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scarp · 4651 days ago · link · · parent · post: Q&A about transgender people, gender identity, and gender expression.
I think you're onto something. I may have underestimated my own identity. For some context, I am a mixed race homosexual(ish) male, and that is something that I definitely had to address and 'come to terms with', so to speak. It is an identity wrinkle that I had to identify and iron out because it goes against the norm. But now I am so comfortable with that identity that it is just 'me.' Whatever interests and desires I have are an extension and expression of that self.
What I am trying to understand about the trans* identities is the idea that sex and gender are embodied by cultural norms and physical status symbols. If we strip away cultural context, do we still have men and women? The article admits that gender roles vary amongst societies. So it would seem to me that if a man feels uncomfortable in his society's male gender roles, then it is the society which much change, not the individual. I say this with fear of sounding presumptuous, but speaking honestly I think that the trans* community would do better to encourage more open-minded views on gender roles than to facilitate gender-affirmation procedures. That seems to be the root of the issue.