I guess it's meant to be inspirational.

[von_geisterhand]

As I mentioned in the previous post, I recently watched a programme on some (white, well off, american) children between 8 and 17 whose inner gender does not match their bio-gender. Some of them had already begun taking hormones and were now thinking about surgery and some of them were still uncertain about whether they ever wanted to take that step.
What made me think, though, besides questions about performing surgery on pre-puberty bodies, was something one of the little boys said: When asked why he felt that he was a boy despite the fact he had been born as a female, he answered that he had always liked to play with boys' toys like remote-controlled cars and enjoyed sports like Karate, far more than taking part in typical girls' activities. Fair enough, you'd say, and not something one has not heard before.
On the other hand, this also accepts and reinforces the traditional ideas of what it is like to be a boy/girl and what is and is not proper for either gender. This always saddens me a little bit.
I mean, fair enough, you can't ask too much from a child around 10 (sorry, can't remember how old exactly) but I had hoped that we as a society had now reached a level of intelligence where (for example) a bio-girl happily living as and being seen as a "girl" can play with a remote-controlled car and excel at Karate without this in any way meaning.... well, anything more. They don't, or should not, take away your "girl-license" just because you don't conform to a standard that was set more than 50 years ago. "Girl/Boy/Man/Woman" are concepts of consensual definition and therefore more than fluid.

Be what you want to be and be it any way you decide.

Comments

[von_geisterhand]

Ach, es weiß doch wohl jeder inzwischen, daß TransHumanoids in Wahrheit dampfbetrieben sind. ;-P

Re: Aber mal ernsthaft

[dingsi]

PS: "Bio-girl" war einfach kürzer als "Individual who was born with a biological traditionally female genetic configuration and who lived according to the sociological associated norms up to this point."

Was du mit dem Begriff bezwecken wolltest ist mir schon klar (und ich nehme es auch nicht krumm), es ändert aber nichts daran dass er, sagen wir mal, nicht trans-freundlich ist. Knapp ausgedrückt, er impliziert dass Cis-Menschen natürlich und Trans-Menschen unnatürlich sind. Ich hab den früher auch benutzt, bin aber davon abgekommen als ich auf Begriffe wie cis und FAAB oder CAFAB gestoßen bin, ergo female-assigned at birth bzw. coercively assigned female at birth. (möchte Thema jetzt auch nicht weiter ausdiskutieren, Infos im Netz gibt's genug)

[karohemd]

Something odd is going on with this entry. If I click the link, I get to a "Protected" page but if I go to your main page, I can read the entry and I can reply but I can't open the page with only this entry again (click on title, get Protected). o_O
And yes, that's a huge problem.

[von_geisterhand]

Hm, odd. According to my settings you should have access. :-/

[karohemd]

That's what I don't understand. I can read this post in your main view. If I wasn't in the relevant access list, I wouldn't be able to.
Must be a bug. I'm logged in but when I click the title of this post from your main view (or the link on miss_s_b's post, I get to a page where I'm supposed to log in.

[buddleia]

Um, any transwoman or transman will tell you to beware of this argument, as knowing what gender you truly are might be signalled this way but goes a LOT deeper. It's an anti-essentialist argument that has been used with great effect by serious transphobes such as Julie Bindel and has caused a lot of pain.

Short version: it's not that simple.

[von_geisterhand]

No, it's not and I wasn't assuming that it is.
It being television and therefore edited made me think that in the case of the children shown there probably was more of a conversation than: "Mum, Dad, I prefer ponies over cars. Therefore please call me Loretta from now on."
There is undoubtedly also a very deep feeling of "I am ...this." and it in a way is the "essence" I have been wondering about in the first place, one that goes beyond the pure social constructs and expectations.