachel.
One should view with extreme skepticism anyone who would deny hormone blockers to self-identified trans children on "compassionate' grounds - because they're (allegedly) not old enough to know their own minds. Their "concern" translates into compelling such children to endure an inappropriate (to them) puberty that will leave them hideously deformed for life insofar as they seek to live their lives as normally as possible in their self-identified gender.
These "compassionate" people (usually invoking religious notions to buttress their claims that the body determines what you are) would withhold from such children the best and perhaps only means to blend in to society, forcing them to stick-out forever as objects of ridicule, taunting, humiliation, shame, and physical violence.
So much for compassion.
The ethical position is unclear to me in the article. Presumably, questions regarding long-term physical sequelae, e.g. on the CNS (unknown), bone density and fertility, refer to the period following the use of cross-(biological) sex hormones and not to the use of 'puberty blockers' which simply delay the onset of puberty? At the very least, a child who has consistently declared themselves to be 'born in the wrong body' since they were able to articulate that sense of their core identity are communicating something very important about themselves to the world. If these children are adamant after many years of trying to communicate the distress that this is causing them, what harm can there be in delaying puberty? The development of secondary sex characteristics must intensify the distress for the child, i.e. breast development, menstruation, distribution of body fat, etc. for biological females, and height, musculature, facial hair, changes in genitalia, etc. for biological boys. In fact, a legal argument could be advanced if puberty blockers are withheld as an appropriate medical intervention from the gender dysphoric child who later goes on to transition on the grounds that withholding puberty blockers when medically indicated constitutes willful negligence or nescience.
Also of interest is the disparity in the statistics from Dutch, American and British gender identity specialist clinics. The Dutch success rate reported (100% do not change their minds)compared with Dr Carmichael's reported figures prompts a number of research questions: how are children referred to GI clinics, who refers to GI clinics, what kinds of interventions are used in the British clinics ( i.e. are subtle methods employed to persuade the child to conform to societal norms thereby privileging 'fitting in' over being one's authentic self?), how are long-term studies conducted, how long is 'long-term' follow-up, what measures are used to assess adjustment, how are those who leave the care of the clinic accounted for statistically, who drops out the the system and why, and, perhaps most importantly, how are candidates for puberty blockers assessed in each country? The statistics from the Dutch suggest that their selection procedure does not produce 'false positives' and that their criteria are more stringent. Are the Dutch specialists better able to discriminate between 'true' transsexual children and those who are confused about their gender identity? Answers to these questions are eagerly awaited and, hopefully, will soon be in the public domain. In the meantime, having a child on puberty blockers, in my view, is infinitely preferable to having a dead child and should be considered when weighing up the risks against the benefits.
David said, ". . . .why not treat the hypothalamus . . ."
Once the neuroanatomy of the hypothalamus has undergone sexual differentiation, ( "hard-wiring" during embryo-genesis), it is irreversible--whether this differentiation was atypical or typical. During embryo-genesis sexual differentiation of our [everybody's] genitalia and our brain take place at different times, and these processes can be influenced independently of each other. This is how we get female structures in the brains of M2F transsexuals and male structures in the brains of F2M transsexuals. Thus, transsexualism is found in nature. Disorder and psychopathology (regarding transsexuals) is found in the minds of academic philosophers, psychologists and sexologists. To suggest "treating" the hypothalamus and thereby tampering with a perfectly normal, innate core essence and identity, is mad science; it is unethical; it is eugenics based ideology. If you are born with a female brain and mind, you are a female whether or not your body is male. "Treat" the hypothalamus? Girls want to look like girls-they do not want their brains [their lives] attacked by bigots or even well-intentioned ignoramuses with ice picks, chemicals, or scalpels. Let's just stick with what in fact works. The transitional procedures and protocols that have been in use and prescribed for decades to treat transsexuals are the only things that provide successful outcomes and a quality of life and happiness that most people take for granted.
You don't have a question. You have a polemic.
Debra
- I am dyslexic.
- my dictionary clearly defines dissembler.thus:
One who dissembles; one who conceals his opinions or dispositions under a false appearance; a hypocrite.
- it would perhaps have been more useful and contructive to try and answer my question.
