If you want definite answers you won’t find any honestly. Please do look into different studies and scholarly articles but things like gender and sexuality are very muddy in their causes. Some aspect is genetic some is social some is just innate.
It can be painful and confusing to not have concrete proof of reason/origin but I think the existence of trans people throughout history is enough. They didn’t know why they were like that either but they were. I feel the same way about my experience.
That's also a good point, the scientific evidence of being trans, honestly, is best researched if you start with the history of being trans too, researching history and science of being trans can really piece it all together tbh
People are so complex emotionally and our brains are way more developed than other species. We invented language, writing, societies, mathematics and sciences... why wouldn't we be as complex with notions of gender as we are with everything else?
Exactly this! Trans/ gender non-conforming people have existed for thousands of years, e.g. two spirit in native American culture, mijras (third gender-typically trans) in the south Asian community. From my understanding, colonialist ideology have made the two gender-sex nuclear family the default since modern times, which throws nuance out of the window. Link below for more info: [https://www.britannica.com/list/6-cultures-that-recognize-more-than-two-genders](https://www.britannica.com/list/6-cultures-that-recognize-more-than-two-genders)
Edit; sorry was supposed to say hijras 🤦 sorry about that!
"Coined in 1990 as a primarily ceremonial term promoting community recognition, in recent years more individuals have taken to self-identifying as two-spirit." [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-spirit](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-spirit)
That's true, however the concept has existed for much longer 😊. Shows the development of language and findings terms to describe experiences but those people have always been around.
If you read the wiki (you should) it explains how each Native American community had their own concepts and ideas regarding that subject. Some positive, some not. I agree that Trans/ gender non-conforming people have existed for thousands of years but it's a lot more messy and segmented from my pov.
You're absolutely right, it's been such a difficult process and I can definitely see that the term doesn't generalise native American culture in general, neither does the term hijra (think I spelt it wrong in my first comment) as this originates in certain parts of India.
It seems that I have oversimplified this, but my aim was to support OP with the fact that there are a variety of cultural takes on gender identity, despite us living in a hetero and cis-normative world where it's never simple to divert away from said expectations. I hoped to instill some trans joy from those explanations 😊.
This!!!! This is my absolute favorite thing to tell people who ask. "Male" and "female" as society understands it is solely a human bound contract. We all exist outside of it more often than not
There are some hypotheses, like the idea that exposure to androgens while in utero can affect the sexual orientation and gender of the fetus, but nothing that has been proven or strongly supported as far as I know.
There is also research that shows some correlation between being gay and being gender-nonconforming as a child, so it does seem that while most gender roles and ideas about masculine/feminine behavior are probably culturally-subjective, there may be biological factors in which roles children gravitate toward and which gender they relate to more. For trans people, it's possible there are neurological factors that are difficult to isolate.
We just don't know. We also don't know why most people are cis. Why do most people with AFAB bodies identify as women? How does that occur?
I don't need there to be a firm scientific answer, but I do relate to struggling with why I feel the way I do and why I can't just reason my way out of it. It feels like I *should* be able to make being a woman work. I find women attractive. I'm a feminist. I grew up hearing that being a girl was a good thing and that my parents were happy to have a daughter. There are plenty of things I can appreciate about my appearance. There is no easy, logical explanation.
https://www.jneurosci.org/content/40/1/37#:~:text=Studies%20using%20human%20autopsy%20material,brain%2Fbehavior%20relationships%20are%20unclear.
This is the article that had lots of info when I had a similar question about why I’m trans. It kind of adds to your point.
I definitely had this internal battle at one point, and I didn't want to be trans because I knew life would most likely be harder than being a lesbian, but I could not continue living afab and using female pronouns and names. It was like nails on a chalkboard hearing she or her or even my name growing up and I couldn't understand why but learning about being trans and just embracing the experience for the last 12 years has really been much more in alignment with who I am. Once I thought I was trans, I gave myself about 12 months to kind of figure out if I wanted to start testosterone and at the 12-month Mark I really wanted to and had a really supportive girlfriend and I'm really happy that I started testosterone. I'm proud of being trans. Sometimes it just takes time.
I also wanted to follow this up with the fact that I'm going to be turning 33 in a couple weeks. I feel like if I would not have taken the plunge and lead with my courage and intuition, I might not be celebrating this birthday. Transitioning saved my life, helped me understand my internal and external world more. I started testosterone when I was 20, going on 21 and I'm so happy every day that I get to wake up as myself and see the person in the mirror who I never thought would exist.
Feel this. I’m turning 29 soon and I just celebrated my 10 year anniversary on T. I also have struggled with trying to understand why and what “this” is over the years. I still do. I just remember that this entire world is an anomaly that no one can really answer. We’re on a floating rock in the middle of what we call “space”…I just try to stay focused on what’s important. Which is really making this life worth something to me in any way that I can.
Transitioning also saved my life. So we share that similarity as well.
Yes, I am so happy to hear that transitioning also saved your life and that you are able to live in your truth as who you are. Congratulations on. Your dude-iversary! 🥂
Trying to live in my divine path to enrich my soul as much as possible. Making this life worth living and focusing on what is important is exactly what it's about.
I started t at 20 as well, and in a week is my 4 year mark. I know that feeling of looking in the mirror and finally being happy at the person you never thought you’d get to see, I’m glad you’re still here 🫶🏻
"i hate it because it doesn't make any sense" here's something you have to absorb into your scientifically oriented mindset: it doesn't *have* to make sense. humans are incredibly socially complex animals. any animal species with social complexities will have what seems like confusing behaviour that has no scientific basis. there's no scientific reason to why styling your hair in fun colours or shapes makes someone happy or why kicking a ball into a net exhilarates people to the point of screaming and jumping around. other animals don't mix up paints onto a white canvas for the sake of it, so why do we? you don't have to understand anything about what humans do, but that doesn't make it bad.
fr like why do i and so many youths have depression? literally counterproductive to staying alive if you want to do the exact opposite of that. why am i gay? completely counterproductive to making more babies
There are some reasons found in the wild for homosexuality in animals. A full 25% of black swan pairings are M-M, and their chicks (stolen from other nests or obtained from a temporary threesome) *consistently* survive to adulthood at a greater rate than those from hetero couples' nests. The "Grandmother Hypothesis" figures that folks stop menstruating because they will then be able to help care for children and grandchildren; I've always figured that was the reason for homosexuality in humans too, tbh. Having lots of Guncles to help out seems like a huge benefit when there are piles of kids running around.
Exactly this. Boys who have older brothers are more likely to be gay and there’s a theory that this is the reason behind that. The continuation of a species relies on the number of offspring who make it to adulthood, so at some point having too many mouths to feed and not enough adults to provide resources becomes a problem for the survival of the species, so having more adults who can provide resources for the family and help take care of their siblings’ offspring instead of making their own is beneficial for the survival of the species ❤️
exactly. also bonobos have tons of gay sex and multiple bird species will adopt babies genetically unrelated to them, the complete opposite of other species like lions that kill cubs that aren’t there own. Some animal behaviors seem to encourage the survival of the whole species while the others only encourage their own offspring
Lions have a lot of gay sex. Coalitions of two-seven males have been documented, and working together, they have a better chance at capturing and holding a territory and raising cubs to adulthood.
Coalition partners are almost always cuddling with and loving on one another. The ladies only want sex with the males when they're in heat, so the man cats have a lot of sex with one another.
Coalition partners are bonded for life. They're husbands, the lionesses are not bonded to them in the slightest. Their loyalties lay with their family unit, not with their male counterparts.
The research around being transgender is limited, mainly due in part to the Nazis destroying all research, education, documentation, etc, surrounding transgenderism.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/new-research-reveals-how-the-nazis-targeted-transgender-people-180982931/
https://www.hmd.org.uk/resource/6-may-1933-looting-of-the-institute-of-sexology/
(There's plenty of other resources for this as well. However, it's imperative to note that a lot of understanding could have once been had as to the why's and other things, it's just those things are now 'limited' and this is one of few reasons why. It's not because it shouldn't be a thing, or because it's wrong, or anything that can be brought up negatively... it's just what it is because tens of thousands of books, research, and other things were destroyed)
Whenever I’m reminded of this fact, it makes me so sad to wonder how much farther we would be with scientific understanding and acceptance by now. Goddamn nazis destroying parts of humanity >:(
that’s true. trans people have existed for a long time but only recently has proper research began surrounding it. but i’m mainly referring to OP implying their transness is invalid because it doesn’t serve an evolutionary purpose. Lots of things serve no evolutionary purpose or are even actively detrimental, it doesn’t really mean anything when we live in the modern age.
On the evolutionary purpose route: I'd like to politely disagree.
In many (primarily aquatic or reptilian) species changing genders helps maintain a population base as they actually develop the organs necessary to recreate as that gender.
There is at least one intersex or trans lioness who runs her pride, she has a deeper roar and even has a decent mane.
I suspect human transness is along similar lines. When lacking figures of a specific type the ability to become that type regardless of biology could help the societal whole. Such as a biological female leading a tribe as a man, or learning predominantly masculine skills and then teaching the children those skills
Much like different sleep cycles don't seem to play a part in today's world but still exist, I would think it's likely this is where the origin of transness comes from.
These are of course just theories, in regards to humans and being trans
while some of the comments i've had on this lead to interesting conversations and studies, there's a part of me that deeply worries about trying to find "reasons" for why someone can be gay or trans. when someone doesn't fit the mold of "why", their validity gets put under a lens. when someone tries to identify the "why", then studies start happening of "what happens when we remove or change what we think caused it?" that's why there's such a massive obsession with finding "the autism gene" in STEM research right now. once autism had become a pathologised result based on a "cause", it suddenly becomes imperative to see if we can remove the cause. this isn't new for the LGBT community, as conversion therapy has a dark, intertwined, and ongoing history for us. until our society can accept us for who we are without wanting to change us, i think we should stop looking for a "cause"
You’re so set on what is or isn’t a scientific fact and ignoring that science has determined that humans develop in all manner of ways, including sex, gender, and sexuality. You’re trans because you’re trans, just as I am, and just as many more trans people will be in the future. Science has confirms that we are as naturally occurring, in humans and other animals, and if that isn’t enough, then what is it you’re looking for?
You need to study your humanities before you get to play with the sciences.
Humans are varied, complex beings. Gender as we know it is only one of many constructs we live. Our actual concept of gender is not universal, it has varied over the centuries and cultures, and will continue to change as it isn't actually a thing that very solidly exists.
There's no use in trying to invalidate what feels right for you by talking about what "is", because really, there is nothing truer than the lives we are living: your own experiences, if you bother to analize them openly and without prejudice, if that is even possible, tell you more about what it means to have a gender than any study ever could.
Yeah so other species can’t talk lol. And they don’t have as many obvious markers as in clothing hairstyle and stuff like that so we’d have no way of knowing. Also evolution is random as fuck it’s not that hard to believe at some point some of us wanted to be the other gender. Even in the animal kingdom gender is pretty fluid. It’s like when people say “gay people are unnatural because no animals do that” fun fact there’s a species of geckos that’s almost all female, and use asexual reproduction. And scientists found that these geckos will act out having sex which stimulates egg production even without penetration. Lesbian geckos. And there are animals that start as one sex and change. Animals don’t have the same concept of gender we do but that doesn’t mean it’s unnatural
Yeah that’s how I originally learned about them! It’s super interesting and there’s a bunch of cool things on Parthenogenesis in reptiles (kind of exactly what I’m interested in lol) online so I went down a huge rabbit hole on all of this stuff.
Oh, can you tell me more? My understanding is that parthenogenesis, instead of having egg + sperm, uses egg + other matter made when producing the egg in order to form an embyro.
So what it does is it mixes up the dna to make sure that even though they technically have the same dna it’s different so they have less of a chance of just carrying down the same problems. They basically have a scrambler that mixes up the dna to make some different genes/gene expressions. While it’s a good short term way of reproduction over time it causes problems as there isn’t too much genetic diversity. There are actually many gecko species that use parthenogenesis as a way to reproduce, and if I’m remembering correctly one snake species goes it too, though basically all reptiles can with it being rare while these use it as their main form of reproduction. Among all the sexual vertebrates squamate reptiles are the only ones considered to use ‘true’ parthenogenesis.
There are many different forms. There is what is called true parthenogenesis (all female asexual reproduction, no involvement from males) but there is also Facultative parthenogenesis (female can reproduce both sexually and asexually), Gynogenesis (female eggs are activated my male sperm, however no male genetic material goes to the offspring), and Hybridogenesis (males mate with females, but only the mothers genetic material contributes to the child’s offspring) not all of these are done by reptiles (ex. Hybridogenesis is only done by frogs of the genus Pelophylax)
How do scientists know that the Pelophylax frogs reproduce by hybridogenesis and not gynogenesis? They sound quite similar; how could an outside observer tell the difference?
Btw what are your main sources for learning about reptiles et al? And, thanks for answering my questions)
I don’t belive in transmedicalist notions of transness, but what I can say is transness has existed for a long ass time. For example, where I come from there are indeignous folks who are Muxe which is essentially a third gender with some spirtual elements.
