borrofburi
New Member
The people who are vaguely in my social circles and are willing to speak about the issue of gender dysphoria seem to categorically agree on the broad outlines of how it should be handled:
I remain skeptical. I think I have two primary objections and a tertiary objection (more of a rhetorical annoyance).
Primary Objection #1: I'm not convinced that gender dysphoria should be treated on the physical side instead of the mental side. There are a number of body dysphoria disorders and (to my knowledge) we treat all other such disorders by focusing on the mental side of things. If someone has a body dysphoria disorder where their muscles are never big enough for them, then we help them realize that what they see in the mirror is distorted; we don't encourage them to work out more (usually need to cut back), we definitely don't prescribe them steroids, and we certainly don't give them oil to inject so they can make their muscles look extra big. Similarly we don't solve the body dysphoria that causes eating disorders with surgery.
Primary Objection #2: I'm not convinced that gender reassignment surgery works (i.e.,that those who receive have significant benefits commensurate to its costs). I've looked and found nothing close to conclusive; however, I'll admit I'm neither an expert nor sufficiently engaged with the topic that I am perfectly up to date on all such research. Which is to say it's certainly possible I missed some definitive metanalysis.
Tertiary Objection #3: I'm not convinced of this rhetoric that transgendered individuals are categorically horrifically suffering: basically anything mental exists on a spectrum and in the absence of evidence to the contrary we should expect that gender dysphoria lies on a spectrum as well. This means you have individuals at all spots on the scale from extreme comfort to slight comfort to slight discomfort to extreme discomfort.
- Encourage them to live as their chosen gender
- Convince society to treat them as their chosen gender (e.g., bathroom laws, pronoun usage, etc.)
- To the extent that they are comfortable and it is possible, get them surgeries to change their body's sex characteristics
I remain skeptical. I think I have two primary objections and a tertiary objection (more of a rhetorical annoyance).
Primary Objection #1: I'm not convinced that gender dysphoria should be treated on the physical side instead of the mental side. There are a number of body dysphoria disorders and (to my knowledge) we treat all other such disorders by focusing on the mental side of things. If someone has a body dysphoria disorder where their muscles are never big enough for them, then we help them realize that what they see in the mirror is distorted; we don't encourage them to work out more (usually need to cut back), we definitely don't prescribe them steroids, and we certainly don't give them oil to inject so they can make their muscles look extra big. Similarly we don't solve the body dysphoria that causes eating disorders with surgery.
Primary Objection #2: I'm not convinced that gender reassignment surgery works (i.e.,that those who receive have significant benefits commensurate to its costs). I've looked and found nothing close to conclusive; however, I'll admit I'm neither an expert nor sufficiently engaged with the topic that I am perfectly up to date on all such research. Which is to say it's certainly possible I missed some definitive metanalysis.
Tertiary Objection #3: I'm not convinced of this rhetoric that transgendered individuals are categorically horrifically suffering: basically anything mental exists on a spectrum and in the absence of evidence to the contrary we should expect that gender dysphoria lies on a spectrum as well. This means you have individuals at all spots on the scale from extreme comfort to slight comfort to slight discomfort to extreme discomfort.