Excellent piece. I'd never heard of that term before and I'm very curious to begin learning more about these people. I wish that cases like the ones the author describes were more well-known...
Excellent piece. I'd never heard of that term before and I'm very curious to begin learning more about these people. I wish that cases like the ones the author describes were more well-known because they reveal an important level of complexity to what many people have decided is a simple matter. The key takeaway from this article is something easily forgotten, but still significant:
If researching female husbands has taught me anything, it is how the very terms by which we understand sexual orientation and gender identity are products of history and culture. Even liberal and progressive people and institutions are not necessarily more accurate or ‘progressive’ in their understanding of gender than those who came before us. The philosophy that is now seen as the best defence against homophobic and transphobic efforts to deny us rights (that we were ‘born this way’) was itself born of forced, violent and dehumanising examinations by doctors on those incarcerated or otherwise institutionalised. This view was highly raced, classed and gendered, and essentially defined us as lesser people: abnormal, deviant and requiring institutionalisation.
I also have to agree with the author in the paragraph preceding the one quoted: "Maybe [my gender identity/sexuality] will change as the world and the circumstances of my life change. I don’t know for certain – and I’m not sure why this is important to know." People often get caught up with learning the Truth about these things, something about chromosomes or hormones or whatever, a sign from the universe that you are what you are and therefore you don't need to continue thinking about how that could change. While I appreciate this feeling of self-security as much as anyone else, it's completely possible to be secure in a non-static identity; that is, in the process of change itself.
In the search for static objectivity in our own existence we will only ever be led to something resembling the teleological argument, which I don't find satisfying or relevant to my life. i.e. the assumed existence of an objective truth in something as clearly subjective as gender implies that subjectivity as a concept is a flaw of human nature, compared to the infinite and unerring wisdom of that which approaches God. Such arguments diminish our existence as a species and are uninteresting to me. Better to accept that the views that we espouse about ourselves are what fundamentally shape our societies.
Excellent piece. I'd never heard of that term before and I'm very curious to begin learning more about these people. I wish that cases like the ones the author describes were more well-known because they reveal an important level of complexity to what many people have decided is a simple matter. The key takeaway from this article is something easily forgotten, but still significant:
I also have to agree with the author in the paragraph preceding the one quoted: "Maybe [my gender identity/sexuality] will change as the world and the circumstances of my life change. I don’t know for certain – and I’m not sure why this is important to know." People often get caught up with learning the Truth about these things, something about chromosomes or hormones or whatever, a sign from the universe that you are what you are and therefore you don't need to continue thinking about how that could change. While I appreciate this feeling of self-security as much as anyone else, it's completely possible to be secure in a non-static identity; that is, in the process of change itself.
In the search for static objectivity in our own existence we will only ever be led to something resembling the teleological argument, which I don't find satisfying or relevant to my life. i.e. the assumed existence of an objective truth in something as clearly subjective as gender implies that subjectivity as a concept is a flaw of human nature, compared to the infinite and unerring wisdom of that which approaches God. Such arguments diminish our existence as a species and are uninteresting to me. Better to accept that the views that we espouse about ourselves are what fundamentally shape our societies.