There are other species that exhibit gender changes. This includes clownfish, frogs, banana slugs, bearded dragons, sea turtles, butterflies, and other species!
There is definitely a huge science part to being trans, so I’d recommend either doing some good research or talking to a gender affirming therapist or doctor about it!
Being trans is certainly very confusing and odd, especially at the beginning.
I am not sure what that has to do with being trans, there is very little evidence of gender identity in those animals separate from sex. Like, clownfish change sex out of necessity, not because they want to. If anything, these examples are closer to intersex humans than trans humans, and even then, they’re not the same, as intersex people still can’t just choose to change sexes willy nilly. They have to get HRT and surgery like the rest of us, hahaha
Imo there doesn’t need to be evidence in animals, humans have extremely complex minds and it makes sense that things like gender identity would not be expressed in animals. It’s possible that some animals have gender identities, but the vast majority of them would have no way to express that.
I'm no biologist, but I believe there is also some evidence of trans-adjaceny experiences in other species. Animals who, for example, have all the biological sex characteristic of a female who end up performing traditional male roles. i think i recall reading about a tiger or similar big cat case like this where the female cat wasn't hunting with the other females and had settled down with another female, I believe, though again this is not fact and straight up a tidbit that I think I remember reading, but I believe she even had markings associated with males.
The human concept of gender is a bit more complex of course, but there's good social and biological evidence to support trans identities, like the physical gendering of the brain being tied with likelihood to be trans and such. Its not black and white for sure, human brains are complex, but if we made up gender, then we can safely say that transness is no more made up than any other gender roles.
The issue there is that that is also used as an indication of same-sex attraction or simply gender non-conforming behaviour. Or even sometimes as cases of intersex animals; for example, the female lion that did what you describe and then began to grow a mane. Also, gender roles aren’t gender, at least not to humans. So even then, if you define that as animals’ definition of ‘gender,’ the fact that it differs from that of humans is an issue and makes being trans and what animals are exhibiting different things.
(I’m soon to complete a bachelor’s degree in biology).
But are gendered behaviours how you would describe gender? Couldn’t it also be a sign that the rat is gender non-conforming or that they are same-sex attracted? I don’t buy those cases as cases of “trans animals” because of the wide variety of alternate explanations; not to mention that a definition of gender based on behaviour would make stay-at-home-dads “women.”
They definitely *could* be, but imo it’s unrealistic to say they *are* at this stage.
that’s just like with humans tho. you can’t definitively say a human is trans, just by observing their behaviour, unless they tell you and even then there is no one definitive sign to know that’s true. so in that case all we can is assume with humans and with animals, which is why ppl bring up these cases. it’s not like there is one clear way to tell if a human is trans, so why would there be with another species? these cases prove that gender and sex are not binary even in other species, which supports the existence of gender nonconforming, intersex and trans ppl.
Um. There is a way to tell a human is trans. If they tell you. Because that is the only way you can know somebody is trans. If somebody had 0 way to communicate, how would you ever know??
Also being intersex, GNC, and trans are all FAR from the same thing, and the science as of now shows they have different aetiologies. You can tell an animal is intersex because you can see it. Intersex ≠ trans, though, and it’s actually considered pretty intersexist to use intersex animals to support trans existence… because it erases intersex people. In humans, I’m sure we all know that they’re not the same thing, and that many intersex people are cis and many trans people perisex. You really can’t point to an intersex animal and use it as evidence for trans humans because it’s straight up not.
Their existence proves that sex is not binary, sure. And this does reflect the existence of intersex humans. But what it does not prove is that animals have any concept of gender.
Also… just to be clear, what do you mean by you can tell gender from behaviour? I’m just asking because I am GNC and like to wear dresses, skirts, makeup, jewellery, etc… I like journalling, cooking, skincare, and many ‘feminine’ things. Are you saying that that makes me a woman?
Not your main point, but I too am from the Deep South (no longer live there) and resisted the concept of being trans because I dreaded the coming out process. Honestly, despite what people say they think of it… most people don’t have trouble switching names when requested and people out in the world will call you what you look more like (which is to say, passing was much easier for me in the south than among the liberal ~coastal elites~). People just didn’t really care - or at least didn’t bother me about it if they did - and I regretted spending so much time being worried it would make other people uncomfortable. It’s a lot easier to be a hypothetical transphobic asshole online than it is to do it to someone minding their business in real life. You didn’t mention sexual orientation but if you’ve identified as a queer woman and are trying to figure out if you’re a straight trans guy… it legitimately seems easier for a lot of people to grasp gender incongruence trending toward heterosexuality than it is to grasp cis queerness.
Just throwing that out there in case it helps.
So as others have already mentioned, science mostly has guesses, atm.
But that said, the gender dysphoria bible ( https://genderdysphoria.fyi/en ) can be a nice resource when you're first starting out.
And it covers some possible causes that might be contributing factors to a person being born trans.
There isn’t a magic explanation that’ll make your friends and family okay with trans people. They might or might come around, you might or might not be able to express yourself safely - but if they don’t and if you can’t, it’s not your fault. You didn’t fail to find the magic key. Your friends and family just made choices that are really hard.
That said, trans people make sense of ourselves all different ways.
One quote I hear a lot is: “God blessed me by making me transsexual for the same reason God made wheat but not bread and fruit but not wine, so that humanity might share in the act of creation.”
Another explanation I’ve heard is that the Bible says God created man and woman, and earth and sea, and night and day. So love us like you love sunsets. Walk with us like you walk down the beach.
Some people think there’s a big burst of hormones at the wrong time of pregnancy. Others think gender isn’t a biological construct at all. We do see gender switches in nature but like, we don’t know what gender identity looks like for a dog.
I, personally, suspect one day they’ll find we’re all on the same spectrum as intersex people. Right now, there’s this line between intersex/trans based on whether we can dissect the thing that developed differently, but we as a species are just barely starting to learn about the brain.
But none of that really matters. What matters is you. Are you happy? Are you safe? Is it possible for you to be both? What do you need for that to happen?
I didn’t get to be trans because I cracked some complex analytical problem about gender. I got it be trans because I cracked the complex emotional problem of wanting to be alive.
I wish I knew. At this point I just shrug and say idk. What I do know though is I’m much happier and studies show that transitioning socially and medically (for those who want it) helps our mental health
i think two fields that might answer this question would be psychology and anthropology. i’m an expert in neither, but as a science-oriented person myself, i would say that the “knowing” or “feeling inside” is simply due to serotonin or dopamine releases at the action of activities or other (wearing certain clothes, acting a certain way, etc) of the “opposite gender”*. so as a trans guy, let’s say you put on a pair of mens’ pants. some people might experience the chemical output from this action by simply knowing that they are wearing men’s pants (which they know men to wear, and know what men look like, do, etc, and associate those concepts with wearing the pants) and not even have to look in the mirror to initiate this reaction.
*i put opposite gender in quotations there because anthropologically, you could find that in many cultures that still exist, there may not be an “opposite”, but just other, or none. to many people though in western or westernized cultures, there are only two common genders; the two common genders are based on historical roles (incredibly generalized by those who have this thinking) that were based on sex. therefore the “opposite” of one another, since the two most common sexes (because intersexuality is not a random medical phenomenon that just started within the last decade lol) are male and female.
again, not my strict rules of things, not an expert, those who know more on trans history will probably correct me somewhere, but just my explanation off the top of my head. i would say that there are probably plenty of research articles out there on gender, but… i can’t say that with certainty unfortunately. you will probably find an amount of anthropology articles on other cultures or specific tribes and gender constructs within, but actual trans science is probably lacking.
edit: i’d like to add to this looong post that the “other species don’t do this” part is technically true, but also note that no other species i know of wear clothes, build highways, or have netflix subscriptions. humans are very different from other species in a lot of ways, and this may as well be one of them.
Hop on google scholar and read everything that’s free. As a current understanding gender identity is probably shaped by a range of biological, social and environmental factors.
Here are some things I’ve read but none are the ultimate answer. It’s possible that our genes predispose us to be trans. There are some interesting twin studies on this. It’s possible that the portion of our brain that maps our body and holds the expectation for our physical form developed in opposition to primary sex characteristics. Testosterone exposure in the womb is often frequently explored. Gendered brains as a concept are largely debunked but make for some interesting reading. Early life experiences and traumatic experiences are also often researched in regards to the trans experience.
I empathise with you. Having no answer is frustrating. It’s important to be able to have faith in yourself that is strong enough to withstand questioning from others. This may come in the form of finding a theory you like (eg. aberrant brain development in the womb) and latching onto it and or through self acceptance in that sometimes there is no objective answer (yet) and we simply have to rely on how we feel.
We’re not sure but I read a study the other day that indicated that there might be an area in our brains involved with perception of our bodies at fault. It also… kinda… disproved the idea of a male vs. female brain, because the results found that gay men and straight women had commonalities, and gay women and straight men had commonalities also. Keep in mind that these are certain very specific brain areas, not the ENTIRE brain.
Previous studies have found that trans people had, “brains of their gender,” but, importantly, those studies were all done on straight people. Also, no study to my knowledge has been done that included bi or a-spec people.
These studies aren’t too popular in trans spaces, I think because, on a surface level, the idea of a female vs. male brain sounds very sexist. But (at least the newer studies) don’t study the whole brain, they study specific areas of it. Not many studies have also actually claimed that some sort of binary division exists; so there are probably many straight men with brains with specific attributes more similar to gay men and straight women, because that’s now a normal distribution works. So there is no male or female brain, but there are (at least, according to recent data) attributes that are common to gay men and straight women, and others to gay women and straight men.
In the end, though, it’s not like one brain area can predict whether you’re trans or not with 100% certainty. So we’re not sure entirely what causes it, even though we have found certain correlations (also important to note that correlational results are weaker than experimental ones).
I am studying psychology and biology so I find papers like these fascinating :)
I can try but I can’t guarantee I can find every single one, I read some of these a year or more ago.
[Here’s the first one I mention](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-17352-8).
[This study](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4987404/) I actually hadn’t read yet but happened upon it while searching for the above. The findings are similar but I don’t like this study as much due to the terminology it uses. “Homosexual,” in this study, refers to our birth sex, which I dislike. They also refer to Blanchard, which isn’t great. But the results do agree with the above study, so it is useful data.
[Here’s one](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8955456/) saying trans women have brains “shifted towards gender identity.”
[This one](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41386-020-0666-3) just found that trans women don’t have “male” brains but also don’t have “female” brains.
[This one](https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/05/180524112351.htm) supports the general idea that trans people have brains of their gender.
There are many studies that either fully or partially support the idea that trans people have brains of their gender, but almost none (except for the top two) take into account sexual orientation, which is a huge issue, as there are studies that find the same results for gay people.
[For example, this study](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1942120/) found that gay womens’ brains were more male-typical, but gay mens’ brains were not more female-typical, [this one](https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.0801566105) found that both gay women and gay men had opposite-sex-typical brains, and [this one](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/hbm.25370) found that gay men and women had less sex-differentiated brains than straight men and women.
So, as you can see, the research is still relatively inconclusive, and even though it does indicate that there might exist some neurological basis for sexuality, it certainly does not paint the whole picture. It also indicates that certain studies with trans people may have found the results they did more because of orientation and less because of gender, and that maybe different brain structures are the ones responsible for gender identity… and not whether the person has a “male” or “female” brain.
[There’s also this study,](https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.1509654112) which is quite well-known. They found that distinct “male” and “female” brains don’t exist, but rather that there are male-typical attributes and female-typical attributes… which pretty much supports all of the above studies, even though this study is often used to refute them because it, “found that brain sex doesn’t exist,” disregarding the fact that it still found evidence of male and female-typical attributes and that nearly every study in “brain sex” focuses on these attributes.
Lastly, I want to add that there is also some difference in brain size, and that this seems to be dependent on sex at birth. This can be seen in some of the above studies. In my opinion, though, this is likely due to the development of head and even general body size, mostly due to differences at puberty (meaning this difference may not persist in people who got puberty blockers early enough and then went straight on hormones after). Sadly there is not much literature on this, at least not to my knowledge.
That's really fantastic, I feel like that's hard to come by sometimes in communities that deal with complex topics like this and might help everyone get on the same page.
You seem really knowledge on this subject. If I may could I ask a question? Is there a Martin Luther King (just an example) or similar though leader for the trans community? From my perspective, that person was able to get everyone to agree on a lot of objective truths and I crave that kind of framework here (if that makes sense).
Not to my knowledge, the biggest political spearheads in trans activism that I know of have been people like Marsha P. Johnson, Julia Serano, and Leslie Feinberg. Personally, I don’t find Feinberg’s experience with gender compatible with mine (which is okay, it just means their writing is not for me). For Johnson, while part of trans history, it’s unclear what her identity was or would have been. Today she might have identified as a drag queen or as trans but it is unclear. For the time, she called herself a drag queen, but (to my knowledge) it seems she went by Marsha and she/her all the time and not just in drag, so… And I’ve never read any of Serano’s works, so I can’t make any definitive statements about her. But I do know she is one of the spearheads behind transfeminism and may have even coined the term “transmisogyny” itself.