Thanks for a good read and some subsequent chin stroking. Not sure it’s a case of suddenly waking up to discover you’re trapped in the wrong gender. My understanding is that people with those issues are aware of them pretty much from the onset of awareness.
David, I didn't call you a hypocrite. Really, I called you a liar. Or you're dyslexic. And not worth my time.
Debra - calling me a hypocrite (please don't be boring and claim I've misquoted you again ) doesn’t answer my question.
In most cases if someone's perception of reality differs from the real world, the approach is to change the perception. Why is the approach to transgender to change the world? It implies that the perception is right and the world wrong. The frequency or strength of the 'delusion' don't change the argument.
I am not saying there is any 'natural order' or anything, just that there is a reality to be dealt with - the physical sex of the person. And despite what’s been said here, it is NOT possible to change someone’s sex. One cannot give a woman a working penis, or give a man a functioning womb or milk giving breasts. Change the way they look you can, change a man to a woman or vice versa you cannot.
Guest - why do you assume the 13 year old could not have rationally chosen to have sex, If a 13 year old is aware of its sexuality and capable of consent. Thats my point, of course we don't accept either of those things are true.
David is dishonest. He writes:
"Debra says "There is no body of clinical evidence for anorexia" !!!!!!!!"
I said no such thing. Rather, I did write: "There is no CORRESPONDING body of clinical OR HARD SCIENTIFIC evidence for anorexia..." (emphasis added.)
David - by omitting that emphasized (capitalized) language you show yourself to be a dissembler.
There is a subtle but fundamental difference between the two scenarios.
The older man is coercing the child into doing something that he would not otherwise want (nevermind consent) to do.
The thirteen year old transgending child, on the other hand, is the one who who is initiating the action, of his own accord, not the doctor. By the time these children get to the point where hormones etc. become an option, they've been under close scrutiny for a LONG time. If the parents and doctors are truly listening to child, the solution ought to be obvious.
Great article - live and let live, is what I say.
Debra says "There is no body of clinical evidence for anorexia" !!!!!!!!
I think Debra should look a little more closely at the medical and psychology journals.
you have asserted there "gender is different from anorexia", but havent explained why. It seems to me that both cases are mis-matches of perception of ones body and ones perception of self, that are being treated completely diferently.
If gender is a medical problem, ie "Real medical research the last 15 years (Gooren, Swaab, Diamond, Savic and orthers) show that the hypotalamus in transsexuals has an incongruent development with the genitals." Why is the approach to treat the genitals and not the hypotalamus
I reassert my original statement: While I think any sane adult has the right to do whatever they like with their body as long as it doesn’t harm others,
I raise these questions not because I want to deny anything but because this doesnt make sense to me.
Reply to David, who wrote:
"i think I was misunderstood, my question was why is an anorexic 13 year old who says I am trapped in a body I hate, its horrible, I can't be happy until I change my appearance. I want surgery and drugs to help me change it. I'd rather die than look like this. (Why is this) diferent from a 13 year old who feels his/her body is wrong because of its gender? why is one ill and wrong and one right and in need of help to achieve a change?
Answer: Because gender is different from anorexia. Clinicians have been reporting for years, at least since the 1950's, of people who feel being born into an inappropriate body. There is a corresponding steadily increasing (and uncontroverted) stream of scientific evidence corroborating these accounts. The number of people reporting these feelings measure in the millions; their accounts are remarkably consistent and the numbers of people so reporting are increasing daily as more and more people feel free to come out of the closet.
There is no corresponding body of clinical or hard scientific evidence for anorexia, or any other "I feel like I should be a (fill in the blank with some other ridiculous comparison.)" Or similarly absurd comparisons the very few reports of people who claim a desire to be a dog or a member of some other animal species. That's why gender is different from anorexia. Gender sense is part of every human individual's experience. Anorexia is not.
Not that this describes David, but isn't it odd that so many transgender deniers claim to be religiously inspired? These people bridle at the suggestion that their unquestioning belief as gospel truth in the Invisible Man In The Sky or The Son of God is delusional. No, to them, that's all real - without a scintilla of evidence of any kind (scripture doesn't count.) They are heirs to a religious tradition that not so long ago held that the physical body is an illusion, that the true reality is the hereafter. How odd... these same people now swear up and down that a transsexual person's sense that their core gender identity varies from their exterior physical shell is dellusional.
