Sometimes an Observation is Just An Observation

A few random thoughts thrown together to appear thoughtful

While I’ve been trying to research the institutional capture of medical associations, I’ve been also trying to develop a few thoughts into two pieces. I have realized that sometimes observations are just observation. Neither is noteworthy enough alone but I’ll share them here in light of some recent online conversations.

Because of the unexpected response the first time, I have returned to Facebook to reiterate that sex in humans is binary and immutable. The last time was in response to the viral event at the Los Angeles Wi Spa. Several women complained about the exposed penis of a trans identified male in the the women’s spa, which also hosted young girls. I shared an image of a tweet saying we have to pick between “rape culture is evil” and “it’s just another body part why are you so uptight?”

Hearing the claim of a person being trans turns some people into alien visitors. They forget everything they’ve ever known about humans, especially male humans. In this age of the dick pic and proliferation of men showing women and children their genitals all the next Anthony Weiner need say is, “I’m trans actually” to not only escape prosecution but receive defense from women for the exposure. I was told repeatedly that men would never claim to be trans just to victimize women and children. Men have risked their lives for consensual sex. Is saying “I’m trans” really a barrier to doing something for which they would typically be prosecuted? I’d call that a very clear invitation.

I was asked repeatedly why I was concerned with the trans issue, even after explaining my interest in detail. The intimation was that not being trans I should have no say. Trans activists and allies don’t seem to realize the goals of their activism. Unlike The Civil Rights Movement or the gay rights movement, trans activists are not asking for something that everyone else has, they are asking for something unique from everyone else. They are asking that everyone accept a new definition of woman that includes males and that opens women’s spaces to them. They are asking that we render the binary reality of reproductive sex optional or mutable. They are asking that we re-define reality to suit the disordered feelings of people who can’t accept their sex; that we see them exactly as they wish to be seen. As such, we have the right to say no.

We all have a say in the way our society is shaped and who is disadvantaged. In this case my concern is not for me but for women and children. There are obvious reasons why there are few, if any, arguments over transmen in men’s bathrooms, changing rooms, or sports. It’s for the same reason transmen are almost completely absent as a subject from trans activism. I can’t exactly imagine the experience of adolescents and teens confused by social media narratives, but I can’t help but wonder how I might have been impacted.

I’m not sure that I have ever shared this. As a child my older brother and mother repeatedly told me that I would turn into a girl at puberty because I didn’t play sports. I knew that this was absurd, and would point to various cousins to explain why it was absurd. They would always counter with shifting inconsistent reasons it was true. Still, this ‘what if’ remained in the back of my mind. With the current grooming nature of social media it’s extremely easy to see that thought at the back of my mind becoming a central exploration of my identity. It’s easy to imagine the power of suggestion negatively affecting my relationship with my pudgy pre-pubescent body. This is playing out daily with an exponentially growing number of adolescents. There is just as much a chance of their bodies changing sex as there was for mine. The difference is the large investments made in the last two decades to plant the idea that sex is mutable.

What stopped me from further developing this thought, aside from disinterest in being the story, was seeming confirmation of a suspicion. I can’t escape the suspicion that trans activism is essentially using the damaged bodies of mostly girls to validate the paraphilias of mostly white men. It’s difficult to get at the evidence to support this beyond the anecdotal. Still, The Gender Mapping Project made an observation that added some weight to my suspicion while defanging my fears for pudgy pre-pubescent me living with social media. Comparing the 2017 results of the GLSEN survey of trans youth and the 2019 survey results they noted that the percentage of trans youth who are black remained just over 2%. This offers some explanation of the growth in propaganda around black trans lives since 2020. Their next survey will offer some evidence of how effective the propaganda has been.

It’s clear that neither of these observations is worth fully exploring. No need for a preposterous, “there but for the grace of god” conclusion. While I can’t substantiate my suspicion, in light of the Wi Spa incident, it is worth noting that the discourse continues to move beyond “they need a place to pee” to “just don’t look at her girldick”. It was never about bathrooms, as male prisoners rape and assault women in women’s prisons and men walk naked in front of non-consenting women and children, it’s always been about raising the comfort of males above the rights of women. Only time will tell if the effort to grow the trans market by advertising directly to black children will help.