I don't think transsexualism is real?

Question

I mean, where's the evidence? I think that transsexuals for whatever reason really, really WANT to be the opposite sex, and so convince themselves that they ARE the opposite sex. But how could you know that you were 'born' another sex from the gender you were born into? Gender is not this fluid, nebulous, amorphous thing, despite what many people will tell you these days. It is set in stone. That's not a judgement, just a biological fact.
Hey, if you have effeminate features, or simply like looking and acting like a 'woman', then by all means go with it. It doesn't bother me, and you have the right to live as you choose and modify your appearance as you see fit.
That said, to decide that you ARE the opposite gender from what you are... I just don't buy that. Where is the scientific evidence for this? I read somewhere that brains in transsexual women may in some aspects be more similar to womens' brains than mens'... however, to state that because of this they ARE woman, is wrong.

Answer 1

For me i am a female on the inside just not on the out side
even if it is something i have decided to be i choose to be it
as i am being true full to my self
i dislike everything that i see as male
from men playing sport to outside hard labor fixing things that already work and the fighting and savage beings they are
looks are not anything

i choose to be a female it is not about x-dressing for me
it is not about my sexuality or lake of it
it is not about the nursing nature i have
for me it is being me
i am Zara-lee by name and being
whether i made my self this way or what ever corsed me to feel these feelings i do not care my life is about being me
and for me to be me i need to be true and judge myself and every thing my being is
i do not agree with you as i am transsexual and
i know what it is like to be on the out side knowing the only thing keeping me from growing the way
i wanted was the little thing between my legs

i never care if i am seen as a woman i know what i am and what i see in the mirror deep under the skin and to me that is more important
i think like a woman i act like a woman with female thoughts legally i am a female yet i know i am more then that
i live on both sides of the gender fence even on top of it
but really i am me Zara-lee

Answer 2

What? Your question and comment make no sense. There doesn't have to be scientific evidence of anything for a person to know how s/he feels.

You also assume that, rather than being some totally random occurrence in the womb, gender is some kind of permanent, god-given thing. No, it's not. Human beings have attached so much extraneous crap onto gender - "If I'm a boy, then I can't wear skirts and I can't wear bright pink." - that people don't even know how to conceptualize a human being _free_ of gender. What should it matter - unless our immediate goal is to have a baby - _what_ a person's gender is? We don't even know how to treat a person of confused gender _like a person_ because we think, in order to have human intelligence, one is supposed to have the proper genitals and make sure that everyone else _knows_ s/he has the proper genitals. Ridiculous.

The only real function public 'gender' has is to advertise to the opposite sex that a person is available to have sex and have babies with him/her, and to give others another reason to police him/her.

How do you know you weren't meant to be a man? What if you actually _were_ meant to be a man (given male genitals), but weren't, and you don't even know it, and here you are, going about being a woman because you think it's hugely significant that you were randomly blessed with a vagina? How do you know? You just "know," you say? It's the same with transgendered folk.

Read Judith Butler's _Gender Trouble_ and _Bodies That Matter_.

Answer 3

You are referring to the physical gender vs. mental gender.
I’ve known a few transsexuals and even known a couple who have had their physical gender modified. In today’s modern medicine, physical gender is not set in stone. A male can be a Barbie doll as easily as any stripper, and a girl can be hung like a mule.
But is the physical gender more important than the mental gender? I think it is the inside that makes you who you are not the outside. If you’re a woman on the inside, then I’m going to treat you like one and refer to you as one.

Answer 4

It's called gender dysphoria. Psychologically you do believe that you are the opposite gender and therefore you form your body to physically look like your psychological gender. That's what being transsexual means. It's a mental condition and no it's not a disorder.

You can LOOK smart but be MENTALLY challenged as hell. What you are is how you perceive your own self. Not how society perceives you anatomically.

Answer 5

It depends on how you define what you "are"--are you thinking physically or psychologically? Psychologically transsexuals ARE the opposite gender. Physically, they are not. Personally, I put much strength on the importance of the psychology of the brain, and so I would tend to say that transsexuals ARE the opposite gender, as that is what their mind dictates.

Answer 6

Try this book for a good discussion: "What You Can Change and What You Can't" by Martin Seligman, M.D. He argues that something goes wrong for about 1 in 10,000 fetuses at week 11 in the womb. There is a hormonal bath that is supposed to occur, but something goes wrong and it affects the way that the individual perceives his/her own gender. It's a good discussion.

Answer 7

You don't have to believe it, but the people that are affected by it don't have to believe in you either honey. Just because you haven't taken the time to look for the scientific evidence doesn't mean that there isn't any. I suggest you do a web search starting immediately. There is scientific and MEDICAL evidence, so what you want to be true is not necessarily what IS true.