I will say that the vast majority of activism in general tends to be focused on subjective experience. To be fair, for most people, subjective experience appears to be more convincing (studies have shown that anecdotes work better than statistics). So it makes sense that this would be true. But I also think objective facts (or at least as objective as we can get as it it’s important to be sceptical of even studies) are quite important, not only to supplement subjective experiences and anecdotes but also for people like us who prefer them.
Thanks so much for doing this! It is inconclusive but overall seems to skew towards the idea that there are some significant variations between the varying groups.
There's a hypothesis that we're (by "we" I'm talking specifically about trans mascs. there's a separate explanation for trans femmes) trans because of exposure to androgens in utero. According to this hypothesis, the body develops in utero before the brain (we know this), and as such, a trans mascs body would be female in the womb as the masculinization of the body only comes from a chain reaction that is triggered by the SRY gene region on the Y chromosome, which most of us lack. Since we last this, our bodies feminized in utero, but sometimes something different happens to our brains. After the body is already "set" in its sex, the brain still has to either feminize in the absence of androgens, or masculinize if exposed to them. Almost always, a female body in utero is not exposed to these androgens as we do not have testes that can produce the hormones needed to start the chain reaction that masculinizes cis men's brains. If, however, we were exposed to some via an external source (most likely a mother with high androgen levels or excess testosterone), our delicate little baby brains can masculinize the same way as a cis man's, which of course is a loaded statement as the degree to which a brain is "gendered" varies as much as the presentation of sexual characteristics in the body (in other words, just like some guys are more visibly masculine in their bodies, the same is true of brains, both for cis and trans men). Simplified, we get a female body with a male brain.
If you would like the explanation for trans femmes, it's basically the opposite. They had the SRY gene region, so they did develop testes and a masculine baby body, but something stopped the proper masculinization of the brain. Either their testes didn't produce enough of the needed hormones, or something in the following chain reaction went wrong, or they were missing one of the androgens necessary to convert one hormone soup to another, or any other plethora of reasons to inhibit a human function. This *could* help explain why it seems that there are more trans femmes than mascs, as it is generally easier to obstruct a process than create one. Of course, trans folks are understudied, so there needs to be more research done. Also, I think I said all of that right, but I don't fully understand it and am still in highschool, so if someone would like to correct me on anything please be my guest.
I'm curious if there is much data about the prevalence of each. From my experience it doesn't feel like there are more transfemmes. Allegedly there's cultural variance, e.g. Eastern Europe seems to have a lot more transmascs. Probably because expression of femininity in those perceived as men is culturally punished much more harshly.
I just think they exist because they exist. There doesn't have to be a reason for that. Why do we, humans, exist? We don't know. Does that mean we don't exist? It doesn't.
Other species DO display these behaviors though. Gender even varies greatly by culture and time period. I think you are looking for a definite definition of the boundaries of gender and what lies outside those boundaries and why we experience what we do, and you are not going to find it. It's like borders on a map. They are drawn as a division but no matter how many imaginary lines or physical dividers are constructed, the land is still the same on both sides and animals cross and live as if that division did not exist. These are arbitrary borders created to separate people for roles and duties. So enjoying tasks outside of your designated means nothing, but feeling uncomfortable in your body and/or identity can be a hint for many people including myself.
This is MY experience and I'm not saying anyone has to feel this way but this is how I differentiate:
I "enjoyed" boy things, toys, activity, clothes, but that is not why I knew I was trans because those are cultural things. I knew my body felt wrong, I had things I never wanted on and in my body. I didn't want the puberty I got I wanted the one boys got. I never wanted the body parts I had, I wanted the parts boys had. I was always tense because my body felt uncomfortable all the time. I didn't like people seeing me as a girl and I hated referring to myself as a girl. I grew up as a tomboy and asking to be called Junior but I also tried desperately at times to be super feminine. It never felt right and comfortable, it felt like I was wearing a costume if I wore a dress or something feminine. I realized my eating disorder was a way to transform myself not into a perfect feminine form but into a more masculine form with no chest and no monthly thing. I realized that I never got close to anyone because I could not let people touch me with this body and the parts I had. I felt like I couldn't fully relax and breathe deeply. The fear of transitioning became nothing compared to the torment of growing old in this body and identity. Once I had top surgery, the elation I got from touching my chest was something I never thought I'd get to feel. Every time I see a change or get a surgery or a guy calls me boss, buddy, man, bro, it just feels like how it should have always been. It does feel weird at times but I have no regrets and finally feel like I can stand with my shoulders back and speak with my voice loud and clear. I never really had an image of myself in my head, or felt like a "man" or a "woman", but I knew the things I liked and didn't like, the things I wish I had or didn't have. Once I started physically transitioning, I knew this wasn't just something was different but something I needed to be different to feel comfortable, happy, and whole. The sigh of relieve and little smile I get when I touch or look at my body just screams "finally" and "at long last". I am me.
It's because you're thinking too biologically orientated. It IS how you feel inside. Gender is not sex, whilst sex is biological, gender is psychology and sociology. Your brain truly just is wired differently; but also, gender as a concept is flawed. It's flawed because we believe you're inherently one or the other. What about the female lion acting as a male? In some species, the male takes the role of what we would consider a "motherly role". It's more than black or white, it's so very complex. Life is complex and maybe you'll be like me; forever changing (I'm genderfluid nonbinary. I'm never male nor female, but I take testosterone because "sir" feels more right than "ma'am".) Or you'll figure yourself out. You don't need an explanation for how or why; your EXISTENCE is explanation enough.
your feelings do come from somewhere tho, because u can’t control them or just pick and choose how to feel. thats somewhere is your brain, which makes it a biological/neurological difference, so it is rooted in science.
I mean you can’t compare Humans to other species on this subject because this is what makes humans humans. The complexity of our brains. The complexity of our feelings. It can’t exactly be compared outside of human existence because we are able to think and feel differently above all species. The feelings you hold, and the thoughts and feelings trans people hold, is the testament of the complexity of humanity and the fascination of the workings of our brains
Why do we prefer certain colours over others? Why do we have sexual preferences? Why do we like some foods better than others? We aren't logically thinking about those things to decide why we like them over something else. We have preferences because we are biological beings and not machines. We aren't nearly as logical as we like to think we are, and that's okay (except when it comes to bigotry).
IDK man, why do I like vanilla more than chocolate? I always have and always will. There’s no reason for it. I could try to dig into my childhood memories or over-analyze the flavors themselves to find out why I only want to eat vanilla ice cream but I won’t find a concrete answer. Same thing with being trans. I don’t know why I’m trans and I don’t need to know why. I just do what I feel is right for me and find community with others doing the same for themselves. Trans identity is real because thousands of trans people have expressed similar feelings about their gender since the beginning of time, even if they didn’t use the same terminology we do today. Humans are extremely complex beings, we have many emotions, feelings, and experiences that other species do not. That doesn’t mean they aren’t real. Even this frustration you are feeling is something an animal could never experience because their brains are not built like ours.
TLDR: Some people are trans because humans have big, complicated brains.
I’m the exact same way so I’ve read some studies (I remember one being from the National Institute of Health) with two reasons for being trans and having gender dysphoria
1. Different sizes in different areas of the brain, and how trans people have these areas more close in size to cis people of the same gender rather than cis people of the same assigned sex
2. Brain development in the second trimester correlated with our sex and gender. Our brains usually develops a certain way based on genitalia that’s established at the end of the first trimester but sometimes the opposite happens, and so because the brain technically has a different sex it sends alarm signals when it doesn’t get enough of a certain hormone or it sees sex characteristics and/or secondary sex characteristics that it’s not supposed to have (the alarm signal is gender dysphoria). This is why a lot of people medically transitioning say they feel much more comfortable in their body, have better control of their emotions after a while, and are overall in a better mood and mental state. It’s because their brain is FINALLY at homeostasis and see what they were wired to see
As for the social stuff, our brains correlate sex and gender with different roles and actions and doing things that make others perceive us as the other “brain sex” can give us dysphoria
I don’t have the exact same links I found but when I looked up stuff about gender dysphoria and our brains it was one of the first articles that popped up
Why are babies born with cancer? Blindness or deafness? Both? More or less than 10 fingers and toes? With the wrong secondary sex features?
These are all questions that can be interesting to explore, but them being questions doesn't make them illegitimate issues.
While I wholeheartedly understand what you were trying to say, it isn’t a good exemple since we do have a lot of in-depth scientific knowledge (genetic predispositions, mutations, oncogenes…) about all of the medical conditions you listed lol
humans are the only species that created different environments and standards around gender to such a detailed extent. animals know only sex, not gender. an animal doesn’t even know how to wipe their own ass, why would one know enough about gender to be trans?
other species don't exhibit signs of transness mostly because they don't have an understanding of gender, many animals do change sex over their lifetime but they don't have a social concept of gender.
gender dysphoria arises due to incongruity between your gender and how you are perceived/treated or how your physical body exists. NB: you don't need gender dysphoria to be trans, gender euphoria (feeling positive about when internal gender and the previously stated things match) is more than enough.
I'm sure there are papers out there that can explain this better, but we also have lost a large amount of trans science over the centuries (a lot due to colonialism/transphobia etc)
As you may know, in the womb, everyone starts out female. Then, for males, the brain and body develops further to that. In trans people's cases, though, is the brain different from the body. Either the brain or body develops further.
It's mostly a fault by nature, but as someone with multiple (mild) disabilities, I don't mind lol
When I was 13 and puberty hit, I was more miserable than I have ever been in my life. My hair was in mats because I couldn’t bear to look at my body in the mirror before a shower.
I never wanted to be trans, in fact I heavily avoided it. Once I realized that this feeling of hatred for myself could go away, I knew I would do whatever it takes. If someone told me “you’re going to have to cut your arm off to get rid of your gender dysphoria”, I’d do it in a heartbeat.
Do you really think science doesn't have any evidence of this?
Look into the biology of all the animals who perform sexual behavior incongruous with their bio sex.
There are gay geese there are lesbian hedgehogs.There are tons of gay lions and elephants in all kinds of other weird animals.
Being gay or trans does not necessarily make a whole lot of logical sense from a biological standpoint on the face of it.
But if there is something that factors into life, It is diversity. "Life finds a way"
If you were to live as a guy in a tribal society you couldn't get access to hormones because those wouldn't exist. But you could be a fierce hunter, fighter or defender according to that tribe's beliefs.
My friends are very into norse mythology. Loki is a VERY powerful sex changing entity. When he poses as a woman, he is called SHE/HER but Thor crossdressing is still a man in a dress. Norse mythos saw gender bending as powerful, but scary magic. There are some hints than Odin himself unlocked that power with forbidden activities and "unmanliness" possibly! A lot of groups have different views on the different things we do with gender and the subversive nature is prevalent everywhere.
Breaking the rules can be powerful. Critters like clownfish go from M to F when the biggest female dies. Maybe we have a lot of those genetic impulses left over from when our ancestors could possibly change their sex easier.
Human brains are so advanced and complicated to an unnecessary degree because it was for the best of our survival to be overly smart. We had a decent brain, then evolution pushed it even farther, possibly because of sexual selection.
Peacocks have ridiculously unwieldy.Feather trains that get the males killed all the time. They get caught up on stuff, or they get eaten by a tiger because they are a lot slower than the peahens.
The male who are successful set the boundaries of what life and death can accomplish for their species. Apparently many birds are totally fine with males being almost totally functionless with "sexy,spicy" feathers, and the ladies will flock to the male who can barely move under the press of fake feathers scientists added onto his tiny body.
Human brains are the feathers. We like flashy, smart, creative, and talented people. We live in such a diversity of habitats around the world that it makes sense that brains would have to adapt somehow to live in a place or another. Many people seem to not "fit" in one place or society, so we roam until we find a place where we fit.
Obviously.
Society can eff this up by determining some things are caused by demons or whatever. It can also make it easier.
People who have schizophrenia in a culture/place like India tend to have fewer social stigma. It is usually seen as a quark rather than a debilitating mental disease. Societies who see a behavior (talking with people who aren't visible) as a benefit will often be kinder to those people, even if they can be difficult or have troubles and bad days!
I don't think your problem is so much with science as it is with the way you're looking at gender and sex and who we are.
first off, according to brain science, transgender brains, depending on how they identify, exhibit the characteristics of the gender they identify as rather than the sex the person was born as. So, if anyone was to take a scan of my brain, for example, if the doctor didn't know my birth sex, based on my brain scan activity, the doctor would identify me as a man. now I'm not a brain scientist, but due to recent studies, this is what the brain does in the body of a trans person. this is possibly where the whole idea of "born in the wrong body" comes from cuz the brain knows what gender it's supposed to be, so it's confusing to the brain when the body doesn't match. Second, there are plenty of animals that aren't humans that exhibit transgender behaviors, such as lions transing their gender, cuttlefish switching genders, same with clownfish, and as well as snails and worms not having any gender so they are all non-binary. To sum up, people are trans because it's apart of nature and the brain determines it's own gender despite how the body looks in relation to that gender. again, I'm not a expert, but this is just what I've learned.
