Guest post: A demand to believe the impossible
Originally two comments by Seth on Fair and includey.
If you believe that he really does have gender dysphoria
See, this was the first step on the road to getting where we are now, this notion that someone having “gender dysphoria” makes them “really trans”, as opposed to a faker. But in its own terms, “gender dysphoria” is a mental illness, a delusion, either very starkly akin to or actually the same as the body dysmorphia which afflicts anorexics or compulsive exercisers.
The proper treatment for the latter two expressions of body dysmorphia, you’ll note, is not to completely reform society to give the stick-thin girl the “validation” that she is “in the wrong (obese) body” and is a hero for making radical changes to show the “real authentic” waif she is “on the inside”, nor the muscle-bound boy the “validation” that he is “in the wrong (shrimpy) body” and is a hero for making radical changes to show the “real authentic” hulk he is “on the inside”.
It is highly unlikely that the proper treatment for the former is to reform society to the extent being done now in order to indulge their delusions. Of course, someone being delusional is not in itself a moral failing, and it *is* worth treatment, with compassion and respect and empathy. But compassion and respect and empathy are sorely lacking by the TRAs and their “allies”, even (or perhaps most especially) for and toward the very dysmorphic people whose mental illnesses were exploited to catapult us into where we are in the first place.
So, even if one does believe that Hubbard has gender dysphoria (or body dysmorphia expressed through secondary sex characteristics), the appropriate response is almost certainly not to humour him in his delusions for the rest of his life. And it’s certainly not to turn people who refuse to humour him into thought-criminals and pariahs simply because they cannot pretend to believe in the impossible.
We
gave away the ballgame when we collectively allowed TRAs to recategorise gender dysphoria as indicative of something like a physical birth defect rather than a mental illness. That seems to me to have been the first step over the line, imperceptible as it was for most of us at the time, which has led us to this cultural moment. And most of us were more than willing to nod along with this at the time, in the hope of being good and supportive and decent people if for no other reason.
This is, I believe, the “root” of the trans issue, the floodgate-opener that precipitated the deluge which has swept away the skepticism and thoughtfulness of so many self-professed free-thought-loving skeptics. This is the “radix” which the original trans-exclusionary radical feminists excluded from their feminism, and which set them up as the assailable Other for all right-thinking progressives circa 2014 or so. It is a demand to believe the impossible, a leap of faith, a mental hurdle so high that every subsequent demand is all the easier for having already surmounted it. In hindsight, we should have listened more to the radical feminists, and less to the faith-based activists.
100% agree with your assessment, except that one could argue that the description of GD is in some cases more similar to body integrity identity disorder. You’ll even note that it got renamed around the same time as gender identity disorder. But in any case, unless one is attempting a proof by contradiction (reductio ad absurdum), in which the opposing claim is assumed arguendo in order to derive a contradiction, it’s a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad idea to accede to nonsense. Ex falso quodlibet: from falsehood anything follows. As soon as we have even a single contradiction, no matter how innocent and benign it may seem, it becomes sufficient justification for literally anything else.
The next step was when the disordered “mismatch between the sex of the body and the gender of the mind” became a difference to celebrate.
“What if a good psychologist was able to help young people with gender dysphoria learn to accept and love their bodies, become comfortable with their sex, and go on to live happy and fulfilled lives?” I asked. They reacted like I’d suggested a lobotomy and an institution. It would be killing who they really were. The suggestion was monstrous.
In such an atmosphere and with such a story, children who experiment with their gender roles and expression would soon discover there’s not a lot of room for experimentation. They’re playing for keeps.
Sastra, that was one of the things that “peaked” me. (I put it in quotes, because it seems like barely an anthill compared to what’s actually going on.) Like, even if we grant that gender dysphoria is a real thing rather than a misdiagnosis of something else, and even if we go further and grant that it has a physiological cause, that doesn’t even halfway show that gender dysphoria/identity is truth-apt–never mind veridical. It’s sort of like the problem with cosmological/ontological arguments for the existence of God. Allowing that they are completely valid and sound, they can only get to deism at the very best.
The anorexia analogy also holds true because it is something that spreads through social contagion and there is an active, powerful online community that encourages and supports anorexics in staying sick, including lying to family, rejecting family, etc. The pro-ana social media is incredibly harmful and damaging, but at least there can be discussion about banning pro-ana accounts and material online.
Nullius,
Yes, there are certainly cases of body integrity identity disorder which manifest in secondary sex characteristics, where people honestly believe they’ll be happier with their sexual organs or breasts removed; however, this condition was quite rare and yet well-known for a long, long time. In fact, in many circles, having this condition was considered a prerequisite to *being* transsexual in the first place, as opposed to gender-bending or crossdressing — I’ve read multiple accounts of what used to be called “post-op transsexuals” who explicitly stated “if you do not have the urge to fillet your penis and turn it inside-out as a vagina, you don’t need to worry about whether or not you’re trans”.
That this was the status quo for trans people and their allies from at least the 1940’s to 2014 is strong evidence that the mere existence of this flavour of body integrity identity disorder (with attendant autogynephilia) was not enough to bring about the cultural shift we’ve seen in the past decade. Though it is still questionable whether the appropriate treatment for this condition is to indulge it to the point of surgery, it is essentially an extreme form of body modification and adults with informed consent should be able to pursue it to their hearts’ content without having to justify themselves to the likes of me.
No, the shift seems to have happened out of a rejection of this (trans-community) norm, when people articulated the existence of an internal “gender identity” which was the “true self”. That lowered the barrier to entry to essentially nothing; as soon as a kid circa 2014 felt alienated or misunderstood or unable to express their oh-so-unique inner turmoil, they could find reams of words on Tumblr about how they were really special and unique and had a rich inner story that the rest of the world would vilify them over, just like the protagonist of a novel. They had a supportive community and an outgroup against which that community could rally, and a narrative of belonging and beleaguering and, eventually, saving the world. All they had to do was deny their lying eyes, believe the big lie, and indeed everything followed.
And now those kids are young adults, and they’ve taken over our most prestigious cultural, medical, and scientific institutions.
He would keep his head down, work with very few clients, and tell his clients and their parents never to tell anybody about him. Because he could lose his license for practicing “conversion therapy.”
At least that’s the way it works in my state.
And no, I’m not telling you his name.
And then we went from “gender/sex/body dysphoria is best treated by validation, hormones and surgery” to “gender is an actual existing thing that supersedes sex” to “you are genuinely 100% female [or male].” (The latter I find curious given that everything is supposed to be on a spectrum.)
I think now it’s the case that people who have thoughts about being “trans” are far more numerous, but with far less in the way of gender dysphoria. They only keep alive their delusions through their cult and their fanatical rejection and condemnation of any and all criticism.
I remember that simpering photo of “Dr. Anastacia Tomson” from a few days ago and thinking how terrifying that the individual play-acting and creating that caricature really think’s they’re being their “authentic self.”
link?