KJH posted...
I don't see the point in complaining because what I've seen as the viewpoints generally include at least one of:
1. It's discrimination and should be open to everybody, including men. To avoid a double standard, any sort of TG/TS thing should be open to everyone too. This seems a bit over the top in PC to me, as it's already something of vain showmanship that "discriminates" against those who are less attractive in a specific way, how that can be upheld yet you can't bring up whether they're male or female feels like either too much or too little.
I'm fine with excluding men.
There's a huge difference between excluding 50% of the population, and excluding 1% of the population.
ESPECIALLY when said 1% of the population already tends to suffer discrimination in all walks of life from housing to employment to promotions.
KJH posted...
2. That transexuals are the same as transgendered people, but only if a costly surgery is involved, and that transexuals are more legitimized than transgendered people. Can someone give details on this or the surgery transexuals have and to what degree it actually changes their biological sex? I can't shake that this doesn't truly change your sex but rather imitates it on a superficial level and is rather costly as well as something uncomfortable enough that it should not be pressured upon a person to do it to legitimize their gender.
She's Canadian. Canadians have free health care--the government pays for surgeries, and is careful not to be discriminatory (if a doctor says someone needs surgery, they get surgery. It's not like the USA where the insurance can disagree with the doctor and force the patient to pay out of pocket).
As for the level of biological sex...I've only really got anecdotes. I've heard stories of friends of friends who will do things like have a one-night-stand and not have their intercourse partner realize. I've heard stories of doctors not being able to tell. On the other hand, it's not like you can change people's DNA, so a chromosomal test would in some cases turn out results. And then there's the brain--also body tissue, which doesn't need surgery at all because it was already born aligned to the chosen sex. And then there's hormones, which don't require surgery at all to change.
But...I mean...define sex?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_(disambiguation)
In order to get to the male/female discussion of "sex" on wikipedia, you have to follow the link to.................the Gender page!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender
Once there, I...still don't have a strong definition, in fact, reading that wikipedia article, it sounds like the sex/gender distinction is something used more in Feminist Theory and English Literature than actual hard science. Hard science will happily use the word gender to refer to "biological sex".
So................basically, everyone acting like they're standing on a foundation of science when they talk about "biological sex" is actually standing on a pile of BSing by feminist writers which doesn't actually necessarily have a clear definition, and sounds like it was made up to legitimize butch/femme behavior. The people who came up with it in the 70s probably weren't aware of "sex change operations" at all, or how they might mess with the model.
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Cats land on their feet. Toast lands peanut butter side down. A cat with toast strapped to its back will hover above the ground in a state of quantum indecision