Who Is Trans? Why Does It Matter?

We’re coming up to Transgender Day of Visibility on March 31. And March 12 is DeTrans Awareness Day.

So this is a good time to ask, Who exactly is a “trans” person?

If your answer is “anyone who says they’re trans,” that just changes the question to “Who says they’re trans?” It matters.

“Trans” used to mean “transsexual.” Now it means “transgender”—a huge difference. Transexuals had gone through (or were going through) a process involving medical procedures; the goal was to change their body.

The fact that the word has sometimes been used in the past to pathologize this condition does not refute the value of this narrowly-defined word. Many who use the word transsexual consider their medical diagnosis, transition using hormones, and genital surgery as important parts of their experience.

According to trans people, transgender is an identity involving rejection of cultural norms (perceived or real), a defiance of societal expectations and assumptions about gender. This definition would include those who identify as gender non-binary; all gay people; and anyone who demands that others describe them with pronouns other than he or she.

So being trans is about someone’s relationship to society. In some perfect fictional world of absolutely no gender expectations, would anyone be trans?

The current definition, obviously, includes many more people than the old one. And that’s a very practical issue.

Look at the definition of “trans” promoted by a range of supportive organizations. From the Human Rights Campaign to Planned Parenthood to the American Psychological Association, American Psychiatric Association, and prestigious Endocrine Society, the definitions concur: being trans now means one who defies societal expectations/assumptions about gender, including those who identify as gender non-binary.

“Transgender” is an example of category creep—in which a useful category, initially narrowly defined, gradually expands in scope to include more and more members. This inevitably changes the initial, useful meaning of the category, which is why the phenomenon matters.

We’ve all seen plenty of examples of category creep: “Trauma.” “Sexual dysfunction.” “Emotional infidelity.” “Queer.” “Addiction.” “Victim.”

As the criteria for a category broaden, there’s typically more public discussion about it. Inevitably, more and more non-professionals describe themselves as belonging to the category, claiming expertise and demanding sympathy.

PRACTICAL SIGNIFICANCE

What is the practical significance of this?

~ More people now use the vocabulary of trans and gender to express their ordinary life distress, particularly kids and young adults.
~ It privileges the common experience of alienation as special—IF it’s described in genderized terms.
~ Angst and even (anti-trans) discrimination become their own identity. When people violate common cultural norms (changing one’s name, demanding that others use novel pronouns, men wearing dresses, etc.) OF COURSE there are social consequences. That’s equally true for other norm violations like wearing shorts when it’s snowing, singing on airplanes, and telling strangers about your hemorrhoids.

MALE/FEMALE

Here’s an interesting fact: When “trans” meant transsexual, people who identified themselves that way were mostly male. Now that “trans” means transgender, newly-identifying trans people are mostly female.

That’s a direct result of defining trans as the rejection of conventional gender roles. In Western culture, female roles are far more restrictive than male ones. So more females (especially young ones) want to distance themselves from the female role than males want to distance themselves from the male role.

Put another way, most young males are more comfortable in the conventional male role than most young females are in the conventional female role. So more females want to challenge their traditional role than men.

Simple gender non-conformity now equals trans. As more and more girls throw off traditional female stereotypes, more will think they’re trans.

Today’s crop of teen girls who don’t want to conform to traditional female expectations now have convenient ways to describe themselves that their mothers didn’t: I’m trans. I’m gender non-conforming. I’m queer. Not queer as in gay, but queer as in “don’t label me.”

I totally sympathize with humans who don’t want to be labeled—whether about gender or anything else. But by providing the handy category of trans, we incentivize young people to genderize their frustration and alienation. Given that young people are also, by definition, exploring their sexuality and sense of self, they are especially vulnerable to latching onto ideas that make them feel understood and special.

Activated by second-wave feminism of the 1970s, Western societies were making good progress on reducing gender stereotypes and traditional gender roles. The project wasn’t finished, but progress was tangible in critical life areas such as employment, education, health, and legal rights.

The simple (and radical) idea of this feminism was that any person, male or female, should have every opportunity. Women can be pilots, and men can be kindergarten teachers, without betraying their femininity or masculinity.

The drive towards equality of opportunity now seems stalled by the trans movement’s fixation on traditional gender roles. Until recently, when a young woman said I don’t want to be a homemaker or have children or have to wear a dress, she was being reassured that she can still be a girl or a woman without any of that stuff.

Now the trans movement is telling those young women that they aren’t women, they’re male—a dramatic affirmation of traditional gender roles straight out of 1957.

We should be telling young people and everyone else that a female and a male can each do whatever they want independent of their genitalia. You don’t need to change your gender in order to broaden your horizons, opportunities, or self-expression. You don’t even have to be gender non-binary.

TRUMP’s WAR ON TRANS

President Trump and his allies are waging war on transgender people (along with many others as well). This is wrong on every possible level.

But that doesn’t mean we can’t critique the trans movement. And it doesn’t mean we should abandon what science tells us about today’s trans phenomenon: that’s it’s primarily female; that it occurs in both geographic and economic clusters; that de-transition and surgery-regret rates are far from zero.

Of course trans people should have the same rights as anybody else. But in the name of protecting trans people, letting disaffected young people call themselves trans without challenging them to talk about what that actually means is a disservice to them and to society.

Instead, we should make sure that all people, especially kids, have a rich vocabulary available with which to talk about their toughest feelings and experiences. This includes feeling sexually conspicuous, sexually inadequate or abnormal, and having been sexually exploited, by either a peer or family member.

We should also be celebrating the dramatic decline in gender stereotypes—while talking honestly about what’s still needed.

I understand that many people want to reject social norms about gender roles (I’m one of them). We should encourage people, especially young people, to ask themselves: Is renouncing your biological birth gender the best way to do it?
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