So I was reading Facebook posts this morning when I saw someone comparing being transgender to having a birth defect. This (cisgender) person was sympathetic and trying to use this analogy to cast being transgender as a medical problem that is no more immoral than being born with a cleft palate. It’s certainly not the first time I’ve seen this analogy; in fact, I’ve seen it promoted on various web sites, forums, and in person, almost always by transsexuals. I can see how people who have intense feelings of being “born into the wrong body” might consider the body parts that don’t fit their gender identity to be wrong or defective. Still, I find the analogy disturbing.
As I see it, using the word “defect” casts us as people with a problem that needs to be solved. I understand that some do, indeed feel that way, that if only they are able to get hormonal and surgical treatment to make their bodies conform to their gender identity, they will be cured—they will be “normal”. However, I certainly do not feel that way. Admittedly I have never identified as transsexual, and my gender dysphoria is perhaps less intense. My body, imperfect as it may be, has never been repulsive to me, nor have I ever felt distress at having male parts or not having female parts. I don’t feel like I was a mistake or that I am defective.
In keeping with my somewhat stubborn and rebellious nature, I don’t think the problem is me, but rather with the way our society views gender. In short, I think the two-gender system is defective, not me. The idea that there are two and only two genders, that they correspond exactly with two and only two sexes, and that each gender is associated mutually exclusive characteristics, behaviors, appearances, and tastes, is patently false. If it were true, there wouldn’t be any transgender people, or intersex people. Instead, humanity is fantastically diverse in many ways, and a strict two-gender system doesn’t accurately reflect that diversity. So why are we trying to shoehorn everyone into those two genders, and calling everyone who doesn’t fit defective? We should expand our gender classification system to take this diversity into account. Other cultures have or have had other genders besides male and female, so why can’t we?
Yes, I know—easier said than done. Our whole society seems to be built on the two-gender system, and dismantling or changing it would be a massive paradigm shift, a sea change, in fact. But long-term, I think it’s the best way forward. And a first step on the way might be to stop seeing transgender people as defective people, but rather as simply “different” people. Diversity is good.