What ever happened to "Don't judge a book by its cover"? Is that just a meaningless tagline, a soundbite?
Julie Bindel is certainly wrong. Medical science CAN turn a biological male into a biological female. Anatomy and hormoens are certainly biological. Besides there are males and females who have a so-called genetic sex which is the opposite of their so-called appearance. There are XY females and XX males. Thus a m to f transsexual is not a man without a penis after surgery but is an XY woman.
i think I was misunderstood, my question was why is an anorexic 13 year old who says
I am trapped in a body I hate, its horrible, I can't be happy until I change my appearance. I want surgery and drugs to help me change it. I'd rather die than look like this.
diferent from a 13 year old who feels his/her body is wrong because of its gender?
why is one ill and wrong and one right and in need of help to achieve a change?
Enjoyable and competent overview of a tricky issue.
I don't think Julie Bindel gives too hoots about transsexuals, but the trans arguement goes against her aguements for gender stereotypes, and that's why she puts down trans-people. At the end of the day thought bigotry is still bigotry, she's putting down a minority group in order to further the rights of another minority group, and that's just wrong.
A fascinating and informatibe article by Jane Lawrence about a subject that, appears to be never fully discussed or out in the open. Some of the comments and stories in it are clearly heartbreaking to hear. The more that this subject is brought up for debate then hopefully people can acccept that transgender is no more strange than a wish to be heterosexual - after all we're all completely different and unique in our own way.
"Am I strange or is a woman who wants to meet a man and have children making an odd choice to undergo transgender surgery?"
Neither. OK, you may be strange for other reasons, but not for being flummoxed by this situation. I don't blame you.
I'll explain it.
Gays exist. Lesbians exist. Some are Transsexual too.
That's it.
Sexual Orientation is about who you want to go to bed with. Sex Identity (called Gender Identity for historical reasons) is about who you want to go to bed as.
While there's a strong correlation - it's not exact.
Bindel is a fascist, proposing "natural science" instead of real medical science. Exactly as the pseudo-marxist French psychiatrist Lacan or the Pope's advisor Paul McHugh. Real medical research the last 15 years (Gooren, Swaab, Diamond, Savic and orthers) show that the hypotalamus in transsexuals has an incongruent development with the genitals.
Susanna
woman born transsexual (no longer transsexual - cured)
David O. Cauldwell sent this message from the 'other side' . . .
'Hey, Bindel; Stop ripping off my transsexual science fiction stories that were printed in Hugo Gernsback's pulp fiction magazines alongside stories of aliens abducting hippie chicks and having LSD parties on the dark side of the moon'.
XRK9854's post is spot-on... nothing to add.
OTOH, David proposes the shopworn analogy between (i) whether a 13 y-o is old enough to give 'consent' to sex with an adult and (ii) whether a 13 y-o can know their own true gender, if it's different from his/her biological exterior.
How can anyone equate that to whether a child has an equivalently well-formulated idea about whether it's ok to let a grown man stick his erection into them? It's the difference between apples and oranges but people like David can't or won't recognize the difference between the two. He and others like him don't understand the basics about sex, gender and sexual orientation.
One knows intrinsically one's own gender identity from a very early age, usually long before puberty. But a sex/gender discontinuity is just not something about which most people pay any particular attention. They take these things for granted. To them, if you have a penis you should feel like a boy/man/male (and v-v if you have a vagina.) If you don't you're a freak.
Most people don't admit any difference between sex and gender. They use the two terms interchangeably. If they know there's a difference they usually can't verbalize what it is.
David has a penis and like an estimated 99% of the population he feels like a male - his sex and his gender coincide. If he's like an estimated 90% of the population he also likes having sex with girls. That would make his sexual orientation hetero - the favored solid majority. Nothing outside their own subjective experience makes sense to them and they're disinclined to spend the effort to even try and understand anything that speaks to a different paradigm.
Most people who accept the idea of democracy understand that a mere 51% majority does not entitle them to trample on a 49% minority. But we're talking here about something that comes across to most people as sex, a subject with which most people feel distinctly uncomfortable, if not downright queasy. And when the spread increases to 90:10, things get a little dicier -- and even more so at 99:1.
