The Male And Female Brain, And The Cause Of Transgenderism
Gender Binary System notes (part 2 of 7)
(Note: This article was originally published on Sept. 12 2016 as ‘Gender Binary System notes.’ It was written as a loose set of notes on the gender-binary as an exclusive system, and its’ limitations, rather than as a cohesive article or essay. I have broken the article up in 7 parts, with 7 different titles, for your reading convenience.)
Psychological Sex Differences and Autistic Traits
NEUROSCIENCE NEWS
NOVEMBER 13, 2018
THE MALE AND FEMALE BRAIN, AND “THE CAUSE” OF TRANSGENDERISM
Studies have been done that prove that there are differences in the brain of the different sexes, pertaining to gender. In other words, male and female brains exist, and to many this is a controversial theory, in light of political causes, specifically the need for legal female equality, but this doesn’t take away the fact that this is scientifically true.
In reality it also does not invalidate the need for women’s legal equality at all but the controversial part lies in the fact there there seems to be a biological basis to male and female behavior, and so that gender role behavior is not entirely a learned, social construct, but has a hormonal basis. Or to be more specific, gender is not a social construct, gender roles are, gender itself is hormonal.
These studies prove that there is a biological, hormonal basis for transgenderism, in that the identification with a gender other than one’s sex lies in the brain region, having been shaped that way in prenatal development by hormonal distribution, which seems very valid to me.
The studies indicate a release of an excess or abundance of testosterone after the shaping of the sex in the fetus, for trans-masculine/trans-male individuals, and a shortage of lesser amount of testosterone distribution in the already sexually formed fetus of trans-feminine/ trans-female individuals, and either way focusing on testosterone. (Of course all male and female fetuses are female first and develop with the male hormones testosterone and androgen as well the female hormones estrogen and progesterone, and all people retain these sex hormones in some fluctuating pattern throughout life.)
(A book has been written on this subject which also confirms this, named ‘Male And Female Brains And The Truth About Autism. The Essential Difference,’ by Simon Baron-Cohen, although he seems to focus more on androgen than the other hormones and he does not talk about transgenderism specifically.
The title to the link here is from a review of ‘The Essential Difference: Men, Women and the Extreme Male Brain’ by Simon Baron-Cohen. I’m not completely sure if this is the same book with a different title, as in a different edition, but it covers essentially the same subject.)
There is also no mention of homosexuality in these studies, (and there are other studies done in epi-genetics to discuss the role of homosexuality in human evolution, and it’s natural necessity in light of population control,) and the studies I’m discussing here focus purely the formation of male brains, through hormone development, and resulting in more white brain matter, and slightly less grey matter, and female brain development, with less white matter and slightly more grey matter, and in the studies I found online correlate this to a sense of gender identity and in the book focusing solely on male and female brain functioning in particular.
The author of the book discusses the male brain in terms of being a superior systemizing type of brain and the female brain as a superior emphasizing type of brain, and acknowledges the validity of both these systems in equal terms and also not as pertaining to all male and female subject matters in the predictable pattern. In other words, he is not being sexist and makes no case for male nor female superiority, nor prescribes any rules to apply to gender behavioral patterns.
In neither the studies found online nor in the particle book I mentioned any political or moral issues are addressed, as these are purely scientific studies.
If anything, these scientific studies only confirm the morality of transgenderism and so indirectly affirm a need for equal legal rights for transgender individuals.
These studies do not claim any choice involved in the prenatal formation of male and female brains, so no morality in terms of choice needs to be discussed. It is no choice to have a male or female brain, and there is no right or wrong in a having a male or female brain. In these studies there is no condition attached to the male or female brain, not even in transgender subjects. They only provide a biological explanation. (And the book discusses autism only, in terms of extreme male brain patterns.)
Check out the link below for some facts:
CHECK THE SCIENCE: BEING TRANS IS NOT A ‘CHOICE’
WHY YOU SHOULD CARE
Because 40 percent of trans people have tried to kill themselves.
By Leslie P. Henderson, The Daily Dose, Feb. 25, 2017
The author is a professor of physiology and neurobiology at Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine and a former fellow of the OpEd Project.
https://www.ozy.com/opinion/check-the-science-being-trans-is-not-a-choice/69726
NOTE (and these are my opinions only but nevertheless well informed):
Transgenderism is not the same thing as gender dysphoria, which can in and of itself come in different forms, like social dysphoria and body dysphoria, and can exist in combination or separately from each other.
