(I’m just trying to learn. No hidden mockery in this and this is no gotcha bs aimed at t women. I’m NOT transphobic. Just saw this in a debate and wanted to know other people’s thoughts)
I just want to know:
- Is this factually correct?
- If it is, does it matter? Why or why not?
- How would you logically respond to this?
- How does this statement not contradict with Trans Women are Women
There are a lot of good points here, but one that I feel often gets overlooked at times like this is in the history of a person’s experience.
Completely sidestepping the debate, let’s assume a trans woman is a woman. What we’re acknowledging here is that this person lived some of her life as a boy or man. This would include the various biases of that.
A (biological) woman would have lived with a single set of biases and challenges. In addition to the huge experiences around child birth, female reproductive health is seriously under provided for. I’ve met many women with ongoing health issues related to it that appear to be sidelined or completely ignored by medical science.
Trans women clearly have their own challenges, but their societal biases would be different as would their possible health issues.
This leads to me believe that we might view a person outwardly as being a woman, but being a biological woman or a trans woman leads to different sets of life experiences that would likely have significant influences on a person’s worldview, modes of communication, hobbies, interests etc.
I’d say that a trans woman is a “woman” now, but in not having lived as a girl or young woman that she is a trans woman. In the same way that a (biological) woman is not and never will be a trans woman.
The history of someone’s experience isn’t captured by the term “biological” it is in the terms “trans” and “cis”.
“Biological sex” is broken down into different categories. Chromosomal, Horomonal and Phenotypic. Chromosomes hardly need an introduction, it’s the DNA programming that under most common conditions creates the blueprints for the other two forms. However this isn’t always how it happens.
Phenotypic sex is all the physical structures that conform to different expressions of sex. Genetailia, internal organs, differences in physical structure between male/female.
Hormonal sex characteristics is the group of chemicals the body releases to change the body and support adult maturation of Phenotypic sex characteristics. It also changes the biochemical makeup of the body, including the brain, so the body allocates resources differently and responds to things like stress and medications differently.
When a trans person goes on hormones or receives surgeries their Phenotypic structures change to conform to their new gender which mean in a real rubber to road kind of way they stop having as much medically in common with their birth sex as the sex they transitioned to. If you give a trans woman the “biologically male recommended” medication dosages of something like sleeping pills they are going to be taking way too much because that medication interacts differently with the Phenotypic and hormonal tissues of women which her body now conforms to.
The concept of “biological woman/man” is actually a fairly dangerous concept in the medical world because the assumption created by that framework often create errors of medical care expectations which put trans people in actual danger of poor dosages or completely wrong expectations of navigating their personal biology.