One politician says 'transgender is not a mental disorder' while another says 'being cisgender is a privilege'

[QuietContraryMary]

It is quite confusing

www.independent.com.mt/articles/2019-02-01/local-news/Being-transgender-is-not-a-mental-disorder-MEP-Roberta-Metsola-6736202978

"Standing up for LGBTI+ rights, Member of the European Parliament for Malta and Gozo, PN MEP Roberta Metsola underlined that gender identity should not be classified a mental disorder. "

"The issue is expected to be debated in the European Parliament in the coming weeks."

Meanwhile

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6659503/Not-transgender-makes-privileged-says-Alexandria-Ocasio-Cortez.html

"Almost every single person this country can acknowledge some privilege of some type, you know? I’m a cisgender woman, You know, I will never know the trauma of feeling like I’m not born in the right body, and that that is a privilege that I have no matter how poor my family was when I was born"

I am not really clear how having to modify your body to match some mental 'identity' can be anything other than a mental disorder. It is not like homo/hetero/bisexuality, which doesn't require treatment of any kind.

unless of course it's only not a mental disorder because the gender fairy is real and you actually physically are a female soul in a male body because that's what I learned on my government-funded Mermaids gender training course, and if you don't agree the police can come and have words.

And another politician says that it is offensive to imply that those who suffer from gender dysphoria are "unfortunate".

You made a comment about people who are “unfortunate enough” to suffer from gender dysphoria. That has very negative connotations, just as it used to be said that people were “unfortunate enough” to be gay, to be a woman or to be black.

Last time I checked, being a woman, black or gay ( or even all three ) doesn’t require medical treatment to “fix” your body.

So being transgender is not a mental disorder, and people who have gender dysphoria are not unfortunate. In that case, why does Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez think she's 'privileged' in not being transgender?

How does this square with Mermaids claim that so many trans kids are suicidal ? Isn’t it unfortunate to be suicidal ?

"And another politician says that it is offensive to imply that those who suffer from gender dysphoria are "unfortunate"."

Yes, there's nothing 'unfortunate' about double mastectomy, castration & sterilization, except for literally any other context.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was tweeting about Mermaids and encouraging support and donations for it.

Seeing a woman talking down everyone who isn't trans and elevating trans people to an exalted position, is a disgrace. I'm expecting to be told we must worship them next.

We can all be more or less fortunate than others in many ways.

She's also a very clever, attractive, able bodied person.

They never say this sort of thing about people who've been born with disabilities do they?

She clearly doesn't understand feminism nor that women are oppressed by the gender roles and their bodies around the world. Where's the privilege for a baby girl born to parents who wanted a boy in parts of India for example?

And here we have it...

It's all about identity,

Not at all about wealth / class

The poor get poorer and the rich get richer. Handy set of ideals when you want to change the world for the few not the many.

Very true, Neuro.

"This is the trick of the non-binary/agender label when harnessed by men: it’s a way of denying one’s own privilege by neutralizing sex and gender. Reality is overridden by an identity which is activated by mere thought and utterance. That identity is then sanctified and protected. Those who do not comply are policed and shamed. Quite simply, men like Kappel know they’ll be exposed if they dispute the existence of male privilege so they’ve finally found a way around it: male privilege exists but it doesn’t apply to them because they’re different. Presto! A get out of male free card. It may be hard to believe people are falling for it but they are, including women who consider themselves to be feminists."

lavenderblume.wordpress.com/2015/12/23/how-men-are-using-gender-identity-to-deny-male-privilege/

Yes Kat, there's nothing Leftwing or Socialist about it.

I’m not cisgender because I reject gender and the negative effects its stereotypes have on both men and women.

Like all humans of either sex, I conform to some gender stereotypes associated with my sex but certainly not all. Perhaps I’m non-binary?

When Ocasio Cortez was growing up, her mum worked as a cleaner and bus driver. AOC has worked in a bar herself - a very different background to most US politicians. It’s a clever tactic to accuse people of ‘cis privilege’ as ‘nice’ people, as I think AOC comes across, will immediately say yes they are more privileged than eg Charlotte Clymer who went to West Point, as neuro & invisible say. Was sad when she did the Mermaids thing but suspect she does not know much about them. Have got impression from this board that the whole puberty blocking/hormone thing for children is less controversial in the US than here.

You made a comment about people who are “unfortunate enough” to suffer from gender dysphoria. That has very negative connotations,

How is gender dysphoria any different, in this context, from any other disorder of self-perception such as depression?

As a person who is "unfortunate enough" to suffer from depression, I think that that is a very appropriate expression.

You know you're really good at emotional manipulation when you can persuade a Hispanic woman from a poor family to apologize for being too privileged.

You show me a woman who has never had some difficulty in her life because of her body and female sex and I will show you an n of 1.

You know you're really good at emotional manipulation when you can persuade a Hispanic woman from a poor family to apologize for being too privileged.

Exactly. Just wow.

Last time I checked, being a woman,... doesn’t require medical treatment to “fix” your body.

Very true but this is actually becoming untrue with cosmetic surgery of all gruesome kinds being normalised.

The thing is, I can see that it must be excruciatingly difficult to grow up in very rigid gender stereotypes, or indeed be genuinely dysphoric.

But that doesn't mean that women should feel 'bad' or privileged as a result. They're still a victim of those sex and gender stereotypes.

I fully understand the check your privilege thing but every one's lives are individual and unique. How can female 'cis privilege' be checked against someone who decides they're trans when many women and girls are victims of csa?

It's a naive woke point vote scoring statement.

Unfortunately I may have thought/ done the same at her age/ B.M.N. (before mumsnet).

Male
Female
Whatever your sexuality is
End of debate.
The rest of this jargon is trying to normalise the abbormal rather than help them. What next? Normalise schizophrenia and other mental disorders and let the sufferers get on with doing whatever they want without intervention? As for politicians, self serving scum of the Earth looking for any opportunity to further their profile/career. Id rather take advice from a fortune cookie than take note of anything any of them have to say.

I'm expecting to be told we must worship them next.

Spot on, it's scary innit?

Very true but this is actually becoming untrue with cosmetic surgery of all gruesome kinds being normalised

I agree. Although the women who get cosmetic surgery are , as I understand it, trying to make themselves feel more acceptable as a woman.

They don’t think the surgery actually makes them a woman. They would still be a woman without it.

You know you're really good at emotional manipulation when you can persuade a Hispanic woman from a poor family to apologize for being too privileged.

Indeed Angry.

Women must apologise for being actual human beings taking up any space at all in this world and not thinking of everyone else before themselves.

She's a fucking entitled bitch and should check her privilege every time she has the audacity to open her over privileged mouth. /s

I fucking despair of this genderist bs, I really do.

How is gender dysphoria any different, in this context, from any other disorder of self-perception such as depression?

The usual answer to this is that it's not a disorder, any more than being gay is a disorder. I can't remember what the response is when you point out that being gay doesn't require medication and surgery.