Transgenderism and Truth

Stephen Kershnar

Transgenderism and Truth

Dunkirk Fredonia Observer

February 15, 2021

 

            There has been an explosion in the number of teenage females who claim that they are boys or men.

Gender dysphoria is the severe distress felt by people whose gender differs from their sex or sex-related physical characteristics. The Wall Street Journal’s Abigail Shrier points out that in the past, gender dysphoria typically began in early childhood (ages two to four), affected a small percent of the population (0.01%), was found almost exclusively in boys, and usually disappeared (70% of the time).

Shrier observes that for the first time in medical history natal girls (those born female) are the majority of those claiming to be transgender. A transgender person claims that his gender differs from his sex. Clinicians from several countries report that those presenting with gender dysphoria have dramatically changed from preschool-aged boys to adolescent girls. In one year, 2016-2017, Shrier notes, the number of gender surgeries for natal females in the U.S. increased fourfold. They now have 70% of all gender surgeries.

Brown University’s Lisa Littman argues that transgenderism spread like a contagion and involves a maladaptive response to stress and strong emotions. She points to the following sort of features of those adolescents who identify as transgender. 80% are natal females. Their average age is 16. The vast majority did not have indicators of childhood gender dysphoria. Over half had a psychiatric diagnosis. Roughly half were engaging in self-harm (for example, cutting themselves). 41% said they were not heterosexual before identifying as transgender.

The public schools have signed onto this. According to Shrier, many public schools, including those in California, New Jersey, and New York, have a policy of not informing parents when a student comes out at school. Some school administrators and staff conceal a student’s gender change from the parents even while changing the student’s name and pronoun on school forms.

The metaphysical issue, though, is whether transgender claims are true. For example, is a transgender man a man or does he merely present as one? The University of Sussex’s Kathleen Stock and other gender-critical philosophers discuss the very controversial idea that female is a biological category. On this account, someone who is a female has some or all of a cluster of internally caused features, including fallopian tubes, ovaries, vagina, womb, and XX chromosomes. On this account, an individual without any of these features is not female, even though no one feature is necessary to be female. For example, an individual with Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome is genetically male (XY chromosomes) but resistant to male hormones (androgens) and so lacks male genitalia and other similar features. As a result, she does not have enough of the physical traits to be male. If this account is correct, trans women are not female.

An interesting issue is whether trans women are women. The issue arises because ‘woman’ might refer to gender rather than sex. On this account, ‘sex’ refers to biological features found in human and animals such as genes, physiology, or reproductive function. In contrast, ‘gender’ refers to socially constructed roles. It is concerned with attitudes and behaviors, such as how one self-identifies and how others view someone. There is thus an issue as to whether some men are female, and some women are male.  

There are conceptual difficulties with the notion that women should be identified by their gender rather sex. Consider the notion that a person is a woman if that person identifies as a woman. What is it that she identifies with that makes her a woman?

A person is not one gender merely because she sees herself as being that gender. This would be circular. By analogy, a person is not Jewish merely because she sees herself as Jewish. We still need to know what makes someone Jewish and thus forms the content of her identification.

First, consider biological sex. The idea is that an individual is a woman if she sees herself as a biological female. If this were what makes someone a woman, then a trans woman would be mistaken. She is not a biological female and identifying as one does not change the biological fact.   

Second, consider gender. The idea is that identifying with social stereotypes makes someone a woman. A problem here is that the stereotypes are not very clear. Do they involve passivity and being penetrated? Alternatively, do they involve activities such as cleaning, cooking, dating cute guys, playing with dolls, wearing dresses, and so on? The problem here is that some women do not identify with many of these stereotypes. Consider, for example, a lesbian who is masculine in appearance and manner (in a very-rude-and-outdated term referred to as a “bull dyke”). In addition, these stereotypes are outdated and often insulting. For example, lesbians who wear pants and do not want to date cute guys are women.

Another problem is that trans women do more than identify with a stereotype. For example, what makes natal-girl teenagers want to transition to boys or men is not that they do not like to be penetrated, clean, cook, date cute boys, etc. Instead, they see themselves as men in a deeper sense. The problem is in identifying what that deeper sense is. Cut off from a connection to a biological category, it is unclear what holds the stereotypes together or why they are so important to motivate someone to change his body in significant ways. Some trans men take hormones or have surgeries such as top surgery (breast removal), hysterectomy (removal of ovaries and uterus), phalloplasty (surgical construction of a penis), or metoidioplasty (surgery and hormones that make a clitoris work more like a penis).

None of this tells us whether we should allow trans men and women to choose their own name and pronoun, use what bathroom they want, have surgery, and so on. We should, at least for adults. A separate issue, though, is whether trans people’s claims are true.