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Jun. 11th, 2002 05:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
johnpalmerThis is a bit of a sensitive entry about transgenderism. It might be offensive to some folks (though I hope it isn’t), and all I can say is that, if it is offensive, and you try to explain to me why you find it so, I will give serious consideration to what you say. I’m an outsider; I can’t always understand, or even see, things that an insider finds obvious.
A long time ago, a friend managed to confuse me on the issue of transgenderism. He asked a question I’m sure is fairly common… “why do we do sexual reassignment surgery(SRS), just because we can? Shouldn’t we be helping people to be happy in the bodies they’re born in?”
Let me state for the record that I would *NEVER* deny or try to discourage SRS. Let me explain why this bothers me.
Let’s pretend we can use the “disease/cure” model. It’s not appropriate, but let’s pretend.
If transgenderism was seen as a ‘disease’, and the ‘cure’ was SRS, then we’d only be looking at a cure that could be performed when technology is fairly advanced.
Okay… but, if the ‘disease’ is “your hand was cut off”, and the ‘cure’ is reattachment of the hand, that also can only be performed when technology is fairly advanced. Wouldn’t it be terrible if we never did limb reattachments, just because “we should teach people to learn to live with only one hand”?
So… it seems that all you need to do is accept “having the wrong body” as being as blatantly physical as something that requires a surgical cure.
And, you see, that’s part of what gets to me. Part of identity is mental, and part of it’s physical.
I talked to one transgendered person, and asked what she thought of her body before SRS. The response was, essentially, that it was just wrong… as in, it felt the way it would feel if I woke up tomorrow with a woman’s breasts and a vagina. I want this part understood: that was *NOT* what she said to me. She didn’t say “Imagine if you woke up tomorrow…”. She described how it felt to have a male, when she felt she was female. I interpreted what she said as being similar to how I’d feel, etc..
I know better than to generalize too much; I don’t assume that’s how all transgender folks feel. But, it filled in a hole I’d been feeling in my general thoughts on things. Before, I just couldn’t quite understand what it might be like to be transgendered. That doesn’t mean I had a problem, really… but, to butcher the popular expression of Voltaire’s attitude, “I may not feel the same way you do… I might not even UNDERSTAND the way you feel… but I’ll fight to the death for your right to do what’s right for yourself, so long as you’re not causing harm to someone else.”
Why was that a hole? Why is it any of my business how transgendered folks feel? Because… if you’re fighting for something, but don’t really understand it, you can’t mount nearly as effective (or as spirited) a defense.
I suppose I don’t do too much fighting, anyway… but I still stand ready, and now, I have a better understanding of *WHY* I do so.
A long time ago, a friend managed to confuse me on the issue of transgenderism. He asked a question I’m sure is fairly common… “why do we do sexual reassignment surgery(SRS), just because we can? Shouldn’t we be helping people to be happy in the bodies they’re born in?”
Let me state for the record that I would *NEVER* deny or try to discourage SRS. Let me explain why this bothers me.
Let’s pretend we can use the “disease/cure” model. It’s not appropriate, but let’s pretend.
If transgenderism was seen as a ‘disease’, and the ‘cure’ was SRS, then we’d only be looking at a cure that could be performed when technology is fairly advanced.
Okay… but, if the ‘disease’ is “your hand was cut off”, and the ‘cure’ is reattachment of the hand, that also can only be performed when technology is fairly advanced. Wouldn’t it be terrible if we never did limb reattachments, just because “we should teach people to learn to live with only one hand”?
So… it seems that all you need to do is accept “having the wrong body” as being as blatantly physical as something that requires a surgical cure.
And, you see, that’s part of what gets to me. Part of identity is mental, and part of it’s physical.
I talked to one transgendered person, and asked what she thought of her body before SRS. The response was, essentially, that it was just wrong… as in, it felt the way it would feel if I woke up tomorrow with a woman’s breasts and a vagina. I want this part understood: that was *NOT* what she said to me. She didn’t say “Imagine if you woke up tomorrow…”. She described how it felt to have a male, when she felt she was female. I interpreted what she said as being similar to how I’d feel, etc..
I know better than to generalize too much; I don’t assume that’s how all transgender folks feel. But, it filled in a hole I’d been feeling in my general thoughts on things. Before, I just couldn’t quite understand what it might be like to be transgendered. That doesn’t mean I had a problem, really… but, to butcher the popular expression of Voltaire’s attitude, “I may not feel the same way you do… I might not even UNDERSTAND the way you feel… but I’ll fight to the death for your right to do what’s right for yourself, so long as you’re not causing harm to someone else.”
Why was that a hole? Why is it any of my business how transgendered folks feel? Because… if you’re fighting for something, but don’t really understand it, you can’t mount nearly as effective (or as spirited) a defense.
I suppose I don’t do too much fighting, anyway… but I still stand ready, and now, I have a better understanding of *WHY* I do so.
