Posted: Jan 08, 2011 11:22 pm
Scot Dutchy wrote:This is from the Gires (Gender Identity Research and Education Society)Gender variance is an atypical development in the relationship between the gender identity and the visible sex of an individual. In order to understand this atypical development, it is necessary, firstly, to understand something of the typical development of these elements of our make-up. Many in the scientific and medical professions recognise the terms ‘gender’ and ‘sex’ as having distinct meanings. ‘Gender identity’ describes the psychological recognition of oneself, as well as the wish to be regarded by others, as fitting into the social categories: boy/man or girl/woman.
Thanks Scot. This is a good summary of the generally accepted view on the subject, and maybe a good way to narrow things down a bit.
I'm going to say straight out that I simply don't HAVE a psychological recognition of myself as fitting into the social categories man or woman, nor any wish to be so regarded by others. This unashamedly personal and subjective statement leads me to a number of possible hypotheses:
1. Most people do have such a recognition, but there is the occasional oddball like me who doesn't. There's something like this present in most peoples' brains that I just don't have, or that is under-active in mine.
2. People whose gender-characteristics naturally correspond to the extremes of male and female have such a recognition. Those in the middle tend not to - of these, some manage to talk themselves into believing one gender or the other better than others do.
3. Nobody actually has such a recognition. The "wish to be so regarded" is no different from the wish of a professional actor to be regarded as the role he is playing - it doesn't mean he actually believes he IS that role.
4. Normal-gendered or "cisgender" people don't generally have such a recognition. The recognition only emerges as a result of the specific brain development of transsexual people - ie the recognition only exists as an expression of conflict between mind and body in a transsexual person.
I suppose at the beginning of this thread I was thinking it was (3). But now I suspect it's just (1).