It is more convenient to be a woman

[Christ_empowered]

Lots of issues come into play. I'm glad I wasn't born female, in large part because I used to be poor and I have mental problems. That combo, with being female would have = exploitation and probably a state mental hospital. What actually happened, with me a male, was hard enough.

But if you have money and power, being either gender is easy. I read some sociology stuff on gender...both men and women are getting mixed signals on what, exactly, society expects from them. Just meeting the expectations of one's gender is getting harder, because the expectations aren't as clear as they used to be.

I don't get the transgender thing. I skimmed over some basic psychoanalysis stuff that said it was rooted in some form of narcissism, gender narcissism...wanting to be of the other gender to escape the reality of one's lot in life, something like that. I dunno.

 

[evenifigoalone]

I've talked to trans/gender queer people a little bit online, asked questions in a forum setting. According to them it has a lot to do with society's expectations and treatment based on one's gender. (It's more complex than that, too.) I don't know if it's that way for all of them. (Understand this is not an endorsement of transgenderism on my part.)
I don't think society's views should matter very much--they're always changing. But they're still pretty ingrained, so they affect us in ways we may not even fully realize. And of course you can't really control how people treat you in general.

 

[jasonc]

I've talked to trans/gender queer people a little bit online, asked questions in a forum setting. According to them it has a lot to do with society's expectations and treatment based on one's gender. (It's more complex than that, too.) I don't know if it's that way for all of them. (Understand this is not an endorsement of transgenderism on my part.)
I don't think society's views should matter very much--they're always changing. But they're still pretty ingrained, so they affect us in ways we may not even fully realize. And of course you can't really control how people treat you in general.

that changes with aging. Imho one is more vulnerable to peer pressure during your formative years.

 

[JoJoe]

I have talked to a few people who were not happy with there gender. To me it makes no sense for most of these statistics to say they do it for others view of them. Simply because being a transgender is looked down upon in most societies.

Whatever the thought anyways is just a lie from the enemy. Constantly taking a bite of that fruit of death.

 

[evenifigoalone]

I have talked to a few people who were not happy with there gender. To me it makes no sense for most of these statistics to say they do it for others view of them. Simply because being a transgender is looked down upon in most societies.

Whatever the thought anyways is just a lie from the enemy. Constantly taking a bite of that fruit of death.

From what I'm told it's not so much about other's views and behavior towards them as it is feeling that behaviors, actions, and feelings society associates or assigns to a gender doesn't fit them at all. And it's not the same as not typically liking "girly" things or "boy" things, since many cis-gendered individuals, or those who identify as their biological gender, are like that (including me).

I can't really explain it, I have no idea what it's entirely about nor what it feels like. I know very little about transgenderism and am not entirely sure what to think of it.
To me society's view on gender are flimsy and unreliable and I don't get the concept of a "mental gender" because I've never felt like one gender or the other--I'm just a person inhabiting a female body and that makes me female.
At the same time, there does seem to be some documentation on gender dysphoria, and I'm not inclined to tell someone they don't or can't feel something. I'm not them, I simply can't know what they do and do not experience.

I'm considering moving this thread to Christian Talk & Advice since we are approaching LGBT discussion and the official policy is that discussion goes there.

 

[YosefHayim]

I think it's more convenient to be a potato than a human.