Comments on: Typical mind and gender identity

By: The science of sexual deviancy | Bloody shovel

The science of sexual deviancy | Bloody shovel — Thu, 14 Aug 2014 16:24:15 +0000

[…] This comes to mind too. Thing is, sexuality isn’t “malleable” in any animal, period. And why would it be? There’s no benefit to that. A total lockstep heterosexual individual is always going to outbreed any pansexual bohemian animal. For obvious reasons. And if it were all susceptible to random psychological quirks, you would find much more variation than actually exists. In reality, only 3-5% of men are homosexual, transexuals are 1 in 20,000+, and the manifold paraphilias have similar prevalence. These figures are consistent in most of the world. Bisexuals don’t appear to actually exist, and sexual orientation appears to be impossible to change. Some malleability that is. […]

Report comment

By: Aky

Aky — Sat, 02 Aug 2014 21:55:59 +0000

I’ve noted for awhile that I am cis-by-default; I’m alright with being female to the extent that I wouldn’t welcome surgery and hormone treatment to become male, but if I were born male I imagine I would just be okay with that too (and have a similar opinion about being female). I absolutely hate being addressed or treated as a lady or a woman (as a gender thing, I don’t like being upheld to expectations of how a female should act), but the idea of deliberately acting more masculine (either to pass or to create a tomboy persona) leaves me equally disgusted. Interesting note, half the time I dream I happen to be male (never the same male, I’m always different, just like the female ‘me’s are always different and never my physical self).

Also, Adelene- I thought I was probably unique about getting phantom wings (as extra limbs protuding from my shoulder blades, though sometimes my arms feel they should be wing-shaped). I also know when I start gaining weight I feel really uncomfortable in my own body, I much prefer being muscular than letting myself go, and I’m more comfortable when I can percieve myself as being “light” rather than “heavy”. Interesting things our brains do to us, right?

Report comment

By: MugaSofer

MugaSofer — Wed, 30 Jul 2014 18:34:33 +0000

Do you consider people who have undergone hormone therapy and reassignment surgery to be zombies living in the body of the person they murdered?

Because that seems on the order of what Eliezer is suggesting …

Report comment

By: Jordan Gray

Jordan Gray — Tue, 29 Jul 2014 22:42:42 +0000

What sort of research have you undertaken to come to that conclusion?

Have you read a few books or studies about sex and gender identity? Do you consider any of the trans* people you have “run into” to be good friends? If so, have any of them ever discussed their experiences with you at length?

If someone with AIS were to question their birth-assigned sex, would you term that “ostentatious signalling”? Would the degree of AIS matter to you? Why?

Alternatively, if a child were born with a damaged penis that was surgically altered to look like a vagina later grew unhappy with their surgically-assigned sex, would you consider that signalling or evidence that their body does not conform to some neurological feature?

I find it difficult to justify a lack of belief in a neurological basis for trans* identities when we live in a world where conditions like AIS and phantom limbs exist, and I’m curious how you reconcile the former with the latter.

Report comment

By: Ialdabaoth

Ialdabaoth — Mon, 30 Jun 2014 15:43:48 +0000

If Omega said to me, “I’m either going to flip your sex or your D/s orientation,” I’d take the flipped sex – being male is part of my identity, but not as strongly as that other part.

Whereas for me (and this says something about my early childhood gender role training), I would only accept a sex flip if it came WITH a D/s flip.

(Honestly, I think I would have done a LOT BETTER in the world as a submissive woman than as a wannabe-dominant man.)

Report comment

By: Multiheaded

Multiheaded — Mon, 30 Jun 2014 15:21:06 +0000

Report comment

By: Jake

Jake — Mon, 30 Jun 2014 15:16:22 +0000

Wait, now I’m wondering which side of the D/S spectrum Eliezer is on that he feels so strongly about.

Report comment

By: Anon

Anon — Mon, 16 Jun 2014 04:46:49 +0000

I also subscribe to Ozzy’s theory but I came up with it independently (even wrote an essay on it and everything). It’s definitely true in my case: I’m a male-bodied person but before puberty my gender was mostly female. During puberty my identity kind of loosened and now I don’t bother thinking about it. Being female just seems like too much effort.

Still prefer female RP characters and novel-protagonists, though.

Report comment

By: Anon

Anon — Mon, 16 Jun 2014 04:38:38 +0000

This describes me SO perfectly. Thank you. I thought I was alone.

Report comment

By: Devin

Devin — Tue, 22 Apr 2014 20:22:20 +0000

On the contrary. A transgender woman (born as a man), ONLY knows what it feels like to be a woman, because it’s all she’s ever been. She may know what it feels like to have a penis, she may know what it feels like to be treated as man, but internally, she only knows what it feels like to be herself – a woman.

Report comment