brains, biology, destiny, and being fair to one another
Being transgender is an enigma cloaked in mystery and dipped in murkiness. How and why does gender dysphoria develop at all? Why is it so powerful that many transpeople find it easier to undergo expensive and painful changes to their body than to “just live with it”?
Of course, if i can say, “I was born this way,” there is no longer any mystery. This seems especially true after reading this (h/t to Autumn Sandeen here).
A crucial question resulting from a previous brain study in male-to-female transsexuals was whether the reported difference according to gender identity in the central part of the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BSTc) was based on a neuronal difference in the BSTc itself or just a reflection of a difference in vasoactive intestinal polypeptide innervation from the amygdala, which was used as a marker. … The number of neurons in the BSTc of male-to-female transsexuals was similar to that of the females (P = 0.83). In contrast, the neuron number of a female-to-male transsexual was found to be in the male range. Hormone treatment or sex hormone level variations in adulthood did not seem to have influenced BSTc neuron numbers. The present findings of somatostatin neuronal sex differences in the BSTc and its sex reversal in the transsexual brain clearly support the paradigm that in transsexuals sexual differentiation of the brain and genitals may go into opposite directions and point to a neurobiological basis of gender identity disorder.
To summarize, what researchers have been finding is:
1. There are differences between the average man’s brain and the average woman’s brain,
2. Transwomen’s brains are in some ways shaped more like the average woman’s brains (and vice-versa for transmen), and
3. By exposing rat embryos to certain hormone levels during gestation, researchers can induce biologically male rats to exhibit female behaviors and vice-versa - establishing a causal link.
So, perhaps i have a brain that more resembles a woman’s than a man’s. I’m ready to accept this as a likely explanation, because nothing else i’ve ever heard makes sense.
And i’m ready to accept this as a causal explanation, because there is nothing in my upbringing that would have led me to consistently lean towards having a female identity. Since i was born people have treated me as male. When i started showing transgender inclinations i was leaned on even more heavily to be male. How could anything purely psycho-social persist in the face of lifelong constant negative pressure?
A lot of the feminists i know are nervous about the idea of biological determinism when it comes to gender identity. Perhaps some of them mistrust this because of their own differing experience of gender (see my post about this a while ago).
But also, any scientific examination of gendering in the brain is dealing with averages, ranges and statistics. The central tenet of feminism — that women deserve equal esteem, equal opportunity, and equal freedom — is not undermined if there happen to be innate differences, because any “innate differences” as such exist only in general, statistical terms. Any generalization reflects a range of likelihoods and has exceptions. So the key to fairness is establishing a society in which individuals are not bound by expectations based on these generalities.
This can be solved quite simply by establishing individual merit and ability as the focus by which we judge aptitude for a given task, and not averages or stereotypes regarding gender (or race, etc.).
And, furthermore, these differences have no bearing on whether or not women should have control over their own bodies or destiny.
Edited to add. Upon reflection, i feel it necessary to add that i am not trying to say that all transsexualism or all gender dysphoria comes from a neurobiological origin, or that it is the only origin. But i do think that it is a piece in the puzzle. Maybe a key piece, maybe not. But either way, in my case at least, it is an idea that resonates with my experience very strongly and provides the likeliest explanation i’ve encountered so far.