You have:
- What seems like way more trans people lately
- Some recent drama over restroom use (that I assume is part of a bigger picture - civil rights for these groups of people)
- Odd and annoying demands around the use of pronouns "THOSE AREN'T MY PRONOUNS!!! FUCK YOU!!!"
![Shocked :shock:](./images/smilies/icon_eek.gif)
![Shocked :shock:](./images/smilies/icon_eek.gif)
- The explosion of gender-identity names. Facebook now has 71 different gender options. Whaaaaat?
I've felt annoyed by parts of this evolution around genders. I've had a bit of a feeling of "What the hell is going on? What are these kids doing". I've also wondered if need to learn about it so I can understand the reasonings and need for it. So I'm trying to learn more...
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A New Documentary
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I watched this documentary tonight:
Gender Revolution: A Journey with Katie Couric (Full Documentary) | National Geographic
It's a National Geographic production with Katie Courec. The main things the documentary attempts to share are:
1 - What Trans people are and how it happens. (and other things such as intersex). How it happens. Why these people feel the way they do. The short version is that being trans and intersex is essentially a birth defect. The developing baby becomes a certain gender and is developing as such, but then, a bit later, the amount of testosterone the baby receives (or is it creates?) is not appropriate. A developing boy gets too little. Or a developing girl gets too much. Then parts of the baby's brain develop as the opposite sex as the rest of their body. (This includes the declaration that parts of the brain are different in men and women). The child is born with the physical body of one gender, but with parts of their brain as another. Those parts of the brain make the person feel like they are 'really' the opposite gender as their genitals/body.
2 - That society should be nice and accepting of these people.
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Thoughts and Discussion
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Is Trans Gender a birth defect? Should/are we trying to prevent it?
Given what is explained in the documentary within Point #1 above:
a - What causes this wrong amount of testosterone in developing babies? How can it be prevented? The documentary didn't spend any time at all exploring this.
b - In the documentary, they shared that in recent history, the number of people identifying as Transgendered has increased a lot. They supplied that the reason is cultural; now people understand trans gendering better and can recognize when it happens, and sharing that you are trans is much more accepted. Ok, those seem true... but... I wondered, how many trans people are actually being born vs. before? They gave a current rate of about 1 in 2000. What was the rate 50 or 500 years ago? They did mention how trans people are also born in other places… and how they likely have been for a long time, but very little attention was given and it was all from the perspective of how those cultures accepted them.
I'm convinced enough that people are actually born trans and that once that happens, they should be treated with respect. I also see this as a birth defect that, if possible, should be prevented. Does anyone have thoughts or information on this? (Are more trans people being born recently? Why? Is it actually a defect? Could it possibly just be a normal human thing that has always happened at that rate?). Along with many others here, I am a strong Thinking on the third Myers Briggs category, so I like to (also) look at things like this gender trend from an impersonal perspective and understand it not just in relation to how to treat one individual person (as Feelers are typically more concerned with), but also "What's causing this? Can/should it be fixed?
Pronouns
I’ve been annoyed by people declaring that certain pronouns are used for them. I've never experienced this in real life. I've just, for example, seen videos of people protesting and having signs or yelling that others should use the pronouns they personally choose. I think on a small personal scale, using certain pronouns would be no big deal. Say I had a friend or a close coworker and if they let me know they’d like certain pronouns, I wouldn't mind doing it. The two annoyances i have are: 1 - if someone I don’t know well expects me to remember their pronoun preference. The doc' gave an example of how at the start of a semester, the students in a class at Yale ALL introduce themselves with their name and which pronouns they want to use. Now, I wouldn't have been bothered to remember that kind of thing for a big group of people (although, the rate of people choosing non-standard pronouns should be so rare (about 1 in 2,000 given the rate used in the doc) that doing this for everyone would be a huge waste of time. Anyways.. You know, I don’t care enough to commit some of my memory power personal preferences of people I don't know well or care about.
I was hoping the doc' may have an explanation for people insisting on the use of “They” pronouns. (On others using "they/them/theirs" instead of "he/him/his".). One person did say that he/she/they preferred they during a certain period of their transition because they felt they were sort of 'in the middle' and not yet a he (or she, I couldn't tell which way they were converting). Courec or someone voiced the common objection that "they" is plural. I also feel that "they" is a pronoun you use for someone you don't know, and is odd/wrong to use for a person you know. The answer given was annoying and bullshit: "I am multitudes. I am vas". Oh please... you are not a fucking snowflake. Anyone have a better understanding of reasons why using they/them/theirs should be accepted?
Edit -- on this pronoun thing, I suppose the "they" thing is tied to people who view gender as fluid or as a fake invention. I still view gender as binary, more like the 80 year old trans-lady at the end talking to the young one. The binary view is that, aside from literal intersex, (parts of) people are one gender or the other (you have a penis or vagina.... you have a male brain or a female brain). I guess if someone decides they are not one gender or the other, they don't want to be called a him or her, which is still annoying to me as this person, if they feel their brain is neither gender, is either more male or female, with their genitals being the deciding factor - unless they are also genitally intersex.