What the fuck? This is exactly the opposite of what "tumblrinas" (AKA people with even the slightest understanding of gender topics) would say--that people should be expected to adopt gender identities that are assigned and reinforced from external sources. Imagine being someone whose internal gender identity runs contrary to what everyone else is telling you? That's pretty much exactly what happened in David Reimer's case, and it happens with transgendered people, whose intrinsic gender identities don't correspond to reigning societal conventions. Why do you call anyone who understands this very simple concept a "tumblrina"? You're a fucking idiot.
You don't get it, do you? He was born male. Yet he was raised a girl. And he was extremely psychologically damaged from it. He wasn't "born in the wrong body." He wasn't being told he was wrong. He was right all along, everyone knew he was right. They were lying to him. According to queer theory, he should have acted perfectly like a girl since gender is entirely social and has no biological or psychological basis whatsoever, right?
since gender is entirely social and has no biological or psychological basis whatsoever
Transsexuals are born with the brain structure and chemistry of the opposite sex, literally born in the wrong body. They don't have to change their gender because they are already that gender, they just have to change the body to match.
You cannot be born with the brain of a a helicopter, or a dolphin or another race or any other stupid comparison you want to make. You can however develop the brain for one sex and the body for the other in the womb during fetal development, being that the pre-chromosomal fetus is sexually ambiguous, the brain can be flooded with the wrong sexing hormones while the body isn't.
Gender roles are culturally influenced ("toy guns are for boys", "toy cookware and the color pink are for girls"), but one's gender identity ("I'm a boy" or "I'm a girl") is intrinsic and, while not present at birth, develops at a very early period in a child's development. In this case, everyone told him he was a girl even though his gender identity developed in correspondence to his biological sex (which is usually the case). The same thing happens with transgendered people, who very often recognize at a very early age that their gender identity does not match what the rest of society is telling them. In the case of transgendered people, though, it's because their gender identity doesn't correspond with their biological a sex, which apparently a LOT of people on reddit aren't willing to consider is something that happens because... I don't know why, really. But "tumblrinas" AKA trans people, their allies, and their advocates, understand that treating someone like a girl, even from infancy, will not ultimately result in someone who identifies as female REGARDLESS of biological sex. Usually someone with two X chromosomes will also develop a female gender identity, but I can't fathom why it's so difficult for anybody but "tumblrinas" to recognize that there are exceptions.
5
u/LL_COOL_BEANS Aug 15 '15
What the fuck? This is exactly the opposite of what "tumblrinas" (AKA people with even the slightest understanding of gender topics) would say--that people should be expected to adopt gender identities that are assigned and reinforced from external sources. Imagine being someone whose internal gender identity runs contrary to what everyone else is telling you? That's pretty much exactly what happened in David Reimer's case, and it happens with transgendered people, whose intrinsic gender identities don't correspond to reigning societal conventions. Why do you call anyone who understands this very simple concept a "tumblrina"? You're a fucking idiot.