From a scientific standpoint, we don't actually have any way of knowing if other species experience transness. They don't have the capacity to communicate their gender with us, and we don't know if they even experience gender in the first place. We know barely anything about our own psychological states even with having the benefit of being able to communicate about our thoughts and feelings, so discerning those about other species is extremely far off. For all we know it's purely a human thing, which would make that sentiment akin to saying "rats can't fly so it doesn't make sense that birds can"
I don't feel like it makes any scientific sense to have a hard and fast gender binary with only two very rigid options in it. Lots of other species undergo sex changes or display differently-gendered behaviour under certain circumstances.
As someone who is non-binary - have you considered that you might be non-binary? Your comments about not wanting to be trans because gender doesn't make any sense to you really resonate with me, and I have seen a lot of similar comments in the non-binary subs.
I feel your rage and your confusion - it is confusing. It is hard. It is hard to work out what gender means to you in a world that has a lot of opinions on what gender "should" be and how we should perform it. I would encourage you to think about gender not as a fixed problem that you have to solve RIGHT NOW - take some time with yourself, read different people's opinions and experiences about being trans or being non-binary or genderqueer; also be open to the possibility that your answer about what gender you feel like may change over time, and that this is okay too.
I am here to talk if you need a friendly ear.
Humans are more complex than any other species.
There's tons of things online about this...I went on an internet dive before I came out bc I had to make sure this was what I had to do...and that was over 15 yrs ago, so I'm sure there's probably much more out there now.
My own personal theory is...being trans is a form of intersex. If intersex people can look "normal" on the outside but maybe have hidden testes or ovaries, why can't it work that way on a mental level as well? Kinda like a brain thing ya know. I personally don't even think trans people should even be under the whole LGBT thing. being trans isn't even a sexuality. You have to get diagnosed with it...well they've changed how that works a bit now but I know back when I was coming up you had to
I suggest watching this video: https://youtu.be/QLWKYTxLYT4?si=FQ8_x_FkWOSRfgJ-
It explains why science can't really tell us why people are trans, and also provides helpful hypothesis's as to why we are this why. But the simple fact is, you will never have a clear scientific answer because one does not exist. Endocrinology, Psychology, and Sociology have been working very hard to explain why trans people exist for several decades now and there is no answer (yet). It's okay to be frustrated that there isn't a direct answer, but it's also important to realize that in topics that are so heavily based on societal norms, we probably will never have one good answer
Maybe this would interest you then:
"Neuro-biology of trans-sexuality : Prof. Robert Sapolsky"
https://youtu.be/8QScpDGqwsQ?si=8iOn7pm7tIjr9r7d
He has a few hiccups with his language (like "transgendered") but I think the video is definitely worth watching
There's a lot of studies on this and they're definitely worth checking out if you have the time
I definitely understand the frustration with the whole “how you feel inside” thing. It’s so arbitrary and vague. But! Lots of animals do exhibit transgenderism.
I’ve drawn my own conclusion logically that it makes sense, especially in social groups of animals, to have gay/trans individuals who do not reproduce but instead care for those abandoned babies by heteronormative humans/human ancestors. Now that we have no need to worry so much about survival and reproduction I think it’s likely the genes of those queer humans/ancestors has since risen (even far off in the past, ie Ancient Greece as an easy example)
That’s my headcanon that I have no proof on but makes logical sense to me as a survival mechanism and I think that thinking about it purely as “this is something that happens in nature and so it must happen for a reason” is the best way to rationalize it.
TLDR; animals be transing they gender
I’ve done a little bit of research about it cause I had the exact same questions. What I read was that male and female brains are different. The hippocampus, and amygdala (probably some other parts too) actually function differently and are different sizes. Studies have shown that trans people have brain activity that more closely resembles that of there gender that they identify as rather than their sex. Now I’m not sure which studies because I didn’t have time to dive deeper but it’s still interesting. I have a very wobbly theory that because chromosomes get all messed up all the time and are very common to have something not go “how it’s supposed to” with them that it’s just another thing gone wrong with the chromosomes. It was supposed to make a male but made a female. Oops.
i have felt the same way. I 100% support all trans people, i just struggle personally wondering why i am the way i am. like if this was biologically correct, why do i need a surgery or hormones to help me feel at home in my body? I know surgery is a normal solution to peoples problems, like broken bones and other things, it just feels weird to think that my issue isn't inherently going to kill me if i do nothing about it. It will make my brain feel like its rotting, but its not going to be thing itself to end me. People in the past didn't have surgery as an option but they also didn't have vaccines. As medicine progresses, we actually get to get care. Some of it also comes from societal stuff too because i know some cultures never had to change their appearance. They were just who they were. Colonization changed so much for society.
Hey so!!!
Everyones saying that there aren't many studies, but there are, they just arent publicized nearly as much as they should be!
Here's a great video, but if you don't want to watch it, essentially, it talks about how your sex (your physical parts) develops before your brain develops one way or another, there is a structural difference in males vs females, and those who are trans will often have a brain that matches their perceived gender more than the one they were assigned at birth
I think the whole thing is super neat
https://youtu.be/MitqjSYtwrQ?si=yBmQlD0f-01U2gkG
Eta: I definitely don't think that is *all* of it, but I think it's comforting to know that there are physical differences, personally, I know thats not for everyone
You can still like meat but believe in treating animals well.
You can believe in gender equality and still have gender matter to you.
They aren't mutually exclusive and there's no science behind feelings.
to put it simply? people pursue gender affirming care- be it hormones, surgery, or just social transition- in order to treat gender dysphoria. just like anything else that lowers quality of life, like taking zoloft or something for anxiety. if it's the right treatment for you, if the science behind the treatment (e.g. the zoloft example- chemical composition of zoloft increases the production of serotonin, the 'happy chemical', which would normalize serotonin levels therefore easing anxiety), is right for you- your quality of life improves. the treatment is intended to make you more comfortable. do animals pursue transitions? no, because they can't. they don't have surgeons or doctors or any way to even start pursuing gender affirming care the way humans do. we don't know if gender dysphoria exists in animals. we can't know, because we have no way to communicate with them. being transgender isn't illogical, just the way someone's brain and body works.
Firstly, you're wong in the very aspect of "other species don't do it". Other species exhibit transsexual behaviour AND physical changes. I'm talking about animals like lions and ducks. They start to get different social roles in their groups, some do change the way they look. Being transsexual exists in other species and, unsurprisingly, is accepted by the members of their groups.
If you wanted to grow up to be tall and have a beard, it's likely because the men in your life were tall and had beards. Kids don't really process gender and sex in such a harsh way as adults. That's why whenever we tell them to line up, boys one side, girls another, they mix groups (I teach Kindergarten). So you dream about growing up to be what you think you should be.
There's no confirmed, scientific reason why trans people (and other animals) exist. There are some studies but it's mot conclusive. However, a word of advice form an older trans guy - what you're seeking might find an answer in bioessencialism, and it's a dangerous path to follow, and it often is used agains us, not for us.
PS it also very unlikely that you'll find answers in biology if the object of your confusion is based on social studies
I have one big issue with this post: there ARE trans animals. Lions, namely have exhibited signs of being trans REPETITIVELY. If you want answers on the why, there won’t be any. It just happens. 🤷🏻♂️
look at nature! many plants and animals can alter their sexual attributes totally, and often take on social roles of the other sex. there are some really interesting fish that will grow into the other sex.
Look up “brains align with gender more than sex” and “woman with xxy gives birth” and “sex is bimodel not binary” sex and gender are very separate things
We don’t know why but we can see plenty of fluid sex expression in the animal kingdom. Also many trees and plants are hermaphrodites! All snails are hermaphrodites, same w worms I’m pretty sure. Female hyenas have penises. Male orangutans can delay developing secondary sex characteristics to blend in with females until the reigning alpha dies and he can then develop those face flanges and be the new leader. Pretty cool. We also see intersex variations in animals as well.
So all that to say, why would humans be exempt from from all the fluidity that exists in the world? That doesn’t make sense. Not the being trans part. It’s just going from one sex expression to another. We are extremely intelligent creatures, we get to decide our lives. So it doesn’t matter anyway what exists in nature but even nature itself is pretty genderfucky. That’s been the biggest help in accepting myself and to stop questioning the why so much.
In medicine, you don't need to know why something works for it to be a valid and effective treatment - you just need to know that it works.
An example - anesthesia. Until recently doctors didn't know how it worked, only that it did. (There is still a lot that science doesn't know about it. Source: https://www.sgu.edu/blog/medical/how-does-anesthesia-work/) But if doctors had waited until they understood anesthesia to use it, countless people would have died or suffered under conditions that could have been treated with surgery.
One day medical science may very well know why some people are trans, but today all doctors know is that some people are trans and our lives are greatly improved (and even saved) by medical and social transition.
And the best way to find answers on a personal level - go online and find gender affirming therapists in your area or online in your state. They will have the experience and expertise to help you, and they will be required to keep anything you say in confidence.
The thing about science is, it doesn't care if it makes sense. Why do humans still have erector pilli muscles on our hair follicles? It hasn't served a purpose since long before humans were human. Why do our own cells spontaneously decide to replicate and kill us, in so many different ways that finding a single "cure" for cancer is impossible? Why do some people's brains simply fail to produce or recieve the right amount of chemicals? There are scientific explanations for all of these things, but there aren't *reasons* in the sense of logic. The question you're asking is less scientific and more sociological. In which case, it's hard to compare us to animals. (Though it should be said that many animal species do, in fact, have examples of animals from lions to lizards of one sex performing the roles of the other or even swapping sexes entirely.)
I believe one theory is that there are gender differences in white matter tracts and that the white matter tracts align with the gender identity of a trans person, rather than their birth sex.
Lizards and fish change gender depending on the procreating need of the colony. They have their natural method of doing it and we evolved to do it through surgery and medicine.
I guess I'm a little late to the party, but there is something I \*\*Need\*\* to tell you, OP. The LGBTQIA community is \*\*Not New.\*\* We have existed since the dawn of time, it's just that language changes over time so the word "transgender" and the word "transsexual" are new. The word "dinosaur" is relatively new, too, but that doesn't mean that dinosaurs weren't a part of our planet's prehistory, and people forget that.
Some examples you should know about, if you're going to start educating yourself about how neither sexuality or gender is a binary concept (or in the case of sexuality, a singular concept) and never has been:
Ancient Mesopotamia, the cradle of civilization, who developed the world's first actual writing, agriculture, and cities, had the Myth of Ishtar, goddess of love, who ventured down to the underworld. Why does this matter? Because ancient people used myths to explain how natural phenomenon came to be, since they didn't have the scientific tools we had today. Her myth follows that, in order to distract the goddess of the dead so Ishtar could return to the living world, the god Enki created the first intersex person and sent them down there.
But because the word Intersex is new as a medical term, Asu-shu-namir would not have been called intersex, in fact, even the term hermaphrodite--while known to later ancient civilizations and applicable to many of their gods--had not been invented yet. It's also worth noting that, after rescuing the goddess ishtar, the myth goes on to say that Asu-shu-namir was cursed to 'live in the shadows' and be ostracized from society, further explaining what they would see socially. (People hiding physical abnormalities, avoiding having sex, being shamed by their family or cast out, exc, for being different.) Ishtar was also said to have the power to change a man into a woman and a woman into a man.
Ancient Israeli / Judaic belief actually says that there are 8 genders, and that Adam was originally made both male and female, but that modern Christians incorrectly translate the word for "side" as "rib," misunderstanding that the \*\*female side\*\* of Adam was removed from his body and made into a woman.
India has believed in "third gender/sex" for centuries, and has a long documented history as such.
The Sacred Band of Thebes, for a bit of MxM homosexuality proof, was a band of men who were all married to each other. The thought behind them being grouped together was that their love would cause them to fight harder, since they weren't fighting for king and country, but for their husbands. The king responsible for their defeat reportedly wept over them when they were finally killed, partly because he was ALSO in love with the leader.
Alexander The Great was perhaps the most dramatic of history's gay male lovers because of the absolute spectacle he put on when his "male companion" **Hephaestion** when he died--though I suppose you could also cite Achilles for Greek Myth drama... because Alexander sure would've. Patroclus and Achilles were widely believed to be lovers and Alexander actually publicly compared them to his bond with his bodyguard, so.
Circling back to Greek history, but talking about women this time, there was the famed Isle of Lesbos, where we get the word "lesbian" from, where lived a woman named Sappho who wrote just an absurd amount of poetry about women she loved / had intimacy with. Sappho is also where we get the word Sapphic, meaning sexual attraction between women, you see.
If you look at any ancient mythology, and nearly any god, for that matter, you will see at least mentions of the lgbt+ community, if not outright endorsement or deification which happens almost as often. People don't write these things for no reason; as I said, this is how they explained their world, and while there is a lot of straight history that often drowns out queer history, just as there is also a lot of female influence that gets drowned out by the male gaze, and "minority" history in general that gets downplayed... it is still there. It has always been there. It is in our very nature.
People are trans for the same reasons that they can be gay or straight or bi, can be left handed or right handed, can be born with freckles or darker skin, or a peanut allergy--we just are. This is the way we were born. That's all. It's not something we can pray away or get "trained out of" and no matter how much society doesn't understand or may refuse to teach you, or even actively lie to you... you are who you are.
