Fiora Sunshine's post, Why I Transitioned: A Case Study (the OP) articulates a valuable theory for why some MtFs transition. If you are MtF and feel the post describes you, I believe you. However, many statements from the post are wrong or overly broad. My claims: 1. There is evidence...
This is an appendixpost for Why I Transitioned: A Response. In Why I Transitioned: A Case Study, Fiora Sunshine claims: > Famously, trans people tend not to have great introspective clarity into their own motivations for transition. Intuitively, they tend to be quite aware of what they do and don't...
I don't know if the point you're making in your last paragraph is...
I don't speak at all for the trans community, nor do/would they listen to me. But I think the current genetic evidence is actually reassuring for those who worry about "trans genocide". Because it looks difficult to achieve.
I do think it would be best if trans activism focuses on trying to preserve healthcare access.
I don't intend to express an opinion on whether there "should be" more or fewer trans people born into this world. I don't think it's possible to have a productive conversation about this in public right now. If at all possible, it would be good to lower the political temperature on the issue.
Preimplantation Genetic Testing can in theory catch specific catastrophic mutations. Whether you are cis or trans, it is not good to have a stop codon at the wrong place in your estrogen receptor gene, full stop (literally). Ditto for the androgen receptor.
After digging into the (speculative) science on this, my personal view is that is that there is still a large biological component in E for most trans people. And being trans looks like a complex polygenic trait. GWAS has struggled to fully explain heritability https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/missing-heritability-much-more-than
So I think even in a "maximal eradication" scenario, eradication looks difficult to achieve. I am much more worried about health insurance coverage in the present. A lot of trans people are poor and basically unable to afford surgery without insurance.
that's probably true in general. I just don't believe you can often rely on, like, school staff. Not enough context. Fwiw my middle school "health" / sex ed teacher said some stuff to me then than was very unhelpful. And she herself was queer! Not that she told us, but obvious 2000s lesbian, very short hair, piercings, etc.
I don't know, I mostly got pretty lucky with my parents. But there were a couple big things they handled badly when I tried to tell them about my depression. I've long since forgiven them. The fact remains that I was really depressed, and, honestly, needed some kind of medical intervention, better therapy if not... (read more)
thank you for appreciating it <3
hi Lucie, thank you for the comment :)
Basically full on gender binary
I think it is underappreciated how much of the trans* trauma and conflict is downstream of the gender binary.
I am hesitant to say this because it sounds woke. But if you think about it, if something has gone "wrong" within a trans person's brain, what are the odds that it just totally flipped them to being the other gender? It doesn't work like that.
We were seen as shameful, deviant, taboo, perverted, and so, early trans care focused on assimilation. Passing as "assumed cis", not "correct pronouns", so we would not be a cognitive burden to mainstream society, and not cause fear.
Transmedicalism internalized this, which led to trans people over-identifying with the binary. But actually there is no rational reason why transmedicalism and being nonbinary must be in conflict.
I lol'd! Yes, totally checks out. Aliens, if you are reading this, PLEASE kidnap me!!
hey thanks for the comment :)
I feel like I don't have a great read on where the actual level of introspective clarity is for trans people. All my trans friends are introspective, I don't really know if I'm really capable of being friends with someone who isn't. I can't imagine not being curious about why I'm like this. So I was really surprised to read in Fiora's post "none of my friends have ever really put forth a parsimonious theory of what their actual motivations may have been".
Most of my impressions of not-my-friend trans people comes from social media and support groups I went to early in transition and just observing these... (read more)
It's easy to fit a theory to existing data. That doesn't mean the theory is true or useful.
I mean, I transitioned MtF at 31 and I'm posting on LessWrong. I'm not beating the allegations. lol. I called myself an AGP in my [substack linkpost](https://quinoam.substack.com/p/why-i-transitioned-a-response) because it's funny. I have no problem doing so.
Also, I can honestly say that I transitioned because my health was falling apart, I had a lot of repressed psychological desires to act and be more feminine, a lot of dysphoria over my body, and most important, taking estradiol dramatically improved my happiness and cognitive function.
The person I was at the start of transition-- he was more sexually gratified... (read more)
Can you give me an example of a testable prediction that isn't something we already know? Or an example from the past where ETLE made a falsifiable prediction that was either proved or disproved by empirical research?
Fiora Sunshine's post, Why I Transitioned: A Case Study (the OP) articulates a valuable theory for why some MtFs transition.
If you are MtF and feel the post describes you, I believe you.
However, many statements from the post are wrong or overly broad.
This is an appendixpost for Why I Transitioned: A Response.
In Why I Transitioned: A Case Study, Fiora Sunshine claims:
... (read 2015 more words →)Famously, trans people tend not to have great introspective clarity into their own motivations for transition. Intuitively, they tend to be quite aware of what they do and don't like about inhabiting their chosen bodies and gender roles. But when it comes to explaining the origins and intensity of those preferences, they almost universally to come up short. I've even seen several smart, thoughtful trans people, such as Natalie Wynn, making statements to the effect that it's impossible to develop a satisfying theory of aberrant gender identities. (She may have been exaggerating for effect,
hi Laureana, thanks for the comment :)
I'm not sure how the piece reads because I tried to pare down most of my subjectivity and stick to objective description.
I didn't intend to give the impression that I feel bad about being trans. I don't anymore. I took a couple months to write it to try to make sure it wasn't coming from a place of defensiveness.
I disagree with this. Science is good. For me, knowing is freedom.