(Social dysphoria is anxiety felt from external sources, like how society views you, and not in the least over how legislation might affect you. For instance, a person who’s not sure what gender you are could call the police on you for using a public restroom, a very common problem with potentially very serious consequences. One’s sense of social dysphoria increases the more one senses misunderstanding or disapproval of one’s appearance and/or behavior, specifically over how one is read in terms of gender and sex.
Body dysphoria is anxiety felt from internal sources, like how one’s sense of gender may not feel the right combination with one’s biological sex. One can have no body dysphoria and only social dysphoria or vice versa, or a combination of both. One can also have very partial body dysphoria, like for instance a person who was born with a female body but experiences themselves as male can have no problem with their body at all, except for when on their period.
One could even confuse social dysphoria and body dysphoria with each other, so it is very important to understand the distinctions, as they really require different treatments. An example of confusing social dysphoria with body dysphoria for me arose of the idea of pregnancy, in order to have children. I say pregnancy in order to have children because a cis-man does not have to consider pregnancy for himself in order to have children.
Because society, and entirely unconstitutionally, forces/coerces female-bodied individuals to give birth it is not hard for a female-bodied person to falsely reason, or fear, that one is required to give birth, regardless of one even wants children at all. For any female-bodied individual at all a pressure from society to be pregnant causes anxiety, and for a person who is female-bodied and experiences themselves as male/or masculine, the anxiety is usually worse.)
So you could say it it is really mostly body dysphoria which requires medical treatment, since social dysphoria can simply be alleviated by society informing themselves and treating transgender people with the same basic dignity as one would a cis-gender person. And of course equality under the law also helps out a whole lot. That is not to say that a person still couldn’t want society to completely see them as male or female physically but the anxiety would be a lot less if no judgment and endangerment was felt from society.)
Transgenderism is a medical, hormonal condition, regardless of whether a person transitions. Transgenderism is not in and of itself a gender identity, nor is it in and of itself gender dysphoria. The terms transgenderism and gender dysphoria should not be used interchangeably as they are not one and the same thing and can exist without each other.
Gender identity is the gender with which one’s brain aligns itself, and is as such male or female, or experienced as a combination. So a binary transperson’s gender identity, (just like a cis-gender person’s gender identity,) is not transgender but male or female. A non-binary person’s gender identity is a combination of the genders.
Gender dysphoria is often thought of as the condition itself and so the transgender person regarded as someone who has innate conflict between the mind and the body, which isn’t necessarily so at all. As I explained previously, even dysphoria doesn’t have to be felt at a bodily level, and so doesn’t always have to be treated physically. Social dysphoria doesn’t necessarily have to be treated medically. One should not be required to alter one’s physical appearance through medication in order to be accepted by society for who you really are.
Enough medical research has been done to prove a physical basis for transgenderism. The correct information needs to be made public and followed by medical professionals. Medical professionals should stop focussing on boxing transgender people in through falsely narrow definitions of what it supposedly is to be a man or a woman in order to be treated correctly. And of course transgender people with dysphoria should not be discouraged to receive treatment neither. All information available should just be made public and with stigmatization, so a potential patient could make an informed decision.
Gender dysphoria can accompany transgenderism but does not have to. (Conversely not even all people who experience gender dysphoria are necessarily transgender. They could be interest, or experience themselves to have no gender, or could even just be questioning their sense of gender.)
So to be perfectly clear, a person is not born cis-gender, (that is with an aligned sense of gender and sex,) or a-gender, (with no sense of gender,) then somehow develops gender dysphoria, and becomes transgender, through the specific act of transitioning, (obtaining hormonal and/or surgical treatment.)
This is often how the narrative is framed though, (or some variation thereof,) a person born with or developing gender dysphoria, then transitioning, after having been found satisfactorily dysphoric by a medical specialist, and so being transgender.
In reality a biologically female-formed fetus becomes hormonally masculinized, or a biologically male-formed fetus not hormonally masculinized “enough,” (or stays feminine, as all fetuses start out female,) through hormones, (primarily testosterone,) during prenatal development, and this determines the sense of gender identity, (sense of maleness or femaleness as experienced in the brain,) in the child, usually already fully formed around age 3.
