• balderdash@lemmy.zip
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      1 year ago

      But people who are transgender say they are born with their gender. And I’m inclined to believe them given their testimony.

      • N-E-N@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        No one could possibly know they were “born” with a gender.

        By the time they’re old enough to have memories and concious thought, they have already been socialized.

        • balderdash@lemmy.zip
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          1 year ago

          This response is initially persuasive but the line of reasoning doesn’t hold in other cases. For example, let’s replace gender with sexuality:

          No one could possibly know they were “born” with a sexual preference. By the time they’re old enough to have memories and conscious thought, they have already been socialized.

          Now, we all agree that sexual preference is something you’re born with. Analogously, if we reject the idea that lack of knowledge of innate sexual preference implies sexuality is a social construct, then we should reject the argument that lack of knowledge of gender identity implies gender is a social construct.

          • N-E-N@lemmy.ca
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            1 year ago

            I’d make a couple points against that

            1.We don’t “all agree” we’re born with specific sexual preferences. That’s not objective fact, it’s a hypothesis that can’t really be proven.

            I’m Bi and don’t inherently know I was born this way. I have tons of personality and character traits that are impossible to assign to nature vs nurture, including sexual orientation.

            2.Gender tropes change between cultures a ton, with various expectations and preferences. Differences in sex doesn’t just change by region like gender-tropes, humans are humans. Hence sexual preference based on sex and physical bodies is arguably more immutable

        • balderdash@lemmy.zip
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          1 year ago

          You’re saying gender is a social construct. People who are transgender say they are born with their gender. Being born with something is incompatible with it being a social construct. Since you don’t see a tension here, are you saying gender is a social construct for everyone except transgender folk? In other words, do you think transgender people are the only ones born with their gender? That seems like an odd view to me.