The link below is of a comment in today's Guardian by psychotherapist Philippa Perry, who just happens to be married to the eccentric ceramic artist and potter, Grayson Perry - yeah, the one who likes to dress as a little girl, when he isn't belting round in leathers on his motorbike.
The article is very balanced and concerns gender variant children of which there have been several articles recently. See what you think.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/feb/23/gender-d...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grayson_Perry
Angharad
Comments
Comments
Guilty. I have been posting over the last two days. Some of the other comments are rather unpleasant.
Oh my GOD!
I've just finished the article and there was one line that gives me hope.
But it is not a choice, it is a condition. And in some cases it is so definite that the gender dysphoric person wants to change their body!
Oh my bloody GOD!!
That's the first time I've seen a qualifier attached to the degree of dysphoria, Those all important words And in SOME cases.
At last, the doctors are seeming to conclude that there are degrees of Dysphoria and from where I've been 'hiding' these past thirty years that seems to be a huge step towards recognising that some of us are 'inbetweenies', or intergendered.
Thanks Angharad, the article has given me food for thought and some considerable hope. I don't suppose I will immediately act upon these few vital words but I may well contact Phillipa Perry sometime in the future.
Thanks for displaying this article Angie.
Thankyou, thankyou, thankyou.
Bev.
I read it but ...
... I was so disappointed in the comments I decided to leave it to you to decide to draw attention to it here. The comments were only on the first page when I saw them so perhaps they're better now, particularly as Steph (Cyclist) says she contributed.
btw I was surprised Cathy hadn't heard of Grayson Perry in tonight's 'Bike'. He won the Turner Prize a few years ago and is one of the few winners who actually combine some craft skill with their artistic endeavours. His pots are quite beautiful and often somewhat startling when examined more closely :) Whilst his alter ego, Claire, is indeed a little girl he has in the past also assumed adult identities and is refreshingly open about his transvestism.
Of course I realise Angharad and Cathy aren't necessarily the same person. If they were I'd be down to Dorset like a shot for a spot of Blue Light treatment on my spine :)
Robi
One Thing Not Good
She quoted Zucker is a reference/authority. I would think he would be the last person you needed to help you with a GID child,
Joanne
Zucker
Several on there have commented on such a poor choice. For those unwilling to trawl (dredge?) through the hundreds of comments, and ignoring the plentiful rants that sex is gender is genitalia, there is the usual special pleading from followers of the usual suspects.
In summary, all gender is a societal construct and there is no such thing as a man or a woman. It's all learnt (rubbish).
On the other hand, women are special and completely different and better, and not like those evil men, who are all patriarchal bastards and inferior to women, the evil testosterone-poisoned sexists. All genders are equal, except for women.
One of the women on there insisted that we (shorthand, sorry) can never be women because we don't suffer from period pains. I suggested she grew up, and enquired as to her experience in being kicked repeatedly in the testicles for being 'queer', or how much pain her last suicide attempt had brought her.
Over and over again there was confusion between gender and gender roles, which are almost all constructs. Pink is a badge, not a state of mind. Then there was the repeated conflation of sexuality and gender ('why can't they just accept they are really gay men?') and finally the unsupported statement, after lurid descriptions of 'surgical mutilation' and the equation of GID with thinking one is Napoleon, that all post-op transpeople regret the surgery.
An attempt at a balanced article, despite the references quoted, followed by the usual bottom-feeding frenzy.
Public opinion
I didn't bother to go very deep into the comments. What I saw was pretty discouraging, the number of comments regarding assigned gender (at birth) being the only factor were quite common.
So, if they could do a precision scan on your brain and discover you were completely normal for all male norms (assuming their is such a thing), and there were indeed female norms (another assumption), you are just simply crazy and need to get over it. Because you have no physical markers for your feelings they have no right to exist.
I don't know what the research says about this, it might be interesting to find out. I do remember reading (hearing?) there were feminized brains, but I don't know how this relates to the transgender condition. I do know in some cases it didn't matter (supposedly), but like I said, it would be interesting to know the facts.
The article was pretty good
... I didn't think to read the comments; sounds like they were worth missing.