It seems to me that there has been a growing questioning of what gender roles we expect from the different sexes. This is particularly true of the younger generation. This is a move that I strongly welcome and support. However, there is a strong movement to replace this questioning with one unquestionable ideological narrative, which I will call trans-ideology.
Although the majority of people who transition are female who identify as ‘men’, most of the comments below relate to males who identify as ‘women’. This is because, unsurprisingly in our current society, it is male needs that are prioritised as well as the fact that men pose a much greater threat to women through violence and sexual assault than the other way round.
Class Definition
As long as a group of people who share some well defined characteristic can show that they face disadvantage due to the characteristic then those claims are valid. This could be status, colour, religion, sex or their relationship to the means of production.
Before we can even start to discuss discrimination, prejudice or relative positions of power we need to define what class of people this affects.
If biological women are not allowed to define themselves as ‘a class’ then they cannot even begin to fight against the discrimination they suffer as a result of their sex rather than their gender.
While there is an argument that people are discriminated against due to their gender, this should not be used to silence those who argue that they are discriminated against due to their sex. Although this can be argued, I will argue below that the case for this is not strong.
The Mind Body Split
This is a big topic and I may go into this in a later post. However, my basic premise is that the mind body split is totally artificial and that what we call consciousness or mind is merely an emergent property of the body.
One of the reasons for the split is the religious idea that the spirit outlives the body. Therefore it is necessary to have a separate entity that can outlive the body. This idea still pervades the way we think and even ‘scientific’ ideas that our mind can be downloaded onto a computer.
The basic premise of this trans-ideology is that people can be born into the wrong body. Although some groups have backtracked on this exact phrase, the basis of ideology remains the same: only an individual can know what their gender (or even sex) they are. That merely by identifying as that gender, you become that gender.
The question then arises in what this inner knowing is. I am reasonably sure that I am a heterosexual male although I have not had any tests to see if I have XX or XY chromosome. I know what gender roles are expected of me by society because of this, I know what my body is like, however, apart from that I have no inner sense of being one sex or the other.
Despite all the observable facts some claim that a woman is anyone who identifies as a woman, and womanhood is nothing but an attitude1.
Enforcing Gender Norms
One of the effects of the trans-ideology is to enforce gender norms. If you are male and show too many feminine traits or if you are female and show too many male traits, then you should change gender. This restricts any wider debate about the rigid gender norms that we have in society.
I would also question whether it is correct to say that a male can display his feminine side, for example being ‘over’ emotional (e.g. crying) or showing a nurturing instinct. Males are punished, in terms of promotion and income, for showing more agreeable behaviour2. They also suffer from detrimental health effects3. I do not have time to go into the details of these problems and they have been described elsewhere4.
When it is said that somebody identifies as a man or lives as a man, what does this mean? What are the defining characteristics of a man – tough, stoic, self-reliant? Striving to obtain the image of being a real man is often the cause of many of these problems.
One of the problems with the trans-ideology is that it considers sex/gender as a spectrum, rather than seeing sex as binary and accepting the variations within the sexes.
It is well established that males are taller than females on average. However, there is a wide and overlapping range of heights between the sexes.
While it would be considered ridiculous to say that if a male was below a certain height they were actually female, this is exactly what is done with other traits.
If a male is more emotional, more nurturing, less aggressive than average, then these should be seen as part of the variation within the male sex, not as indicating that the male is somehow partly female.
It is questionable if short skirts, high heals and large latex breasts are the essence of what it means to be a woman.
Gender Non Conforming and Discrimination
Gender role models are built and enforced by strong social pressure to conform. This effects everyone, with those who do not conform to gender stereotypes suffering from bullying, discrimination and other adverse effect5.
However, the trans-ideologists ignore the root cause of this problem and concentrate on the small subgroup that ‘identify’ as trans. Whether ‘trans’ people are discriminated against because they ‘trans’ or purely by the fact that they are not gender conforming has not been disaggregated as far as I am aware.
As I have mentioned above, trans-ideologists often push strong gender stereotypes although not related to the person’s biological sex.