Those in this majority feel free to disparage the non-conforming minority that they simply doesn't understand with seeming impunity because they are the majority. and an overwhelming majority of people, who share his ignorance, will agree with him and back him up.
Trans kids sense from a very early age that their genitalia doesn't match how they feel about themselves as a boy or as a girl. Typically, they learn from a very early age to hide these feelings because expressing them invariably leads to big trouble. But lately, the numbers of children reporting gender variant feelings is growing. Surprisingly large numbers of straight people are coming out as accepting but many others are not. Witness the Davids of this world.
But sheer numbers alone will do nothing to relieve him of the legally incompetence to render any informed judgment about transpeople.
XRK9854's post is spot-on... nothing to add.
OTOH, David proposes the shopworn analogy between (i) whether a 13 y-o is old enough to give 'consent' to sex with an adult and (ii) whether a 13 y-o can know their own true gender, if it's different from his/her biological exterior.
How can anyone equate that to whether a child has an equivalently well-formulated idea about whether it's ok to let a grown man stick his erection into them? It's the difference between apples and oranges but people like David can't or won't recognize the difference between the two. He and others like him don't understand the basics about sex, gender and sexual orientation.
One knows intrinsically one's own gender identity from a very early age, usually long before puberty. But a sex/gender discontinuity is just not something about which most people pay any particular attention. They take these things for granted. To them, if you have a penis you should feel like a boy/man/male (and v-v if you have a vagina.) If you don't you're a freak.
Most people don't admit any difference between sex and gender. They use the two terms interchangeably. If they know there's a difference they usually can't verbalize what it is.
David has a penis and like an estimated 99% of the population he feels like a male - his sex and his gender coincide. If he's like an estimated 90% of the population he also likes having sex with girls. That would make his sexual orientation hetero - the favored solid majority. Nothing outside their own subjective experience makes sense to them and they're disinclined to spend the effort to even try and understand anything that speaks to a different paradigm.
Most people who accept the idea of democracy understand that a mere 51% majority does not entitle them to trample on a 49% minority. But we're talking here about something that comes across to most people as sex, a subject with which most people feel distinctly uncomfortable, if not downright queasy. And when the spread increases to 90:10, things get a little dicier -- and even more so at 99:1.
Those in this majority feel free to disparage the non-conforming minority that they simply doesn't understand with seeming impunity because they are the majority. and an overwhelming majority of people, who share his ignorance, will agree with him and back him up.
Trans kids sense from a very early age that their genitalia doesn't match how they feel about themselves as a boy or as a girl. Typically, they learn from a very early age to hide these feelings because expressing them invariably leads to big trouble. But lately, the numbers of children reporting gender variant feelings is growing. Surprisingly large numbers of straight people are coming out as accepting but many others are not. Witness the Davids of this world.
But sheer numbers alone will do nothing to relieve him of the legally incompetence to render any informed judgment about transpeople.
Just a thought -
13 year old - I am trapped in a body I hate, its horrible, I can't be happy until I change my appearance. I want surgery and drugs to help me change it. I'd rather die than look like this.
I'm not anorexic.
Julie Bindel is a radical feminist, she is about as far from the mainstream as you can get. Why are you giving voice to her transphobia? And she has it backwards. It is child abuse to NOT treat these kids. Treating them when they're young (with parental support and consent) maximizes their chances for a normal life in their identified gender. The Dutch gender program has been treating teens for over a decade and they have NEVER had one "change their mind". All of the patients have become happy and healthy adults. Julie Bindel is flat out WRONG.
While I think any sane adult has the right to do whatever they like with their body as long as it doesn’t harm others, I have a couple of questions.
Can a 30 year old Man who is having sex with a 13 year old girl or boy, reasonably argue that they are old enough to know their own sexuality well enough to make an informed choice about their behaviour? I think most people would answer ‘No’, so why should a 13 year old have the ‘competence to consent’ about life changing, irreversible, drug treatments or sexual surgery
Would the Experts in this article perhaps describe the behaviour of a woman who felt trapped in her body, transgendered to a Man, developed a relationship with another man, and then wanted a child as a little confused? Am I strange or is a woman who wants to meet a man and have children making an odd choice to undergo transgender surgery?