Can someone please explain... (trans)

[WednesdayAllTheWay]

So I've been trying to follow this trans situation for a while but now having skin in the game in the form of a child (and also noting through work how more and more people are identifying as the opposite gender) I need to understand it better.
Feel slightly embarrassed asking but:

1. How exactly do the words sex and gender differ in this area?
2. What reasons do trans people give for wanting to change their physical bodies? As in what do people believe they will get from this that they couldn't get in the body they were born with?
3. What are children being taught at school about this?

Thanks!

@Ereshkigalangcleg "What you are saying is that you fundamentally don't think there is such a thing as biological sex, because that suits your position"

Scroll up - I have already said the opposite. Biological sex is real, but it's complicated.

If all female single sex spaces are rendered non-trans only (see how useful the c word is?)

It really isn't. Because I and many of the women on this board don't think that women are only a subset of our own sex. Woman means adult human female, and only if a person inhabits a body which developed from conception to produce large gametes (whether or not they ultimately can) can they meet that requirement.

Biological sex is real, but it's complicated.

You scroll up. I've already dealt with that response, as have others.

@allmywhat

"Okay. I don't have a female gender identity."

You do though - you are completely aware of it.

@Ereshkigalangcleg

If all female single sex spaces are rendered non-trans only (see how useful the c word is?)

It really isn't. Because I and many of the women on this board don't think that women are only a subset of our own sex. Woman means adult human female, and only if a person inhabits a body which developed from conception to produce large gametes (whether or not they ultimately can) can they meet that requirement.

We'll have to agree to differ.

We will. You can believe whatever fringe self-serving nonsense you want, of course.

Positrans - a human's sense of self / sense of identity / personality / mood is multifactorial and complicated, I agree.

Biological sex is not. XX = female and XY = male for the vast majority. Variations exist in people with DSDs but they are still male with a DSD or female with a DSD.

What do you find complicated about the XX/XY of biological sex?

Biological sex is real, but it's complicated.

Biology is very complicated, but humans are either male or female. There are only two sexes. It's not possible to be born in the wrong body, we all get the body we are in, like it or not.

That some people have disorders of sexual development or gender dysphoria doesn't mean that there's anything other than two sexes.

@midgebabe

You can believe what you like in your own head

You can't force other people to tolerate your belief outside of your own head

In a way I am already doing that by virtue of the fact that I pass. So if we met, you would assume I am female, and I have forced you to see me that way by virtue of the medical interventions I have had, and a little bit of luck on the genetic front.

@testing987654321

Biological sex is real, but it's complicated.

Biology is very complicated, but humans are either male or female. There are only two sexes. It's not possible to be born in the wrong body, we all get the body we are in, like it or not.

That some people have disorders of sexual development or gender dysphoria doesn't mean that there's anything other than two sexes.

Here's a beginner's guide:

You do though - you are completely aware of it

No. I don't. I don't believe in "gender identity."

I certainly believe that my life experiences growing up as a girl, from babyhood onwards, have obviously created my sense of self. I believe that going through female puberty and my experiences as a teenage girl have had a profound impact on my sense of self. I believe that my sexuality is intrinsic to my sense of self too, and obviously that's innately bound to the kind of sex organs I have.

None of that is anything to do with "gender identity" and I would have had the same kind of experiences (with the exception of some particular extremely positive experiences) no matter what "gender" I believed myself to be. None of it is anything that a transwoman has experienced. I'm female. That's a critical part of my identity, of course it is. And I have read what transwomen think being "female" is. It's nothing to do with me and I do not identify with it.

"Female gender identity" is pure bollocks.

Here's a better one. m.youtube.com/watch?v=XN2-YEgUMg0

So you are setting out to deliberately mislead me? That sounds a bit off to me.

Here's a beginner's guide:

What makes you think I'm a beginner in biology?

I can argue with the best of them about how complicated it is to find a specific test that will tell you the sex of a specific person, because dna and the processes around them are extremely complex. That doesn't detract from knowing that we are a species with male and female.

What are your qualifications in biology by the way?

In other words, my "identity" is embodied. It's rooted in my experience of navigating the world as a female personand it's grounded in my female body. It's got nothing in common with any dissociated, fantasised "female gender identity" which apparently exists independently of the actual body.

Quite, allmywhat.

So, the video title is 'there are more than two human sexes'

Does it name what these additional sexes are? I got as far as the DSDs bit (still male or female, though!)

Males are socialised to believe they are superior, the default, lots of men think women are a bit daft, hence they are patronising to women. No, I haven't been patronised by women anywhere near as much as I have by men. All the bosses I've worked for bar one have been male, which has something to do with it. Blue brains don't. It's a sense of entitlement. I deal with it on a daily basis @Positrans

No, I haven't been patronised by women anywhere near as much as I have by men.

Me neither. When a woman does it, it stands out. With men it is constant.

In a way I am already doing that by virtue of the fact that I pass. So if we met, you would assume I am female, and I have forced you to see me that way by virtue of the medical interventions I have had, and a little bit of luck on the genetic front.

so on what basis would you expect a doctor to determine any medication you needed for a heart problem, say? Do they use the recommended doses for males or females (bearing in mind that if you received the inappropriate dose for your sex (regardless of weight/size), it could kill you? Please tell me at least in that you prioritise biological fact over a belief system?

I prefer the video that Ereshkigalangcleg posted!

In a way I am already doing that by virtue of the fact that I pass. So if we met, you would assume I am female, and I have forced you to see me that way by virtue of the medical interventions I have had, and a little bit of luck on the genetic front

You assume that you pass. It may be that the people who interact with you are showing you the courtesy of pretending along with you.

Interesting that you say you have forced your audience to see you how you want to be seen.

""I agree - my reality is that of an adult human female who happens to be trans.""

My apologies Positrans I didn't realise that you were a transman. So I realise you were a tomboy but what made you think that made you a transboy.

@HecatesCatsInXmasHats

"Males are socialised to believe they are superior, the default, lots of men think women are a bit daft, hence they are patronising to women."

True. Trans girls on the other hand are socialised to believe they are mentally ill, perverted deviants who shouldn't be allowed near other girls, should be prevented from transitioning, and that if you have sex with someone without telling them you're trans, then a severe beating or murder is justified. Trans girls generally grow up humiliated, crushed and terrified. Not sure your argument is a very good one.

You do though - you are completely aware of it.

I love the smell of mansplaining in the morning.