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flexibeastSomeone on the Trans-Academics Google group has just posted about an NPR show this week which included the following:
The problem with the argument is that skin colour is overwhelmingly genetically based, such that it's highly unlikely to be significantly modified during the course of development in the womb, or at any time after birth (without surgery). However, the way our brain, nervous system and endocrine system develops is another matter. Is it so difficult to consider the possibility that those of us who are trans have gone through a developmental process which has left some aspects of our body 'sexed' differently to other aspects? (In my own particular case, my physical health has improved since i've been taking estrogen, leading me to speculate as to whether my system effectively previously suffered from an estrogen deficiency.)
But guess what? This Ken Zucker - along with J. Michael Bailey, who believes his 'studies' demonstrate that bisexuality doesn't exist in men, only in women1 - is on the board to revise the DSM.
:-/
1. Not that any heterosexual male fantasies are involved in this theory. :-P
[Dr. Ken] Zucker says the homosexuality metaphor [for transgenderism] is wrong. He proposes another metaphor: racial identity disorder.i've heard this argument before, most memorably from a 'pro-feminist' male trying to discredit my trans identity, and in particular the notion that i'm a woman.
"Suppose you were a clinician and a 4-year-old black kid came into your office and said he wanted to be white. Would you go with that? ... I don't think we would," Zucker says.
If a black kid walked into a therapist's office saying he was really white, the goal of pretty much any therapist out there would be to make him try to feel more comfortable being black. They would assume his mistaken beliefs were the product of a dysfunctional environment -- a dysfunctional family or a dysfunctional cultural environment that led him or her to engage in this wrongheaded and dangerous fantasy.
The problem with the argument is that skin colour is overwhelmingly genetically based, such that it's highly unlikely to be significantly modified during the course of development in the womb, or at any time after birth (without surgery). However, the way our brain, nervous system and endocrine system develops is another matter. Is it so difficult to consider the possibility that those of us who are trans have gone through a developmental process which has left some aspects of our body 'sexed' differently to other aspects? (In my own particular case, my physical health has improved since i've been taking estrogen, leading me to speculate as to whether my system effectively previously suffered from an estrogen deficiency.)
But guess what? This Ken Zucker - along with J. Michael Bailey, who believes his 'studies' demonstrate that bisexuality doesn't exist in men, only in women1 - is on the board to revise the DSM.
:-/
1. Not that any heterosexual male fantasies are involved in this theory. :-P
no subject
Date: 2008-05-09 15:11 (UTC)Clearly not. That would be unscientific, and we can't have that... ;-)