People are complicated, not binary!

The last week or so has seen a number of trans-related stories in the news including:


The real trans scandal is not the failings of one doctor but cruelty by many
Guardian columnist Suzanne Moore leaves Twitter following transphobic row

but it is Julie Burchill's article in the Observer that has caused the most outrage: Transsexuals should cut it out

Numerous bloggers have made sensible responses including Law & Sexuality, miss_s_b, Fagburn and Stephen Tall. 

The language she used about trans people included:
...a bunch of dicks in chicks' clothing...
...their relationship with their phantom limb is the most pressing problem that women – real and imagined – are facing right now...
...the stand-off with the trannies. 
...they're lucky I'm not calling them shemales. Or shims...
...a bunch of bed-wetters in bad wigs...
..To have your cock cut off and then plead special privileges as women – above natural-born women,.. 

She clearly thinks that all trans people are men pretending to be women, that there are naturally-born women and imaginary women (i.e. men with bad wigs). I don't consider myself a trans person but i can see why they would find that offensive!

It is very easy to see everything in a very binary way: gay and straight, male and female, masculine and feminine*. But human beings are complicated. 

Most people understand that sexuality is more of a continuous spectrum (from exclusive opposite sex attraction to exclusive same sex attraction) than separate categories. Although most people would place themselves and people they know near one end or the other (straight or gay), they recognise that bisexuals exist between the two ends of the spectrum. 

However, there is a tendency for bisexual erasure (aka bisexual invisibility) where bisexuals are defined as straight or gay depending on the visible nature of their current relationship or by claiming that anyone who says they are bisexual are really gay but can't admit to it yet. Also, given the social pressure on teenagers to have straight relationships, it is not surprising that many gay people have had straight sex in their past, although that doesn't make them bisexual either.

Just because most people think there are two discrete sexes (male and female), it doesn't mean that that is true. Approximately 0.1% of births are intersex (where there is enough ambiguity in the appearance of the genitals for a medical diagnosis and consideration of treatment to normalise their appearance). 

Gender is a range of characteristics of masculinity and femininity. Different societies have slightly different collections of characteristics but most are pretty similar. Every person has a gender identity of being male or female, based on how they feel they fit the genders as defined by their societies. As people have a collection of characteristics, it makes sense to think that while most people have characteristics that mostly fall at one extreme or the other (masculine or feminine), there must be people whose characteristics fall somewhere in the middle.

For most people their sex matches their gender identity but a small minority of people are diagnosed with Gender Identity Disorder (where they are dissatisfied with their sex and/or the gender roles associated with that sex). The typical outcome is to change their sex to match their gender identity.

The Latin word trans can be translated as "on the other side" or "across". It has also therefore become the definition for people where their sex and gender are different. The opposite of trans is the word cis, meaning "on the same side" (this pairing is used in chemistry to describe the shape of a molecule). Cis is beginning to enter everyday language as meaning people where their sex and gender are the same**.

To summarise, people are complicated whether they are straight or gay or somewhere in between, born male or female or somewhere in between, have a gender identity of male or female or somewhere in between, or have their sex and gender aligned or conflicting.

To criticise people for not fitting the most common categories is to not recognise their humanity - and that can't be right.



[* I may write a separate post about the binary approach to politics - the narrowing of all political philosophies to just left or right]

[**Julie Burchill took offence to the use of the word cis, clearly not understanding where the word came from...
 "...having recently discovered that their lot describe born women as 'Cis' – sounds like syph, cyst, cistern; all nasty stuff – they're lucky I'm not calling them shemales. Or shims."]