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[personal profile] starfrosting
It may be caused by the bathing of a fetus by opposite birth sex hormones while in utero, or perhaps by some spontaneous genetic mutation, which is also one of the theories of the origin of homosexuality. (from the pflag website)

I read that and said, Ugh. But then I thought, I'd like to hear from folks who are proponents of brain-sex theories of gender variance. I'd also like to hear from people who don't think transsexuality et al are caused by these direct biological factors. Also if anyone has any thought-provoking resources you should leave that as a comment too. It's probably pretty clear where I stand on it but I wanna hear other opinions regardless.

Date: 2005-06-27 05:46 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] starfrosting.livejournal.com
Yeah word. I actually would like to read some of that "shit-ton" of papers at some point. Maybe on the plane to Amsterdam, haha. I guess I just feel kinda dumb about it, because I have this immediate aversion to thinking of it as biologically-determined...since that seems to rest on foundationalist categories of man and woman, for one...but then I feel fucked up cos obviously these biologist explanations really fit for a lot of transexual people, and who am I to go on a gut "well that sounds kinda problematic" hunch? (I just woke up so I'm sorry if this is incomprehensible.) I think a main problem with what I understand of brain sex theories is that there's this implicit assumption that binary, sex-congruent gender is totally natural, and any 'deviation' from that is the result of some biological flaw.

Date: 2005-06-27 06:52 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] orpheuskiss.livejournal.com
as soon as i can get at all the research (it's all in MA) i'll lend them to you.

there are a lot of categories that go into determining sex, so although making "man" and "woman" into universal categories is helpful for statistics, most people doing research in the sex/gender area agree that it isn't so simple.

i hear you on the gut level reaction - part of my reason for liking the biological explanations are that they completely fit for me. aside from being a queer femme, i'm pretty much a textbook tranny - i was suicidal for my entire life until i started hormones and was almost totally stable after only a month or so on them, i lived as a butch lesbian before coming out, i had childhood GID etc. before i came out, i was sent to therapy to try and "fix" it. i know my gender identity changed the way i interacted with people and the way they interacted with me, but i don't think i'll ever be convinced that gender identity is purely socialization.

also - food for thought - geniuses are statistically rare and could be thought of as a biological flaw (not to liken trans folks and geniuses or anything *heh heh*).

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