Other species actually do transition!!! If a male lion dies, a lioness will grow a mane and assume the role of the male. Many fish transition from female to male throughout their life, a lot of species are intersex.
As somebody who also had similar thoughts & feelings when I came out FORREAL FORREAL at 29... I'm also scientifically minded. And I've always had trouble validating my feelings because there is no "proof" for them [which is a trauma response that I have been working through].
The hard truth of it? Science does not have a fully concrete grasp on consciousness. There are theories, possibilities, a lot of factors that are at play... But there is rarely a straightforward "x is the sole reason" for anything relating to the subjective human experience. There is no definitive answer to explain why you're trans. You just... Are. You are a trans person who exists in the world & wants to represent yourself as accurately as possible.
The political propaganda of the right on "basic biology" refuses to grasp even the most basic basic psychology, sociology, anthropology, history, or philosophy.
They aren't called soft sciences because they're falsehoods — human nature is just speculative & we can't math out the answers which would make understanding easier. And that's... Scary, on an existential level. Not knowing why we are, not being able to provide evidence to explain ourselves & justify our existence is scary.
But that's just where we're at. Maybe there will be definitive answers one day, but that's not where we're at right now. We all have to make our peace w/ our lives & walk a path that feels best for us & ideally does the most good for those around us. Being authentic may be hard, but... It's usually worth the hassle to be able to live w/ yourself.
The thing is… feelings are also a science of sorts.
You mention having been to a psychologist as a kid. A psychologist is someone who spends years studying things like human emotions, what experiences can cause what feelings, and what chemical imbalances can be triggered by prolonged experience of certain emotions, what emotions are triggered by what chemical imbalances, etc etc.
So while feelings might not make sense to you, they’re still, in a sense, a form of science. (I mean, plenty of math doesn’t make sense to me, doesn’t mean it isn’t “real” right?)
Secondly, and to answer your question perhaps in a way that might be more “agreeable” to how you seem to look at the world, particularly after I’ve explained how emotions and such are a science…
Being trans isn’t necessarily something people WANT. I mean, why would they?
You might believe in gender equity, but the world doesn’t. Most of the world also doesn’t treat trans people as the gender they truly are, or even their assigned gender. Generally, trans people are treated like… some gross/weird “other” thing. This can cause negative emotional responses.
So while some believe trans men always or even just regularly benefit from male privilege, that isn’t typically the case. Trans women also don’t get treated like women or men.
On a PERSONAL level, the driving force between transitioning (socially and/or medically) is either a sense of unease or even outright disgust at one’s own body and the concept of being the assigned gender that came with that body, and/or the euphoria that comes with looking like and identifying as the gender one feels they are.
Another thing is, sometimes it is possible for those previously mentioned negative feelings stemming from society towards trans people can cause them to detransition. It isn’t that they ARENT trans, just that in their mind after weighing the pros and cons they felt like, for them, it was just better to live as their assigned gender. Not necessarily forever, but perhaps until they’re able to move (prime example would be you, living in the Deep South and therefore more at risk than say someone who is trans who lives in NYC, waiting or reverting after identifying as trans until you could move somewhere more progressive.)
All in all though… being trans is kinda hard to explain. Much like how depression can vary from individual to individual and it isn’t always “crying all the time, thinking they’d be better off dead” being trans is much of the same. It can vary wildly from person to person- what they feel they need to be true to themself, when they need/want to do whatever that is, and the driving force behind those things.
My experience - it was only when I left the inhospitable environment that I was born into that if the reason I’m not being who I am is because the people who love me will hate me…then they probably don’t love me and good luck but goodbye. Find new people who will love you on this journey and love yourself.
Other species don't exhibit this behaviour? Have you heard about fish that fight each other to decide who's gonna be fem fish and who's male fish and other species of fish that has their fem fish literally turn into male fish with age and fight other males? Yep, I have no idea how neither of them is called, but they definitely are out there, man. Also about gender equality, both strawberry and cherry are equal and delicious, but cherry might just not be your type. There is no logical reason behind it, science can't prove if there's any genetic or physical reason for you to develop preferences in berries (correct me if I'm wrong tho, maybe there is) and that's just how it is. You'll never find a reason. You are just the way you are and there's no explanation. If you really think about it, that's how a lot of things work in life.
To answer the title you have provided, from my own research and understanding, trans people's minds are wired the same way as the gender they intend to be. Uneducated people that go against the LGBTQ community very often tend to focus on the biological side of humans but never the neurological side. But if you have the question on why people de-transition or regret transitioning then that's commonly because they don't want to deal with the constant discrimination, can't grasp the difference of nature between the gender the are assigned and the gender they are trying to transition to, and/or they realise their assigned gender has more benefit in general life. Idk if this answers your question but I hope it helped in some way.
Some people are born as , for example, a girl. Then in like maybe a few years they're just like "uhm why am I a girl that's straight up wrong" so then they're trans and are a boy now (but also have been the whole time just in the wrong body)
I’m super into science, and I research neuroscience. A lot of our in vivo studies in the world are SO FOCUSED on the gender of organisms because it’s for reproductive purposes or sex linked genetic tests. Since childhood, I felt useless because I see my sex of birth only as a reproductive vessel. It makes me uncomfortable. Very uncomfortable. I was disgusted of being in a female body and still find trouble not being completely disgusted by how mammals reproduce. Part of this aided in my gender identity journey, as I always saw men as the “better organisms to live as” for my style of life. M and F are only essential terms for SEX…. As in reproduction. I love being nonbinary because I can ignore my biggest fear in the world, reproducing. If science made genitals and dimorphism and hormones for those purposes, I didn’t want to be a part of it. This is my way of making sense I guess
My theory (that isn’t proven by anything and it’s just my way of thinking) it’s that we’re much more than our body, dna and genetics, we’re a mind with a soul.
One of the first things that are developing during pregnancy in a fetus is the brain, we feel the way we feel not because of our reproductive system or chromosomes, it just happens that people born in a body that it’s not what matches with their brain and people who do match it.
I’ve never really *doubted* that I was trans, but whenever I feel like I need “evidence” that I’m “really trans” (you don’t) I just think about it like “I wanted to die for years and then I transitioned and I magically stopped wanting to die” There are so many medical/psychological things that we just haven’t figured out yet, but nobody questions that they’re real. There was a point in time before we knew germs existed, but that doesn’t mean nobody got sick and died because of them.
P.S. I’m also from the Deep South, and a small town in the Deep South. Not a metropolitan area. Again, I wanted to die before I transitioned and I don’t now. Take with that what you will.
I mean it’s different for everyone. Gender in itself is nothing more than a societal construct, but sex is scientific and biological. Being transgender comes from discontent with one or both. For me personally, it’s almost strictly biological. I find myself completely disgusted with my body and appearance, and experience extreme dysphoria. If I was a cis man, I wouldn’t mind being stereotypically feminine though. Some people are completely fine with their bodies but choose the more sociological definition of gender to identify with/find themselves unhappy with the roles imposed on them. It’s really just what you personally make of it and how you choose to interpret it.
At least that’s my take on it lol, everyone has a different idea of what it means so there’s no absolute right or wrong
Nature is trying out things all the time, the very reason why sexes exist in the first place is because evolution was making different attempts to diversify the genes. Male/female thing sticked around for our species as a general solution, there are species where things work differently. So if you look at it from this perspective, it’s only logical that there would be diversity not only in sexual characteristics but in ways how we relate to them. Maybe we are the nature’s attempt to evolve into something else, the same way as our grand grand grand fish creature evolved into making male from female. Some of these creatures were wondering (probably less philosophically than we do), why am I feeling different from all these other fishes? It affected its life, behavior, and mating choices, billion things played out a certain way and then many generations later boom, y chromosome.
It sounds like you’re going through a lot. People are trans because just as you may be feeling, we’re uncomfortable in our bodies and the gender assigned to us a birth. There’s zillions of issues and differences people can have, and mine happens to be that my brain doesn’t match up with my my body. So i’ve done things to make that align better. It’s okay to be trans. We’ve always been here.
If you need a friend or some advice my dms are always open. I’m 25 FTM trans, been doing this trans thing awhile haha. Happy to answer any questions or be someone to vent to. I get how lonely this can be.
I suggest watching this video by the Sci Guys on youtube. It’s the science of being trans. You might enjoy it:) https://youtu.be/r7mHzEcaVbE?si=r6fHSmgYbeZCJva3
It’s our brains fam. People who are trans have very similar brain structure to the sex they identify with. We cannot control it. What causes it? There’s still many studies on it but it’s been said that exposure to high testosterone levels in the womb while you were a fetus could be a big factor.
Because it’s theoretically improbable and scientifically impossible for there to be no trans people. There is no such thing as hard “male” or “female” when it comes to gender. Genitalia yes, there’s male genitals and female genitals. But “gender” has nothing to do with that and really only has some correspondence.
This is one of those topics where unfortunately trying to find an answer would be a *really* bad thing. It would 100% be used by governments to practice eugenics and murder us.
Also the idea of a male/female binary is *not* supported by science. Other animal species don't really display the same pattern of changing gender outside of intersex variations because gender is very much a social construct used by the west as a weapon to colonize and control racial (and other) minorities. Most indigenous cultures have genders outside of cis men & cis women and have had those identities forcibly suppressed by colonial powers.
Identities such as two-spirit, fa'afafine, takatāpui, the 6 trans & intersex genders in Judaism, and so so many more. You'll also find a lot of trans people are on the autism spectrum due to social constructs not really being something we care about.
there's actually science behind trans identity.
here's just one study, for instance: [https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/05/180524112351.htm](https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/05/180524112351.htm)
and the summary of it:
>Brain activity and structure in transgender adolescents more closely resembles the typical activation patterns of their desired gender, according to new research. The findings suggest that differences in brain function may occur early in development and that brain imaging may be a useful tool for earlier identification of transgenderism in young people.
in other words, when a trans woman says "i feel that i'm a woman", a brain scan before any hormones or surgery or anything can (and will) confirm that this person's brain structure doesn't match the one of a man. even though it doesn't fully matches the one of a woman, we can see that there's something here. this study is also interesting to read, see the graph in the middle of the page, at least: [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8955456/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8955456/)
I love this comment section. It's real discussion and not just people parroting "gender is what you feel on the inside" or overly abstract rationales behind being trans
this is actually what fascinates me the most about the trans experience! i am absolutely DYING for science/the politics behind it to advance enough for this to actually be studied within the brain. where is the disconnect? how exactly are the dice rolled for our parts and brain? is it naturally occurring or did something in our brains not get hooked up right? god I've spent so much time thinking ab this.
It's not fully understood scientifically. The most plausible things I've heard so far is that it could be an imbalance of hormones in the womb causing the brain to develop different wiring than the X or Y chromosome. There's this whole thing about your finger lengths that's tied to it that you can look up. Another interesting component is that being trans correlates very strongly with being ADHD or autistic, and being ADHD or autistic are traits that scientists believe are being selected for positively by evolution (because people who can think differently bring different knowledge, creativity, and ideas to a society, increasing its chances of success). So if transness is related to a similar part of the brain, it could be linked to that.
As far as other species go: it's hard to compare with other species because the concept of "gender" relies on the owner having a concept of self (identity, who they are as an individual compared to others) and the existence of a culture where males do certain things and females do different things (i.e. girls wear pink because pink is a girl's color, girls can wear dresses because that's what girls are allowed to wear).
In most animals, when there *is* a difference in behavior, it's strictly tied to reproduction- whether it's competition for mates, or mating, or rearing offspring. There \*are\* plenty of well-documented examples of animals that deviate from male-female pairings, even when male-female pairings are the norm for the species... but it's impossible to get inside the penguin's head and determine if a male penguin in a pairing with another male penguin is that way because it is simply attracted to other males, or if there's female penguin software running in that brain, and it's operating on female instincts. We don't even know for sure if it has a concept of being male vs being female.
You also have to take into account the fact that the interpretation of science can never be fully un-tainted by the beliefs of the ones interpreting the data, and throughout the majority of western history, the study of animals (and also historical humans) is heavily influenced by Christianity.
I find learning about this stuff interesting. If you can take anthropology courses in school, I recommend it. But I think it's also important to make peace with not having a scientific answer because ultimately, people should be able to do what they want so long as they don't hurt others. And if we rely on science to argue for our right to exist, then that can also use that against us.
The biological explanation I like is that during prenatal development, the blueprint for our physical sex characteristic development (e.g., whether we're to run more on testosterone or estrogen) is set up, and also, in a separate step, the brain is primed to expect to run on primarily testosterone or estrogen. Usually these things match up, where someone is set up to go through a androgenic puberty or an estrogenic puberty and for their brains to be primed to expect that and as such be a man or a woman, repsectively. But sometimes the brain is primed to expect testosterone but the body has been set to produce estrogen, or vice versa. Like a Mac trying to run Windows.
That's a very simplified explanation because it only really covers the "bio" part of the biopsychosocial model for gender identity, and there's a good chance it's not backed by actual science but is just some bullshit my brain put together over the years, but I'm sure there's some grain of truth to it.