Effect On Gays And Lesbians
Latest figures from the Tavistock Centre show that among those referred to the clinic who were born male, 60 per cent were attracted to men or bisexual, while 70 per cent born female were same-sex attracted or bisexual6.
Rather than support the fact that these people they are same sex attracted, they are told that they are really the opposite sex.
The Tavistock Centre is now due to close after the damning Cass Report7.
The Only One Solution
Because of our very narrow view of gender, many people find it difficult to fit in. The trans-ideology comes along and gives ‘the solution’ – you were born into the wrong body.
However, there are many other factors that affect the reason why people seek support with their gender identity.
As notes above, over 60% of men attending the Tavistock Centre about transitioning are either same sex attracted or bisexual. However, there are many other cofactors8:
- 2% of children in the UK are thought to have autism spectrum disorder, however 35% of referrals to the Tavistock centre “present with moderate to severe autistic traits”.
- 25% had spent time in care, compared with 0.67% of the general population
- 42% had lost a parent through death or separation
- 70 per cent had more than five “associated features” such as anxiety, depression, abuse, self-harm, bullying, eating disorders or suicide attempts
- they were ten times more likely than the national average to have a registered sex offender as a parent
- Only 2.5 per cent of the children seen at the clinic had no associated problems
Bad Actors
Although I would strongly argue that we should really question gender stereotypes, we must must take precautions against bad actors. These could be men who enter female sports competitions since they stand a much better chance of winning. It could also include men who want to gain access to women’s and young girls safe spaces, which occurs despite the claims of trans-ideologists that this never happens9.
If we are going to get away from rigid gender stereotypes we need to make sure that adequate safeguards are in place.
Tackling Gender Problems
As I have discussed in a previous post it is important to question gender stereotypes. However, for the trans-ideologists, anyone who does not conform to their ultra-conservative and rigid stereotype of what a man or a woman should be, is born into the wrong body. This is stifling and is problematic to the move towards removing the rigid gender stereotypes we have in our society.
1 Dep leaders candidates answer what is a woman; Emma Bateman; 19 Jul 2020 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKaQRTdcds0)
2 Do nice guys—and gals—really finish last? The joint effects of sex and agreeableness on income. Judge, T. A., Livingston, B. A., & Hurst, C. (2012). Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 102(2), 390–407.(http://ww.timothy-judge.com/documents/Doniceguysandgalsreallyfinishlast.pdf)
3 How Does Masculinity Impact on Health? A Quantitative Study of Masculinity and Health Behavior in a Sample of UK Men and Women. Psychology of Men and MasculinitySloan, C, Conner, M and Gough, B (2015) , 16 (2). pp. 206-217. ISSN 1524-9220 (https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/93806/2/pub%202015_15.pdf)
4 Demystifying Men’s Emotional Behavior: New Directions and Implications for Counseling and Research. Y Joel Wong, Aaron B. Rochlen; Psychology of Men & Masculinity 6(1):62-72 January 2005 (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/232585243_Demystifying_Men%27s_Emotional_Behavior_New_Directions_and_Implications_for_Counseling_and_Research)
5 Who Engages in Gender Bullying? The Role of Homophobic Name-Calling, Gender Pressure, and Gender Conformity; Ioverno, S., DeLay, D., Martin, C. L., & Hanish, L. D. . Educational Researcher, 50(4), 215–224. 2021 (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.3102/0013189X20968067)
6 Tavistock clinic ‘putting young gay people at risk by treating them as trans’, The Telegraph, September 2022 (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/09/12/nhs-clinic-transing-gay-away/)
7 The Cass Review (https://cass.independent-review.uk/)
8 Time to Think: The Inside Story of the Collapse of the Tavistock’s Gender Service for Children, Hannah Barnes, Swift Press (https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/time-to-think-the-inside-story-of-the-collapse-of-the-tavistock-s-gender-service-for-children-hannah-barnes/7313400?ean=9781800751118)
9 This Never Happens, Graham Linehan, May 2022 (https://grahamlinehan.substack.com/p/this-never-happens)
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