Like, so genders are social construct and different from biological “sex”, but identifying as a different “gender” requires surgery to change your “sex”? Is “gender” just personality? I’m so confused

Edit: also, the idea trans-affirming surgery and hormones is also absolutely horrifying to me for some reason; just, ouch

  • Camarada ForteM
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    121 year ago

    But isn’t trans then much more a reaffirmation of whatever dominant historical gender-expression/-definition?

    If they were really a reaffirmation of traditional gender expression, then why would they be so attacked by the most conservative and reactionary sectors of bourgeois society?

    Trans people will exist irrespective of what we argue here. It’s not a reaffirmation, but it’s certainly a reflection of the historical gender expression. Trans people are in fact a subversion of the dominant historical gender-expression by making it more apparent that gender is not a biological thing. What is perceived as feminine is much of a fiction as being trans, because what makes a child have interest for pink colors, a baby doll, a kitchen set and make up at childhood is much more related to bourgeois ideology and production than an inherent biological predisposition. The dominant bourgeois historical understanding of gender was that women were those who were born with a uterus, and man with a penis. But neither biology is that simple, much less social life. Trans people through their mere existence frees gender from its arbitrary (pseudo)biological prison.

    This doesn’t prevent gender from being reproduced historically through the family institution. Because of the traditional family, people born with an uterus are raised as women precisely because of their genitalia. This is how womanhood reproduces itself. They will be given baby dolls to take care of, they will be given a kitchen set to role-play with, they will be closer to their mothers doing housework with them. This is the traditional gender norms, which still survives in the family. The struggles of trans people have pushed society to re-evaluate traditional gender norms and what is expected of people based on their gender. This newer generation will be more and more open to share housework, to share work raising children, because that will be no longer something expected solely of a particular gender of people.