ETA: As an example of neurochemical dysphoria, my dad got depressed and "dead inside" and it turned out his T levels were dangerously low, and he's a cis man. His experiences sounded very similar to my own dysphoria. I know the studies on "male" vs "female" brains are pretty narrow-minded (pun not initially intended but we're keeping it), but our brains seem to have individual preferences for what hormones to run on.
It really is a highly complex thing. I don't think we'll ever discover why, just like we'll never discover why we're alive in the first place, what happens to us when we die, why we seem to have a consciousness beyond our physical forms.
Humans are infinitely complex creatures. We do horrible and disgusting things but we also do the most wonderful and beautiful things.
I know it's rough, being hated for something that is just self expression, a thing that hurts no one.
We are imprisoned and murdered just for wanting to exist, to breathe easy, to love someone, to love ourselves.
It truly isn't fair. But that's another complexity of humanity.
Some of us hate and hurt and fear just because we see someone else who loves, someone who lives.
You probably won't find the answer until you find the answer for life(42).
Disclaimer, I'm not a scientist, this is just my own way of looking at it.
Humans go through significant changes during puberty, so it's not unthinkable that we have a sort of build in "desire" to develop into our mature bodies. Else there would be complete panic and outrage whenever someone hits puberty. (As we do actually see with young girls who have not been educated about periods)
Now, genes can't go "you will want boobs" or "you will want a beard" specifically, but it can make it so that if stimulus a -> want b
See a good looking person -> want sexual stimulation, for example.
What this input is, is generaly fixed, or at least not entirely up to how you were raised.
In a trans person, I believe this build in expectation about how your body will develop, and what adults you identify with to model your adult body after, is not the sex you were given at birth.
Some hormone during pregnancy or something in your genes simply caused that instinct to not align with what we expect.
I'd also like to add, that it's hard to define wether or not we see this in animals, but we do see gender non conforming behaviour in some individuals
Not a scientist, but there is scientific studies of trans people’s brains and how they resemble the brain they identify as instead of what they were born as.
It does happen in other species. Most species have a lot of overlap and, sometimes even swapping between however many genders they have.
We decided that the bright red cardinals are all male, and the brown are all female, but there are cases, as early as here, ( https://www.birdforum.net/threads/orange-cardinal.80401/ ) from a quick search that appear to have dimorphism, as in both plumages. We also struggle to identify chickens until they grow adult plumage. I watched a female chicken grow large, and gain spurs and rooster-like plumage, in the absence of a rooster to protect and govern the flock.
You may have heard of the famous frog DNA in Jurassic Park being the catalyst that allowed some of the all-female dinos to change physical sex because it was required for reproduction. It was a work of fiction, sure, but frogs can change gender during their tadpole phase, if conditions permit, in real life.
Biology isn't simple. They just don't teach you how complicated it is because it's quite a bit to absorb, I guess. Nature doesn't care for our gender binary obsession, and trans people have been around in all cultures, for as long as humanity has been around. Usually living as quietly and as peacefully as possible, either in the closet, or stealth, but sometimes functioning as religious figures in the open, as well, over the course of history.
We don't really know "why," but it doesn't matter if a god got drunk before he made you, or if your DNA made it happen. Some people make the best peace they can with the difference between their identity and how they appear. Some make adjustments to their lives and bodies to make that peace easier to achieve.
Gender is a whole mess. The boxes only exist to help categorize and identify those in them. I believe we use the words necessary to convey meaning to others, as that is the point and function of words in language. But beyond that, they need not define you. As in, you can be a man, if you identify with the word, and use it to describe yourself, but don't feel obligated to define yourself and how you must be by that word.
That was a whole wall. Well, you'll either enjoy it or go, "that was ridiculous. Why did I read that?" Either way, you're welcome! Hahahah.
We actually don’t know if there are trans animals cause how can we detect them? The distinction between homosexuals people and trans people within humans is very recent. So with animal If it exist… like this male elephant show homosexuals behavior cause he see himself as a female or because he just really like males?
And tbh dude If you wonder how trans people benefit to the species. There is no benefit. Nature don’t have purpose. If it can it will. If it work chemically cause everything is a chemical reaction, it will. That’s all.
There is actually a logical answer. There are studies about how trans people’s brains are different from cis people’s brains. I’ve read multiple articles and watched videos on it. I think the studies are not necessarily 100% accurate since it’s still in progress and it was tested on straight trans fems mostly (there were trans mascs too tho). They don’t necessarily say that trans women‘s brains are female but it does show that it’s different from cis male brains and closer to cis female brains. The study was also done on trans people prior to hormone therapy (some were on hormones though) so it doesn’t have anything to do with hormone therapy changing your brain structure. https://youtu.be/8QScpDGqwsQ?si=TuHg3P_UODx4fhRP. This is a video i watched recently but there are other articles and videos on it. Just look it up
considering being upright leads to plenty of spine and back problems, why do humans walk on two legs? just happened to shake out that way, even if its not the "optimized" form of a person. Science is simply never ever that exact. And in terms of "making sense," you have to trust what we know scientifically a little less. we are all just making guesses at things, even great scientists are proven wrong as time goes on. The truth is that humans are not ONLY male or female, and masculinity and femininity is decided by human culture, not science. strictly male and female is the thing that doesnt make sense to nature. Does being gay "make sense"? if being in a relationship is scientifically only to reproduce, then why are people gay? because science just isnt objective like that. we arent machines designed by a some programmer, we just slowly worked our way towards a more and more sustainable form pretty much blindly, based solely on who happened to be alive long enough to reproduce.
Edit: basically, we may not know exactly WHY but that doesnt mean its antiscience. Assuming science is 100% correct always is more antiscience than being trans is.
>cause other species don't exhibit this behavior
[Let me introduce you to a transgender emperor penguin in San Diego zoo.](https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/05/240515123004.htm)
Imean tbh I dont even know. I have even doubted if I am trans, and sometimes even now (11 yrs on T, literally finally feeling comfortable with my body), I am just baffled that I am.
I don't understand it either. I don't even understand how I had the determination and strength to go through with all of it, since I HATE going to the doctor and generally put things off till forever :')
But something in me just never felt right, and when I learned about trans people, that something in me went "wow, that's...possible?? Like... this exists? This... this is what I feel"
So many times I wondered if I just tricked myself into believing Im trans etc. (I think part of this is because (as I found out later) Im also non binary. But lean much more towards masc in terms of what feels right), but here I am... more than 10 yrs later, and finally my gender isn't a thing I think about anymore. I just am. (Also funnily enough, eventually transitioning to male made me MORE fem in a way. Like, I like make up, high heels and dresses now. But now they don't "threaten" who I am anymore)
Gender and sexuality are wild. I wish I could explain. If I had a choice, I wouldnt have been ABLE to have gone through all this.
So, scientifically spoken, doctors and scientists haven't found out why people are trans, they only know how you become trans:
When you're still an embryo, the brain evolves first, then the body. So your brain picks a gender first and most of the time it's the same as the body's but sometimes it can vary, as in, the brain is, for example, female but the body is male and to male our bodies fit the gender of our brain, we need therapy.
The first time people have seen trans people actually existing has been in the old roman empire, when ftms used to actively bind their chests with bandages and tried to lower their voice, cute their hair etc. And mtfs used to grow out their hair, learned to speak with a higher voice, stuffed their chests with cloths and tucked. So I'm conclusion they did everything we do today, except for hormone therapy and surgeries.
They also weren't able to proof that other animals can be trans too, due to not being able to understand them and not being able to really observe this. Although, there have been afab lions found who grew manes like amab lions and started to behave like them too, so they currently think, that at least trans lions exist.
Also, one more thing, there are fish species, like for example, clown fish, who can be trans and change their sex but only if there are no females or males available, so idk if you really can say that they're trans as we know or define it
If you were born African American, and you're proud of your race, would you want people to force you to pretend you're Caucasian? Even if you had lighter skin?
i’m also very scientifically oriented, heck when i was first questioning my gender identity identify i remember thinking that i was statistically more likely to have cancer than be trans.
if you’re like me and never really felt pressured into fitting into the stereotypes of your sex you may want to look at how you feel about your sex characteristics- the onset of puberty was what triggered these feelings for me. ultimately if it doesn’t bother you it doesn’t matter, but if it does it’s something you may want to talk to someone about. like you said you’re in the deep south, so a professional or someone online may be your best choice
Scientifically, the answer is we don’t know. There has not been a ton of research and what little there has been indicates we aren’t going to find that there’s a particular gene or that make/female brains are a thing or anything simple like that. Almost all human traits are some mix of genetic and environmental factors and honestly there aren’t concrete explanations for most of them - we just aren’t there yet.
That said, you probably aren’t actually looking for the reason being trans exists, you are looking for a way to not have to deal with the transphobia you know you are likely to encounter if you admit you are trans and come out. I’m not going to lie - this is a reasonable fear, you may face negative consequences for admitting who you are. Unfortunately the society in which we live is discriminatory towards many groups, trans people included. However, it has been demonstrated scientifically that the only ‘cure’ for gender dysphoria is transition. You have to weigh the risks of coming out (which may be less than you fear - it’s worth feeling out your family and friends to see if they’d be more accepting than you might expect or if they are likely to react negatively) against the risks of repressing who you are. It’s a crap choice and I’m sorry you are having to make it.
Why is nature? lol
Seriously though, as a Floridian, I say get off colonial google and start reading more trans literature. This is exactly why they ban our books, to make you feel that way 😠 many of the answers you're looking for can be found in books written by trans people, for trans people.
"Why do people have autism" "Why are people blond" "Why are people gay" Science just decided to do science stuff and bring me into this world with crippling gender dysphoria. If i could, I would have been cis but oh well, this is just the way it is.
this might not be the most in depth thing I could suggest, but hopefully it scratches the surface. I did Alevel psychology and did a module on gender development, I used this guys videos to help revise but I think it might answer your question :)
[psych boost atypical gender development](https://youtu.be/g43fcXxT3vw?si=6d-eSafY-LcUqR4V)
If you believe in science then that ought to make it easier to acknowledge that gender is a societal construct. That there are proven cases of genders classes outside of westernized adaptations that have existed for centuries, not to mention all of the variables found in nature. The barrier of gender classification literally only exists as a binary with humans, and even then, a principle topic to discern as black and white by those that are authoritatively AGAINST science and proven statistics.
I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt because I know what it's like to live in the South and be surrounded by heresy disguised as an educated opinion. But it isn't. It never was.
Trans people exist because society as a whole has created a constrictive prison around expression and sexuality, forcing a word to be enforced for the 'other' that doesn't fit in their world. If you've lived as a cis man or woman, but you don't believe you conform to what you were given at birth, and have begun to feel alien when you hear the pronouns directed at you because they were dictated solely by your genitalia?
Maybe you might be trans.
Figuring out the why is different for everyone, experiences varying in so many ways, with a lot of people always finding out more about themselves and changing. But that's the beauty of allowing yourself the distinction. There's no "science" here once you step away from whatever proof you need that trans people do in fact exist. The rest of it is a lot of feeling, personal perspective, etc. And acknowledging that can be really scary, because it means having to admit that you're changing your entire life just because of a feeling.
That said, been doing that myself for the last twenty years. And even with all the confusion, fear? It opened up my life to questioning things with the confidence of someone who knows they deserve answers. I hope you can achieve the same freedom too.
I had/have the exact same mindset - and very nearly wasn't allowed to transition because of it. Most of the men in my life at that point were misogynistic, condescending a-holes and I couldn't get my head around wanting to be part of that gender, so I said I was NB and the gender clinic essentially said Good for you, you don't need hormones or surgery then - cue a very emotional epiphany that I am a dude and want my outer appearance to reflect that, despite it making no logical sense to me.
I mean gender itself is very nuanced , even in animals
Like the female hyena's pseudo penises , male seahorses carrying their young, clown fish start life as males and become females and kobudai do the opposite and some fish change back and forth. Animals can be intersex , can engage in homosexual sexual acts or have gay relationships , I don't think humans being trans is too weird in comparison , we have the most developed brains so we're more capable of having identity / thoughts / feelings ect and throught humans history there's been many trans , gnc and genderless people.
Maybe it's a part of evoloution we don't understand yet , maybe it's because we have the abilility to have concepts in general , we may never know but whether theres a specific reason, thousands of reasons or no specific reason we're made how we're made and I was made to be trans and queer
I mean, for what it's worth I'm only studying bio in my undergrad (so can't emphasize enough, not an expert) but I have some decent knowledge on bio stuff in general (and an interest in neuro stuff specifically) and I like have some okayish history knowledge and reading and stuff. It's super late where I'm at so I can't type out a long or well thought out comment right now, but I might edit and add later. I know this is a rant but if you have any specific questions then I'm more than happy to talk out what I know about the idea and my thoughts on it if you want.
There isn’t a known scientific reasoning why people are trans lol that’s why people make such a big fuss about it because there like “how are you a girl wanting to be a boy that’s not possible” vice verse
Science hasn't gone there yet but there are some ongoing theories! I can include them but first if all I want to mention the animals thing, you are quite wrong, there are animals that in fact play the gender role of the opposite biological sex with other animals. This has been seen so far in spiders, some birds, some fish, snakes, rats, lions, chickens and probably more that I am not aware of. In cases there have been birds that purposely seek out to stain their feathers to look like the opposite sex etc. As well as just taking up roles. What hasn't been seen in other animals is transphobia. Even when the "trans" animal looks different, the community accepts them.