Answer 8

You obviously have a degree in Transgender Studies with a resume of research to back that up, right? Didn't think so. Take a class or 2 on it before you come here with stupid rants about some article you once read. From your "question" it is obvious that you don't know anything at all on this topic.

Answer 9

well for starters by law no transsexual female is a women and never will be unless laws and Professor Greenberg's research is changed, after SRS a transsexual is no longer male and is not female, by law we are categorized as "it's".

As for knowing I or any other TS is born female or male, we know deep down in our hearts, some of us are born with female chromosomes for instance, klienfelter syndrome XXY, or in some cases some of us are born XX male syndrome, and males can also be born XXX, XXXX, and XXXY. prominently the only way society can categorize a male and female in the US is by law and that's the chromosomal, gonadal, and genital tests.

transsexualism is 100% for real, it just takes time and research to understand that its real.

Answer 10

>>I mean, where's the evidence?

Google "Simon LeVay" and "transsexual brain"- there is some physical, biological evudence that the gender center of a male to female transsexual's brain is very similar to a heterosexual woman's brain.

>>I think that transsexuals for whatever reason really, really WANT to be the opposite sex, and so convince themselves that they ARE the opposite sex.

Yeah, go on thinking that- but know this-

The only reason we "want" to be the opposite sex is becuase out brains are female, we have a female body map, and we know what we should be shaped like.

Now, granted, there are individuals out there that are confused about their gender and want to change their sex, but that would be a mistake. That is why counseling is so important to the transition process from one sex to the other.

We want to look like what we feel like we are inside, and not for some sexual or fetish reason- a true transexual only wants to feel comfortable in their body.

Let me ask you this(assuming you are a female)- if, for some reason, you woke up in the morning and had a male body, could you live with it for the rest of your life?

If every body insisted that you were a man but you knew different, would you be crazy for thinking it? Could you deal with everybody second guessing you and telling you that you are "supposed" to be a man?

Could you think like a man? EVERY DAY? FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE?

>>But how could you know that you were 'born' another sex from the gender you were born into? Gender is not this fluid, nebulous, amorphous thing, despite what many people will tell you these days. It is set in stone. That's not a judgement, just a biological fact.

I knew that I was different from boys at a very young age. I couldn't put a finger on it, and for a while, I thought I was gay, but even that didn't explain everything.

I was searching for who I was with no leads to go on. I accidentally ran across the word "transsexual" while doing research on cross dressing and I decided to look it up. I was amazed to find out what I did- finally, the puzzle of who I was was crystal clear to me- I am a woman in a male body.

I didn't like to be stuck in a male body or have to think like a male or have to wear male clothes, or even get male-oriented presents for christmas.

One thing you said that you have gotten right is the fact that gender is not as fluid as people like to believe. Men think one way, and women think differently from them. I can't change this, nor would I want to.

I have had very intimate access to the inner circles of men because they thought I was one of them based on how I look. I just couldn't connect to these men the way other men do- it is not a part of me.

And I hate to say this, but some of the stereotypes of men are not "just" stereotypes, but are very true.

>>Hey, if you have effeminate features, or simply like looking and acting like a 'woman', then by all means go with it. It doesn't bother me, and you have the right to live as you choose and modify your appearance as you see fit.

Umm, these are crossdressers- not transsexuals. Transsexuals do not feel a need to express a "feminine side"- we ARE feminine and we want our bodies to look like it.

>>That said, to decide that you ARE the opposite gender from what you are... I just don't buy that. Where is the scientific evidence for this? I read somewhere that brains in transsexual women may in some aspects be more similar to womens' brains than mens'... however, to state that because of this they ARE woman, is wrong.

That said, let me argue this- what makes a person a woman, the mind between the ears or the plumbing between the legs?

I never decided who I was- I simply want to live a life that closely matches my emotional and psychological temperament. It could be described as taking the path of least resistance with respect to getting a sex change, but I cannot live my life as something I am not, nor want to be- namely, a man.

Oh, there's nothing wrong with being a man- if you are one, but I am not and I don't want to look like a man.

As I said before, if you woke up in the morning in a fully functional male body, would that be enough to convince you that you are a man? Or would you object and want to change the body you were in into something more familiar?

One of my favorite sayings is that "The tent don't run the circus".

Sheesh- even my writing style is a female style of writing.

Sidenote: My feminine writing style almost got me flunked in my English 101 course in college. I had to convince the professor that I wasn't getting a female friend to write my essays for me.