Hey everyone, I know I don’t discuss current events too often, but I’d like to do more of that,
and there’s one thing happening at the moment that I feel compelled to comment on.
Everybody seems to be furious about trans people. Half of us are furious that they exist,
and the other half are furious about what the other half is saying. I would like to
jump in and see if I can clear up some of the ways that people are talking past each other.
Now it’s no secret that I’m a bit on the liberal side, but rest assured, the left is not going to
get away scot-free on this one. They’re missing the mark on a few key points. But as tends to
be the case, it’s bigots on the right who are the main problem, so let’s start there.
The primary issue is people who deny transgenderism. These are the people who spew
the tired FOX News talking points. “Liberals say there are 89 genders and anyone can identify as a
hampster”, that sort of thing. It’s a deliberate caricature of reality peddled by all the angry
conservative dudes popping up in my feed lately who claim that nobody can define a woman. Let’s
all take a moment to acknowledge the problems that go along with the ambiguity of language. Sex and
gender are different words that refer to different things. If you did not know that, now you do. Sex
is a chromosomal phenomenon. Nearly all of us have two sex chromosomes in all of our somatic cells.
If both are X, your sex is female. If one is X and one is Y, your sex is male. There are interesting
exceptions like intersex people who exhibit a blend of the phenotypes associated with the two
sexes due to chromosomal irregularities, as well as chimeric beings who exhibit different genotypes
in different cells due to developing from more than one zygote. It is important to discuss
and understand these populations, however we can still safely categorize the overwhelming majority
of people as exhibiting either male or female sex. Gender is a different phenomenon. It is
still biological, but it is a neurochemical construct. This means that ultimately it is
still genetic in basis, but it absolutely is not determined merely by the sex chromosomes. It is
tremendously more complicated, and researchers are still working to understand the biological
basis of gender identity. Human psychology is complex. People need to deal with that. Thoughts
and feelings are ultimately chemical phenomena. We all have a neurochemical profile that guides
how we think and feel, and part of that is gender identity. The reason that we are just now
becoming equipped to differentiate between the two phenomena is that in the vast majority of humans,
somewhere between 99 and 99.9% of all people, gender identity aligns with biological sex.
Hence the term cisgender. Cis is a prefix that means same. But for that remaining fraction of a
percent, which totals to millions and millions of people all over the world, their gender identity
is the opposite of their biological sex. Hence the term transgender. Trans is a prefix that means
opposite. The unfortunate linguistic coincidence is that we use terms like “man” and “woman”,
or “male” and “female” in describing both of these phenomena. That is where the confusion arises,
when people insist that one term must encapsulate both phenomena at once. So when someone asks
“What is a woman?” expecting to get a very simple answer that children can understand,
they are sorely mistaken. The answer requires a discussion of genetics and neurochemistry.
Therefore, when people complain about “men choosing to be women”, this is very offensive.
It is a denial of the concept of gender. It is no different than the conversation that was happening
surrounding homosexuality a few decades ago. Conservatives would say that homosexuality is
just demons, or temptations from Satan, and that heterosexuality is the only way people can truly
be. Today this seems totally ridiculous because homosexuality and other sexual orientations
have become accepted and normalized, even among many conservatives. The same will happen for
transgenderism, because it undeniably exists. The acceptance for suppressed sexual orientations came
first because around 10% of people are gay, whereas a much smaller percentage of people
are trans, but this is the natural progression of societal evolution. Nearly every binary has
been shown to actually be a spectrum, and it doesn’t matter how uncomfortable it makes
conservative people, society will continue to shift until our language and policies reflect
actual human nature, not the tiny puritanical box that has historically been thrust upon us.
Now, as promised, with the indictment of conservatives complete, I turn to liberals,
and the missteps they are enacting that are preventing resolution.
Number one, please stop saying things like “gender is a social construct”. No it is
not. It is a biological construct. Society can’t turn you trans any more than it can turn you gay.
Gender is determined biologically. It is simply that, again, gender is not
determined merely by the sex chromosomes and is an incredibly complex neurochemical phenomenon.
So let’s talk about it honestly. Gender roles are a social construct. That all
men must be this way and do these things, and all women must be this way and do these things,
that is a social construct. And it is one that became obsolete immediately upon evolving beyond
a hunter-gatherer society. It has only persisted due to deeply rooted misogyny and the desire to
treat women as private property. Rage against gender roles as a social construct all you like,
I’m right there with you. But stop saying that gender itself is a social construct.
It is biological. In addition, sex is a much more easily definable biological construct, and we must
acknowledge that when an individual that is of the male biological sex identifies as trans,
their biological sex remains male. By identifying as trans, their chromosomes do not change,
no matter what surgeries they choose to undergo. We rightfully refer to them as women, because
most of us have decided that it is appropriate for a society to respect their gender identity over
their biological sex as a linguistic formality. If one’s sex is male and their gender is female,
why not refer to them as female, and address them as they wish. This is a simple and obvious
courtesy. But their sex does not change, nor is their transgenderism selected. When liberals
attempt to decouple gender, or even sex, from its biological basis, they give conservatives license
for mockery, because they can then rightfully criticize what seems to them like a vague and
meaningless declaration. That’s why smug, ignorant conservatives who make a living stirring up hatred
amongst bigots get so much traction by cutting together cherry-picked compilations of young
people saying silly things, like “gender is a social construct”, because they get to go “look
at the dumb liberals”, and it is a rare instance where they aren’t completely wrong. This emboldens
them, and makes them feel justified in pushing other talking points that are completely wrong.
And finally, on a cultural note, I think that we need to stop flipping out about innocuous
things that comedians say. Let us reserve our anger for those who are in denial of science
and are attempting to limit human rights. When someone attacks Dave Chappelle on stage in my town
of Los Angeles, in the wake of controversy surrounding alleged anti-trans rhetoric,
and he, off the cuff, shouts “it was a trans man”, that’s not a hateful remark. He was reacting to
the situation, which is what comedians do. You are free to decide for yourself whether or not
you find any particular comedy to be funny. Comedy is subjective. But whether or not something should
be deemed offensive has an element of objectivity to it, and that remark does not qualify. I’m
not here to do an in-depth analysis of all the alleged anti-trans jokes from all the comedians
on Netflix, as I haven’t even heard all of them, but in general let’s just tone it down a notch.
Additionally, regarding the controvery with sports, trans women who have gone through
puberty as males, experiencing the dramatic hormonal changes characteristic of any sexually
dimorphic species, objectively have an unfair biological advantage over female athletes.
I personally couldn’t care less about sports and who is competing against whom, but people who say
that trans women have an unfair athletic advantage are absolutely correct, and to deny this makes any
objections to transphobia totally meaningless, because you are refusing to acknowledge what
trans people are. As to where trans women should compete, I don’t have any solutions,
because again, I don’t care about sports. But there is a reason that men and women do not
compete with one another in almost any sport. So if you are a fan of sports, try to respect that.
And that’s the end of my rant, which I felt compelled to write down and say out loud,
because I’m tired of hearing about the persistent controversy where
in my mind there should be none whatsoever. The main takeaway is that the world needs to get
over the fact that trans people exist. They’ve always existed. We are just now acknowledging
their existence. We must accept and normalize trans people so that they feel safe to be who they
are and express themselves as they choose. But along the way, let’s not get swept up by the woke
train. Let’s make sure that all of our language is guided by science and logic, rather than an
accumulation of meaningless cultural currency. Remember, words like sex and gender have real
meanings, so let’s try to remember what those are, and teach them to those who
are having some trouble. Thanks for watching, I’ll see you next time.