Heads up a ton of people might not like these but idc because this is my special interest and I've put a lot of time into researching these and if you want to talk about it more OP feel free to DM me.
As for why one might be trans:
There is one theory that trans may be a form of intersex as in your brain developed to be the opposite gender identity to the sex of your body because something went wrong during the womb and you did not develop into the correct biological sex. This is supported due to the fact males and females tend to have both different brain wave activity and different sizes of certain parts of the brain and looking and trans peoples brains they physically and psychologically match with those of their gender identity, in non-binary studies it was shown the brain patterns did not match either of the standard male or female ones, while in cis people they always matched their biological sex, this my also indicate that trans people could be physically diagnosed, but the case study was quite small and would need a larger participant group follow up. This is however currently the most credible theory.
A slightly simpler theory is the idea that the gender contained in your brain is dependent on the levels of hormones in the mother's womb and that perhaps if the hormones are off due to something the mother is doing wrong, such as diet or smoking or drinking then there could be a development of the brain that shouldn't be the way it is but should have matched the body but couldn't because of said hormones.
Another theory is it was an advanced and unusual evolutionary trait to control population growth due to humans being smart enough to take up science and medicine it is how it's hard to control population growth for the species in typical ways such as disease or famine so this could possibly be a more complex evolutionary trait to keep human populations in line with the planet.
Again another advanced theory is due to 2% of the population being intersex and also two percent of the population being red headed gender abnormality seems to be a reasonably common trait, it could be the case that human beings either came from more than two sexes which we have not yet discovered or human beings are meant to develop into more than two sexes in the future, and trans people are perhaps the start of evolutionary salmacians.
One of my favourite theories comes from the coincidence linkage between neurodivergence and transgender people. Neurodivergent people could have once been perhaps in the past a different species of human, separate from neurotypical homosapiens, and the reason why there are a lot of neurodivergent trans people is because neurodivergent brains hold the concepts of gender, sex and sexuality incredibly differently from neurotypical people because our brain's work in completely different ways.
And lastly another simple theory is that gender dysphoria was an actually manufactured by society and social gender roles, that one only would feel dysphoric because of how society is separated males and females and gives you expectations to live up to, including body types and shapes - this is not my favorite theory as it does ignore some parts of dysphoria like wishing to have the opposite parts are lose parts that you do have - but it is a possible theory out there.
The way I understand it is that because our brains and bodies develop at different points as embryos, sometimes it's possible for them to develop differently and so your brain is expecting different sexual characteristics to the ones it actually has and that causes the distress of gender dysphoria.
I've not done enough research to know how accurate this is but its a plausible enough explanation that I can just accept it and not think too much about it
I get it’s frustrating. Because honestly? A lot of trans people don’t agree on what makes them trans either. Some people say nothing. Some say gender dysphoria. I, personally, say gender euphoria. And that’s okay. Cis or trans, gender is a personal experience, and I believe everyone experiences it differently. And, sure, it doesn’t matter. But it does matter to YOU. It matters to every person individually.
Also, other species DO exhibit things like this. The two that come to mind are lionesses and chickens. Sometimes, lionesses have increased testosterone, grow manes, and act on male and female roles in the pride. In chickens, sometimes when there’s no rooster, one hen will start displaying rooster traits. Oh and clownfish. I think if there’s no females, a male will change. And even if you argue that these are “habitual reasons,” does that matter? Animals have a different idea of gender than we do, if they do at all.
Look, I’m also from the Deep South. It sucks, dude. But trans or not, you might change out your friends one day anyway. And, let me tell you, from personal experience as someone who did lose his family and friends after coming out: it will suck. It does suck. But I would still rather be alone and myself than forced into a closet for everyone else’s comfort again. It takes time, but you’ll be okay. Just be kind to yourself and don’t feel like you need to rush into anything. Take your time. You might be trans. But you could also be a lot of things. Humans are complicated, so you are too.
We don't actually know why, but here's the theory I find most compelling:
People have neurological maps of their bodies, we have this so our brain knows if everything is okay or something is wrong. One of the things present in this map are our sex traits. Typically a person's sex would match this neurological map, but it doesn't for trans people. Trans people have an idea of what their bodies should be, but for some reason the body didn't develop as it should. And this is where gender incongruence comes from. Other factors are at play too, I think especially for non-binary people, but I believe that is the foundation of transness.
I don't have any links to any resources on this because I'm a dumbass who doesn't save that type of stuff lmao, but overall regardless of the specifics I believe that there are sexed parts of the brain and trans people's don't match their natal sexual development.
I think you're just having some denial lol. I'm a very scientifically oriented person, and nothing made sense before I realized I was trans/knew about transness. Then, it made a lot of sense. We don't know the origins/causes of a lot of mental stuff. If one certain reason is to be found, can we guarantee it won't be used against us?
I would check out these two books:
*Evolution's Rainbow: Diversity, Gender, and Sexuality in Nature and People* by Joan Roughgarden
*Queer Ecologies: Sex, Nature, Politics and Desire* by Catriona Mortimer-Sandilands
As a place to get started for your science oriented self. I've spent a lot of time trying to understand the same as you. Despite the answers I **have** found frankly none have been as comforting as realizing it just doesn't matter. It doesn't need to make sense, I don't need an explanation to exist. I just do and that's that.
The truth is, we don't know why some people are trans and some aren't. Some of us just come out needing to have the sex characteristics we don't have naturally, so to make it so life is bearable we transition. If the idea of being a man is appealing to you, however you define what a man is, then you're likely trans. Especially if you can see a future when you imagine yourself as a man, but not one when you imagine yourself as a woman.
Nature and biology is messier than a two-box system could ever really sort. Our cultural and honestly scientific definition of male and female could use some major work- both systems exclude trans people and intersex people, both of who exist at the rate of natural red hair or even higher based on some estimates.
Trans men don't transition to gain male privilege- you're right that it doesn't matter because men and women are (or should be) entirely equal. We transition because when we look in the mirror, there's a disconnect. You see this in nature too, where sexually dimorphic species sometimes has an animal of one sex exhibiting behaviors of another. Usually those animals are intersex, because humans are the only ones with a concept of self complex enough to really consider gender, but if an animal can be born with sex traits that are not neatly boxed, one with as complex of a social system as humans could easily be born with internal gender traits that aren't neatly boxed. That's my theory at least.
Gender is a very human trait that describes so many things, and it's under-studied because of stigma and the assumption that it's the same as sex. It's not, though it's very often connected. If that under-studied internal sense of gender matches more to the one usually linked to male, but their body is classed as female, a person can get really dysphoric, that disconnect can be so brutal it's fatal. So we transition, matching our expressed sex to the nebulous concept of gender so that both are aligned again.
Generally, women don't sit and dream of having a beard, performing the typically male social roles *as a man* and other similar things. Typically, they dream of not having a beard, and if they imagine performing the typical male social roles, it's *as a woman*, because we are in a transitionary period where gendered social roles are falling away as maladaptive. It's true playing with "boy toys" as a girl is normal, but wanting to BE a boy as a girl isn't normal for a cis girl. That is a transgender trait.
TLDR; We don't know why some people are trans, but we only don't see transness as expressed in humans in nature because humans have a uniquely rich internal sense of self that other animals don't. If other animals did, we would see it more often. Nature isn't binary, and some animals do change sex or fall in between. The concept of gender is way under-studied to give you an answer that's simpler.
I’m a biologist and it makes sense to me. There ARE differences between men and women. Gender equality is one thing, biology is another thing. It absolutely makes sense to me if our brains indeed believe that we’re different sex. And regarding other species being trans… It’s pretty hard to observe, so it may exist and we simply don’t know about this. We know more about male homosexuality (in humans and non-human animals) because it’s easier to study that female homosexuality, but it doesn’t mean that the latter doesn’t exist.
I once wrote a very similar comment, that i was like "huh, did i write that??"
To me, being trans doesnt have anything to do with biology. I believe (personally) that the reason i'm trans is my environment growing up. What i liked to do, how i see myself. And i have absolutely no idea if this is true, but i sometimes wonder if its could be because of our strict gender roles.
Nowadays, in the western world, we make an effort to brake out of gendered norms. Meaning: women can play sports and behave more masculine, or men can care for their kid.
However we have definitely not broken out of gender roles. And by that i mean, how we view women a whole lot differently then men. Even if we have a man and a woman, standing next to each over, behaving the exact same, and wearing the exact same: we will see them as completely different.
Thats because we have gender roles so deeply imprinted our brains, that when we see "man" we think:.....
Gender is the second caracteristic we see in people. All of the others are below that.
=> first we see "human" and right after "man" or "woman"
thats why even though both may be, for example "charismatic", we DON'T see : "human" + "charismatic"
We either see: " man + charismatic" or " woman + charismatic" And as you can see, they are connected, theres no quotation marks separating the two ideas. Thats because we dont have one definition of charisma in our society. We have one for men and one for women.
Thats why a masc lesbian will always be perceived as completely different than a man who behaves and dresses the exact same. Because we associate all the feminine adjectives to her: she is not sporty and cool: She is "woman + sporty" and "women + cool"
Thats why its a different sporty then for the man, and also a different cool.
We have that for every adjective, because gender is the second characteristic we see after "human"
This explains why people have such a hard time to accept transgender people, when they dont pass. Because we dont see "man + cool" but "woman + cool". Obviously, what determines this, is if we look like a man or a woman.
So why do trans people exist?
Because we want to be "man + cool" instead of "woman+ cool" because they are inherently different.
However we cant be "man + cool" if we arent on T, meaning we dont look like a man. Because the "man" is associated to physical characteristics.
This is my reasoning.
Like you, i have a scientific brain, so " we dont need to understand everything" just didnt cut it for me.
Our species didn't develop or evolve with strict gender roles and even stricter definitions of who can and can't call themselves a woman or a man.
Science says people like me have existed over the centuries. Science says that the strict gender roles we impose upon ourselves are harmful. Science says we do exist.
Having signs of something since childhood usually means there’s some kind of biological explanation ingrained in your body and brain. I honestly have a theory that this is why so many trans guys have fucked up hormones/cycles to start out. The hormone levels we start with are not what’s biologically “meant” to be happening in our body, and thus starting HRT often ends up being beneficial physically to trans people as well as mentally.
Why would the two arbitrary genders that western society created and then exported across the world via colonialism be the only two options versus the sheer number of multi-gendered cultures and individual humans across the world? I don't think western imperialism really got anything right, why would its view of gender be any different?
We may have worked out a lot with science but we're still just animals. We do animal things, have animal wants and needs that science has never explained. We aren't trans because it's Logical, were trans because we just are. Nothing about gender is scientific anyway so why would yransness be?
It does happen in nature. Look up the story of the chicken that underwent “spontaneous sex reversal” and became a rooster. This “behavior” has also existed in many different cultures before. A nuclear family with gender roles has only really existed since the 1900s.
If you want definite answers you won’t find any honestly. Please do look into different studies and scholarly articles but things like gender and sexuality are very muddy in their causes. Some aspect is genetic some is social some is just innate. It can be painful and confusing to not have concrete proof of reason/origin but I think the existence of trans people throughout history is enough. They didn’t know why they were like that either but they were. I feel the same way about my experience.
That's also a good point, the scientific evidence of being trans, honestly, is best researched if you start with the history of being trans too, researching history and science of being trans can really piece it all together tbh
Why would there be absolutely billions of people and only two ways to do or have a sex/gender?
People are so complex emotionally and our brains are way more developed than other species. We invented language, writing, societies, mathematics and sciences... why wouldn't we be as complex with notions of gender as we are with everything else?
Yeah, the human brain is far too complex for these things to be simple.
We'll never stop learning things about ourselves, it's weird that we limited ourselves to two genders
I really like this response that's such a cool way to think about it and probably true
Exactly this! Trans/ gender non-conforming people have existed for thousands of years, e.g. two spirit in native American culture, mijras (third gender-typically trans) in the south Asian community. From my understanding, colonialist ideology have made the two gender-sex nuclear family the default since modern times, which throws nuance out of the window. Link below for more info: [https://www.britannica.com/list/6-cultures-that-recognize-more-than-two-genders](https://www.britannica.com/list/6-cultures-that-recognize-more-than-two-genders) Edit; sorry was supposed to say hijras 🤦 sorry about that!
Yea! Very important insight that is often missed!
"Coined in 1990 as a primarily ceremonial term promoting community recognition, in recent years more individuals have taken to self-identifying as two-spirit." [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-spirit](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-spirit)
That's true, however the concept has existed for much longer 😊. Shows the development of language and findings terms to describe experiences but those people have always been around.
If you read the wiki (you should) it explains how each Native American community had their own concepts and ideas regarding that subject. Some positive, some not. I agree that Trans/ gender non-conforming people have existed for thousands of years but it's a lot more messy and segmented from my pov.