(There are other ways transgenderism or intersex conditions can come about, through androgen, or on a chromosomal level, and there is apparently also some genetic basis, and other specific situations I haven’t looked into deep enough yet.)
So the child is transgender from the start, (has a preexisting/ prenatally formed hormonal distribution “imbalance” condition,) but the child is not necessarily gender dysphoric from the start. Transitioning does not make a person transgender, a pre-existing hormonal condition does.
Transitioning, if desired, and to whatever extent desired, just aligns the body physically (to a large extent) to the gender experienced in the brain, and which can alleviate feelings of dysphoria, (a specific form of anxiety felt over one’s sense of gender being different than one’s sex,) if those feelings are at all experienced.
If no dysphoria is felt, no transitioning is in and of itself necesary. This does not make a person any less transgender, it just makes them not transition. (By the same token of course, a person who cannot afford to transition financially or legally or socially is also not any less transgender, and may or may not feel dysphoric.) But the preexisting hormonal condition always remains, with or without transitioning.
In other words, transitioning does not “treat” transgenderism, as it does not need to be treated in and of itself. Transitioning treats dysphoria, the anxiety that may or may not accompany transgenderism.
On a final note, just as any person could want to alter their body to improve it, especially health-wise, a transgender person without dysphoria should have the right to transition as well. Other medical conditions have been treated without a person necessarily having discomfort, so it shouldn’t be any different for a transgender or gender nonconforming person.
I identify as Queer/Lesbian and Trans-Masculine/Gender Nonconforming. Socially that mostly translates into, I’m a Gender Nonconforming Lesbian. (I personally do not wish to transition.)
And for the record, I identify as female, despite my male gender. My pronouns are: They/Them/Theirs.
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Gender Binary System notes (2016) (Original Article in its’ Entirety)
THE ROOT CAUSE OF MISOGYNY, AND THE NECESSITY OF FREE WILL(Gender Binary System notes, part 1 of 7)
THE MALE AND FEMALE BRAIN, AND THE CAUSE OF TRANSGENDERISM (Gender Binary System notes, part 2 of 7)
THE REASONS I AM NOT TRANSITIONING (Gender Binary System notes, part 3 of 7)
HOW MY GENDER NONCONFORMING IDENTITY AFFECTED MY LEGAL IMMIGRATION STATUS (Gender Binary System notes, part 4 of 7)
MY PRONOUNS: THEY/THEM/THEIRS (Gender Binary System notes, part 5 of 7)
ON LOOKING ANDROGYNOUS THROUGHOUT MY YOUTH, WHILE ALSO BEING GENDER NONCONFORMING (Gender Binary System notes, part 6 of 7)
THE GENDER-BINARY SYSTEM WAS CREATED FOR POPULATION CONTROL AND SLAVERY, INCLUDING SEX SLAVERY (Gender Binary System notes, part 7 of 7)
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And please check out my other articles at medium.com/@gabriellabregman, on mainly LGBTQ- and Immigration Issues, and the State of Women and LGBTQ People in Film, and at medium.com/queerwomenfilmmakersmagazine , on Lesbian/Queer Film and Intersectional Feminism as well as Queer Female Sexuality and Gender Identity.
Click for Complete List of Articles (2016)
My name is Gabriella Bregman, I am a Hollywood-based writer, filmmaker, producer, currently in post-production of a feature documentary called ‘The Queer Case for Individual Rights,’ through my film production company ‘Bregman Films.’
You can find me mostly on Facebook for right now, (facebook.com/gabriellabregman,) where I also maintain a Facebook Group called ‘Queer Women Filmmakers and Writers - Los Angeles’
In September of 2017 I founded a nonprofit organization, ‘Queer Women Filmmakers Magazine,’ a Media Site and Magazine Publication for Queer Women Filmmakers.
In early 2018 article submissions will be accepted for paid publication on the site and in the print version, (quarterly.)
The publication medium.com/queerwomenfilmmakersmagazine exists in conjunction with the Queer Women Filmmakers Magazine website queerwomenfilmmakersmagazine.org
