aliceSo I've been thinking a lot about what makes most cis people so annoying when it comes to trans people (and generally most gnc people). The thing is, they seem to view transition as "going to" rather than "coming from" ("was a boy, became a girl", for example, as opposed to "is a girl, has been assigned male at birth")
A lot of cis people seem to stop asking questions when instead of saying I'm trans I say that I have to take hormones because my body doesn't naturally produce them so my puberty was delayed, or when I say that I used to think I was a boy but then realized it wasn't for me, so why can't they just get that people transition sometimes?
Well part of it is that they can't understand what it's like to be another gender, but the concept of being something on the inside and later having it revealed through outside is so prevalent throughout fiction (think a lot of superheroes etc) that it can't be just that. Of course there's heavily gendered socialization and trans people and allies alike have a lot to unlearn from that, but at a more basic aspect, I think it revolves around the need to preserve normality.
[Next paragraph will contain transphobic rhetoric]
If we consider the "norm" to be a person with nothing added, a tattooed person would be abnormal, for example. (Although the 'norm' is largely made by privileged groups and serves to denigrate a lot of people trans and cis alike)
To a cis person, when I say I'm a trans girl, they hear "abnormal boy", I modified myself and became a girl. When I say I had a hormone problem or used to think I was a boy, on the other hand, they hear "abnormal girl" or " previously abnormal girl", I'm a girl and problems happened to me which I solved.
[Okay the transphobia is over]
I think this might come from a sort of fear of willful modification of the self. If we take most superheroes, their superpowers either happen to them or they're given them, they don't decide to become heroes and then pursue superpowers (although interestingly those characters are portrayed in media, but mostly as villains or morally ambiguous characters)
If I decide to take hormones and change my presentation, I'm going against the norm. If I had an issue during puberty and fixed it, it's assumed that I went back to the norm.
I think this would be very interesting to examine in science fiction (since cyberpunk's on the menu these days) since the willful modification of human bodies is rarely fully embraced, but I digress.
Now, some norms are artificial and require willful modification of the body, and going against them can cause severe backlash, I'm thinking mainly of girls shaving their legs, but there are many others. It is however important to notice that these are always either temporary or justified as 'beyond logic' (like getting circumcised when converting to a new religion, although a lot of people are very critical of that)
So we've established that the entire lens through which cis society views trans people is false, what's the answer? The spirit trapped in the wrong body explanation doesn't feel right and doesn't really address the issue (since the body is normal, the spirit is considered abnormal), so it feels like an impass and I'd love to hear about suggestions.
A lot of cis people seem to stop asking questions when instead of saying I'm trans I say that I have to take hormones because my body doesn't naturally produce them so my puberty was delayed, or when I say that I used to think I was a boy but then realized it wasn't for me, so why can't they just get that people transition sometimes?
Well part of it is that they can't understand what it's like to be another gender, but the concept of being something on the inside and later having it revealed through outside is so prevalent throughout fiction (think a lot of superheroes etc) that it can't be just that. Of course there's heavily gendered socialization and trans people and allies alike have a lot to unlearn from that, but at a more basic aspect, I think it revolves around the need to preserve normality.
[Next paragraph will contain transphobic rhetoric]
If we consider the "norm" to be a person with nothing added, a tattooed person would be abnormal, for example. (Although the 'norm' is largely made by privileged groups and serves to denigrate a lot of people trans and cis alike)
To a cis person, when I say I'm a trans girl, they hear "abnormal boy", I modified myself and became a girl. When I say I had a hormone problem or used to think I was a boy, on the other hand, they hear "abnormal girl" or " previously abnormal girl", I'm a girl and problems happened to me which I solved.
[Okay the transphobia is over]
I think this might come from a sort of fear of willful modification of the self. If we take most superheroes, their superpowers either happen to them or they're given them, they don't decide to become heroes and then pursue superpowers (although interestingly those characters are portrayed in media, but mostly as villains or morally ambiguous characters)
If I decide to take hormones and change my presentation, I'm going against the norm. If I had an issue during puberty and fixed it, it's assumed that I went back to the norm.
I think this would be very interesting to examine in science fiction (since cyberpunk's on the menu these days) since the willful modification of human bodies is rarely fully embraced, but I digress.
Now, some norms are artificial and require willful modification of the body, and going against them can cause severe backlash, I'm thinking mainly of girls shaving their legs, but there are many others. It is however important to notice that these are always either temporary or justified as 'beyond logic' (like getting circumcised when converting to a new religion, although a lot of people are very critical of that)
So we've established that the entire lens through which cis society views trans people is false, what's the answer? The spirit trapped in the wrong body explanation doesn't feel right and doesn't really address the issue (since the body is normal, the spirit is considered abnormal), so it feels like an impass and I'd love to hear about suggestions.
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