Thoughts of a Mad Man

My Take on Fluid Gender and related

I was reading a newspaper op-ed article about how sex (Male or female) isn't something we made up.


And, well, I hate to disagree with her. At a fundamental level, she's more right than wrong. The differences are real things. Yes, they vary, with some correlations being less than 100 percent, but they do correlate, on an overwhelming basis. To the extent that anything is real and not made up, that any idea has validity, this has construct validity. Nothing has pure construct validity, though. Once an idea exists in our minds it is hard to abjure. It could be that, in a different timeline, even the physical gender ideas that we have could be something that just doesn't quite gel. People would still probably pair up much the same, but they would think about it differently.


It could be, but I'm not good enough with the science fiction to make that world.


But what struck me, what I finally understood, is that it's not the mainstream 'normals' who are obsessed with the idea of gender. Me? I'm not really thrilled with being a man, I do have a spot of self-loathing but I'm not transgender and I'm not gender-dysphoric. Why not? -because it doesn't make that much difference. Might I be happier if I could switch? Perhaps, perhaps not. I'd also like to be Kryptonian a la Superman, or possibly a cat.


But maybe I am. Superman, that is. Maybe shrugging off gender dysphoria, and species dysphoria is a superpower. It certainly seems that these situations affect some people like a bullet tearing through flesh. Maybe not caring is a super power. Like most superhero special traits, mine is rooted in disaster. Depression and self-hatred are part of my origin story.


Back to the made-up genders. I know that if you're transgender, our notions oppress your spirit. I also know that the specific alternates you feel are central to your life. However, people failing to understand, let alone embrace, your cultural notions doesn't make them your oppressors. They have the right to understand the universe how they see fit. What it makes them is foreign to you. When you redefine things in this way, you become your own culture, your own nation. It is incumbent upon you to decide what to do about the cultural split. Will you retreat, congratulating yourself upon the rarefied wisdom of your people? This is my preference. Will you advance and conquer the world at large? Or you might stand as a rebel counter-culture, neither leading, following, or getting out of the way.


In any case, if this is you, I wish you luck. I would tell you not to take things so hard. It is a choice, but I know that it's not one that is always easy or possible to change. Superman would never tell me to shrug off a bullet wound. I leave that to the superheroes that gained their power in a monastery; I got mine by birthright. Just know that if I could stand in front of your bullets, I would.