#the words 'biological gender' are gonna give me hives

[chaoswillcalmusdown]

the transphobia wave that sweeps swedish liberals every now and then is truly so. wild. mind boggling.

[discyours]

Do you know why arguments about abortion are so difficult, and so polarising? Because you’re not gonna convince anybody who thinks babies are being killed with a women’s rights argument, and you’re not gonna convince anyone who thinks a fetus is a clump of cells with a baby-killing argument. If your beliefs about a fundamental part of the argument (what a fetus actually is) differ, you’re not gonna get very far. I feel like we’re hitting the same wall here with arguments about transgenderism. Can’t agree on who can be transgender, which genders are valid and how trans people should be treated if we don’t even agree on what gender IS.  I love hearing other people’s perspectives and trying to understand them, so I’m gonna try to explain a few of tumblr’s most common perspectives on gender the best I can. I might get a few things wrong, so let me know if there’s anything I need to change. Please note that none of these groups are hive minds, people in them don’t always agree and won’t always match my description here. The TERF/gendercritical perspective: First of all, let’s clarify who I’m talking about here. TERF stands for trans exclusionary radical feminist. However, that’s now considered to be a slur by a lot of them and they prefer to be called gendercritical feminists. They subscribe to second wave feminism, and are usually GNC (gender non-conforming, not conforming to typical gender roles) women.  Biological sex is a main component of gendercritical theory, and talked about more than gender. They believe biological differences between males and females are the main cause of gender inequality. Females are physically weaker than males and are the only sex that can bear children, and according to gendercritical feminists this makes them inherently oppressed. They also strongly believe sexuality is based on biological sex, not gender. So if sex decides whether you’re oppressed of privileged and gender is a non-factor, what’s gender useful for? Well, according to gendercritical feminists... nothing. If sex describes everything concrete, gender is nothing but a few social rules. And being radical feminists, they usually aren’t pleased with the gender roles that have been imposed on them. If gender = gender roles, and gender roles are bullshit, you might as well abolish gender. And that’s essentially what gendercritical feminists are aiming to do. They either do this by equating gender to sex (man = adult human male, woman = adult human female) or simply dropping gender terms altogether and just talking about males and females. Trans people are referred to by their biological sex, and treated accordingly. Trans women are still biologically male and therefore have male privilege, should not be allowed into women’s bathrooms, and are referred to with he/him pronouns. Trans men are still biologically female and are therefore oppressed.  Gender dysphoria is usually explained as the result of having gender roles imposed on you. Trans people are encouraged to accept themselves as being GNC cis people. For trans men, internalised misogyny is also a common explanation. Medical transition is seen as a mutilation, not actually changing sex, and is therefore not seen as a viable option. 

In short, gendercritical feminists believe the concept of gender to serve no useful role that isn’t already filled by biological sex.  The tucute perspective: Again, let’s clarify who I’m talking about here. Tucute generally means someone who believes gender dysphoria isn’t necessary to be trans. Tucutes rarely believe in the gender binary (two genders, man and woman), and are usually liberal feminists. In a surprising similarity to gendercritical feminists, tucutes also believe that gender roles are bullshit/that gender is a social construct. A lot of them also ideally want gender to be abolished. However, they deal with this entirely differently.  If gender is a bullshit social construct, it can really be anything you want it to. It can be an entirely subjective thing, different for everyone. For some people gender is how you relate to the world, or how you relate to yourself. It can be how you like to dress, it can be the first word that comes to mind when you look in the mirror, or it can be absolute nonsense. Turning gender into something so vague it’s impossible to grasp is one step closer to abolishing it altogether, so tucutes are happy to “make up” an infinite amount of genders. To some of them it may be an important form of self expression, to others it’s a protest. Calling yourself genderfucked/gendervoid/genderless is almost like a fuck you to anyone who’s tried to impose gender roles on you, and that’s exactly what they want.  Transgender means someone is a different gender than the one they were assigned at birth, so if anyone can choose to be a different gender, anyone can be trans. Dysphoric trans people are (usually) acknowledged and supported by tucutes. The main tucute theory on what causes gender dysphoria is transphobia/cissexist ideas of how people of a certain gender should look. Medical transition is (usually) supported, but people are encouraged to accept that how you look has nothing to do with your gender. Non-dysphoric people should also be allowed to medically transition according to most tucutes. There are no concerns of it causing dysphoria, since cissexism is the alleged cause.  In short, tucutes believe gender is something everyone experiences differently. The only rule is that there are no rules.  The truscum/transmedicalist perspective: Transmedicalism is defined as the belief that gender dysphoria is a medical condition, and that it’s a necessary part of being trans. Truscum is a term referring to people who hold transmedicalist beliefs, it originated as a slur but has been reclaimed. Conservatives tend to be more drawn to transmedicalism than the other two options here, but transmedicalists are all over the political spectrum. Most truscum are trans.  Truscum believe that gender and sex are connected, and that both are biological. They believe gender is determined by the way your brain is structured. When truscum say “gender”, they really mean “brain sex”. Physical sex and brain sex are meant to match up, and truscum believe that gender dysphoria occurs when they don’t. This makes gender dysphoria a neurological condition. The connection between sex and gender is still very important to truscum whose sex and gender don’t match up (trans people). Since changing your sex characteristics (medically transitioning) isn’t readily available to everyone, changing the gender you are perceived as (socially transitioning) is the closest some people can get. Getting referred to with pronouns that match up with your gender (which in turn is connected to your desired sex) can help alleviate dysphoria, even if nothing about your physical sex changes. Because of this, a lot of truscum are against making everything gender-neutral/”abolishing gender”. Gender (sex) dysphoria would continue to exist, with no social crutch to lean on to make it any better.  Truscum are divided on the possibility of nonbinary brains/nonbinary dysphoria, and as a result are divided on whether or not to support nonbinary genders. Truscum support medical transition as the best (currently available) way to deal with gender dysphoria. They are against non dysphoric people medically transitioning, partially because it takes up medically necessary resources for non-medical purposes, and partially because they believe it will cause dysphoria.  In short, truscum believe gender is biologically determined and connected to sex. They believe you can’t choose your gender and as a result, that you can’t choose to be trans.  So we all fundamentally disagree. We’ve established that. But maybe, just maybe, if we can try to understand each other’s perspectives we can stop it with the suicide baiting and focus on more important things, like figuring out how to fucking co-exist? There’s ways to acknowledge the importance of biological sex without making trans people want to kill themselves. There’s ways to say “fuck you” to gender roles without taking medical care away from dysphoric trans people. There’s ways to allow for self expression without confusing it with social transition.  Empathy is great, please give it a shot.