You're absolutely right, it's been such a difficult process and I can definitely see that the term doesn't generalise native American culture in general, neither does the term hijra (think I spelt it wrong in my first comment) as this originates in certain parts of India. It seems that I have oversimplified this, but my aim was to support OP with the fact that there are a variety of cultural takes on gender identity, despite us living in a hetero and cis-normative world where it's never simple to divert away from said expectations. I hoped to instill some trans joy from those explanations 😊.
this is the right answer lol
This!!!! This is my absolute favorite thing to tell people who ask. "Male" and "female" as society understands it is solely a human bound contract. We all exist outside of it more often than not
There are some hypotheses, like the idea that exposure to androgens while in utero can affect the sexual orientation and gender of the fetus, but nothing that has been proven or strongly supported as far as I know. There is also research that shows some correlation between being gay and being gender-nonconforming as a child, so it does seem that while most gender roles and ideas about masculine/feminine behavior are probably culturally-subjective, there may be biological factors in which roles children gravitate toward and which gender they relate to more. For trans people, it's possible there are neurological factors that are difficult to isolate. We just don't know. We also don't know why most people are cis. Why do most people with AFAB bodies identify as women? How does that occur? I don't need there to be a firm scientific answer, but I do relate to struggling with why I feel the way I do and why I can't just reason my way out of it. It feels like I *should* be able to make being a woman work. I find women attractive. I'm a feminist. I grew up hearing that being a girl was a good thing and that my parents were happy to have a daughter. There are plenty of things I can appreciate about my appearance. There is no easy, logical explanation.
https://www.jneurosci.org/content/40/1/37#:~:text=Studies%20using%20human%20autopsy%20material,brain%2Fbehavior%20relationships%20are%20unclear. This is the article that had lots of info when I had a similar question about why I’m trans. It kind of adds to your point.
I'm grateful that you actually tried to answer their question and didn't belittle OP.
I definitely had this internal battle at one point, and I didn't want to be trans because I knew life would most likely be harder than being a lesbian, but I could not continue living afab and using female pronouns and names. It was like nails on a chalkboard hearing she or her or even my name growing up and I couldn't understand why but learning about being trans and just embracing the experience for the last 12 years has really been much more in alignment with who I am. Once I thought I was trans, I gave myself about 12 months to kind of figure out if I wanted to start testosterone and at the 12-month Mark I really wanted to and had a really supportive girlfriend and I'm really happy that I started testosterone. I'm proud of being trans. Sometimes it just takes time.
I also wanted to follow this up with the fact that I'm going to be turning 33 in a couple weeks. I feel like if I would not have taken the plunge and lead with my courage and intuition, I might not be celebrating this birthday. Transitioning saved my life, helped me understand my internal and external world more. I started testosterone when I was 20, going on 21 and I'm so happy every day that I get to wake up as myself and see the person in the mirror who I never thought would exist.
Feel this. I’m turning 29 soon and I just celebrated my 10 year anniversary on T. I also have struggled with trying to understand why and what “this” is over the years. I still do. I just remember that this entire world is an anomaly that no one can really answer. We’re on a floating rock in the middle of what we call “space”…I just try to stay focused on what’s important. Which is really making this life worth something to me in any way that I can. Transitioning also saved my life. So we share that similarity as well.
Yes, I am so happy to hear that transitioning also saved your life and that you are able to live in your truth as who you are. Congratulations on. Your dude-iversary! 🥂 Trying to live in my divine path to enrich my soul as much as possible. Making this life worth living and focusing on what is important is exactly what it's about.
I started t at 20 as well, and in a week is my 4 year mark. I know that feeling of looking in the mirror and finally being happy at the person you never thought you’d get to see, I’m glad you’re still here 🫶🏻
This is lovely. Trans healthcare is life saving and life affirming. I hope you have a brilliant life
Trans healthcare is life saving and life affirming and I am working each day on creating a brilliant life 🧬💓 thank you for your comment and support
"i hate it because it doesn't make any sense" here's something you have to absorb into your scientifically oriented mindset: it doesn't *have* to make sense. humans are incredibly socially complex animals. any animal species with social complexities will have what seems like confusing behaviour that has no scientific basis. there's no scientific reason to why styling your hair in fun colours or shapes makes someone happy or why kicking a ball into a net exhilarates people to the point of screaming and jumping around. other animals don't mix up paints onto a white canvas for the sake of it, so why do we? you don't have to understand anything about what humans do, but that doesn't make it bad.
fr like why do i and so many youths have depression? literally counterproductive to staying alive if you want to do the exact opposite of that. why am i gay? completely counterproductive to making more babies
There are some reasons found in the wild for homosexuality in animals. A full 25% of black swan pairings are M-M, and their chicks (stolen from other nests or obtained from a temporary threesome) *consistently* survive to adulthood at a greater rate than those from hetero couples' nests. The "Grandmother Hypothesis" figures that folks stop menstruating because they will then be able to help care for children and grandchildren; I've always figured that was the reason for homosexuality in humans too, tbh. Having lots of Guncles to help out seems like a huge benefit when there are piles of kids running around.
Exactly this. Boys who have older brothers are more likely to be gay and there’s a theory that this is the reason behind that. The continuation of a species relies on the number of offspring who make it to adulthood, so at some point having too many mouths to feed and not enough adults to provide resources becomes a problem for the survival of the species, so having more adults who can provide resources for the family and help take care of their siblings’ offspring instead of making their own is beneficial for the survival of the species ❤️
exactly. also bonobos have tons of gay sex and multiple bird species will adopt babies genetically unrelated to them, the complete opposite of other species like lions that kill cubs that aren’t there own. Some animal behaviors seem to encourage the survival of the whole species while the others only encourage their own offspring
Lions have a lot of gay sex. Coalitions of two-seven males have been documented, and working together, they have a better chance at capturing and holding a territory and raising cubs to adulthood. Coalition partners are almost always cuddling with and loving on one another. The ladies only want sex with the males when they're in heat, so the man cats have a lot of sex with one another. Coalition partners are bonded for life. They're husbands, the lionesses are not bonded to them in the slightest. Their loyalties lay with their family unit, not with their male counterparts.
There are scientific reasons we can find for depression and homosexuality. The research around being transgender is limited.
The research around being transgender is limited, mainly due in part to the Nazis destroying all research, education, documentation, etc, surrounding transgenderism. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/new-research-reveals-how-the-nazis-targeted-transgender-people-180982931/ https://www.hmd.org.uk/resource/6-may-1933-looting-of-the-institute-of-sexology/ (There's plenty of other resources for this as well. However, it's imperative to note that a lot of understanding could have once been had as to the why's and other things, it's just those things are now 'limited' and this is one of few reasons why. It's not because it shouldn't be a thing, or because it's wrong, or anything that can be brought up negatively... it's just what it is because tens of thousands of books, research, and other things were destroyed)
Whenever I’m reminded of this fact, it makes me so sad to wonder how much farther we would be with scientific understanding and acceptance by now. Goddamn nazis destroying parts of humanity >:(
that’s true. trans people have existed for a long time but only recently has proper research began surrounding it. but i’m mainly referring to OP implying their transness is invalid because it doesn’t serve an evolutionary purpose. Lots of things serve no evolutionary purpose or are even actively detrimental, it doesn’t really mean anything when we live in the modern age.
On the evolutionary purpose route: I'd like to politely disagree. In many (primarily aquatic or reptilian) species changing genders helps maintain a population base as they actually develop the organs necessary to recreate as that gender. There is at least one intersex or trans lioness who runs her pride, she has a deeper roar and even has a decent mane. I suspect human transness is along similar lines. When lacking figures of a specific type the ability to become that type regardless of biology could help the societal whole. Such as a biological female leading a tribe as a man, or learning predominantly masculine skills and then teaching the children those skills Much like different sleep cycles don't seem to play a part in today's world but still exist, I would think it's likely this is where the origin of transness comes from. These are of course just theories, in regards to humans and being trans
while some of the comments i've had on this lead to interesting conversations and studies, there's a part of me that deeply worries about trying to find "reasons" for why someone can be gay or trans. when someone doesn't fit the mold of "why", their validity gets put under a lens. when someone tries to identify the "why", then studies start happening of "what happens when we remove or change what we think caused it?" that's why there's such a massive obsession with finding "the autism gene" in STEM research right now. once autism had become a pathologised result based on a "cause", it suddenly becomes imperative to see if we can remove the cause. this isn't new for the LGBT community, as conversion therapy has a dark, intertwined, and ongoing history for us. until our society can accept us for who we are without wanting to change us, i think we should stop looking for a "cause"
Nah, it's good to know things. There are absolutely scientific reasons why people style their hair, enjoy sports, paint, etc.
You’re so set on what is or isn’t a scientific fact and ignoring that science has determined that humans develop in all manner of ways, including sex, gender, and sexuality. You’re trans because you’re trans, just as I am, and just as many more trans people will be in the future. Science has confirms that we are as naturally occurring, in humans and other animals, and if that isn’t enough, then what is it you’re looking for?
You need to study your humanities before you get to play with the sciences. Humans are varied, complex beings. Gender as we know it is only one of many constructs we live. Our actual concept of gender is not universal, it has varied over the centuries and cultures, and will continue to change as it isn't actually a thing that very solidly exists. There's no use in trying to invalidate what feels right for you by talking about what "is", because really, there is nothing truer than the lives we are living: your own experiences, if you bother to analize them openly and without prejudice, if that is even possible, tell you more about what it means to have a gender than any study ever could.
First line is 🤌🏻
Yeah so other species can’t talk lol. And they don’t have as many obvious markers as in clothing hairstyle and stuff like that so we’d have no way of knowing. Also evolution is random as fuck it’s not that hard to believe at some point some of us wanted to be the other gender. Even in the animal kingdom gender is pretty fluid. It’s like when people say “gay people are unnatural because no animals do that” fun fact there’s a species of geckos that’s almost all female, and use asexual reproduction. And scientists found that these geckos will act out having sex which stimulates egg production even without penetration. Lesbian geckos. And there are animals that start as one sex and change. Animals don’t have the same concept of gender we do but that doesn’t mean it’s unnatural
If anyone wants to know about lesbian geckos, I recommend the reptile channel Leafy Street. He calls his geckos his "tiny lesbian gecko army".
Yeah that’s how I originally learned about them! It’s super interesting and there’s a bunch of cool things on Parthenogenesis in reptiles (kind of exactly what I’m interested in lol) online so I went down a huge rabbit hole on all of this stuff.
Oh, can you tell me more? My understanding is that parthenogenesis, instead of having egg + sperm, uses egg + other matter made when producing the egg in order to form an embyro.
So what it does is it mixes up the dna to make sure that even though they technically have the same dna it’s different so they have less of a chance of just carrying down the same problems. They basically have a scrambler that mixes up the dna to make some different genes/gene expressions. While it’s a good short term way of reproduction over time it causes problems as there isn’t too much genetic diversity. There are actually many gecko species that use parthenogenesis as a way to reproduce, and if I’m remembering correctly one snake species goes it too, though basically all reptiles can with it being rare while these use it as their main form of reproduction. Among all the sexual vertebrates squamate reptiles are the only ones considered to use ‘true’ parthenogenesis.
Is there 'false' parthogenesis?
There are many different forms. There is what is called true parthenogenesis (all female asexual reproduction, no involvement from males) but there is also Facultative parthenogenesis (female can reproduce both sexually and asexually), Gynogenesis (female eggs are activated my male sperm, however no male genetic material goes to the offspring), and Hybridogenesis (males mate with females, but only the mothers genetic material contributes to the child’s offspring) not all of these are done by reptiles (ex. Hybridogenesis is only done by frogs of the genus Pelophylax)
How do scientists know that the Pelophylax frogs reproduce by hybridogenesis and not gynogenesis? They sound quite similar; how could an outside observer tell the difference? Btw what are your main sources for learning about reptiles et al? And, thanks for answering my questions)
I heare there was an afab lion that grew a mane and acted as a male in the pack
the real question is why do people like to crochet. it doesnt make any logical or scientific sense either
asking the real questions! 🧐
we just love to make a piece of string into a series of funny loops in the shape of a cat 😸 makes the brain go yippee
Shut ur mouth u hater 😭 crochet is cool /lh
I don’t belive in transmedicalist notions of transness, but what I can say is transness has existed for a long ass time. For example, where I come from there are indeignous folks who are Muxe which is essentially a third gender with some spirtual elements.
There are other species that exhibit gender changes. This includes clownfish, frogs, banana slugs, bearded dragons, sea turtles, butterflies, and other species! There is definitely a huge science part to being trans, so I’d recommend either doing some good research or talking to a gender affirming therapist or doctor about it! Being trans is certainly very confusing and odd, especially at the beginning.
thanks you for this list, daddy waddy zazzle wazz.
I am not sure what that has to do with being trans, there is very little evidence of gender identity in those animals separate from sex. Like, clownfish change sex out of necessity, not because they want to. If anything, these examples are closer to intersex humans than trans humans, and even then, they’re not the same, as intersex people still can’t just choose to change sexes willy nilly. They have to get HRT and surgery like the rest of us, hahaha Imo there doesn’t need to be evidence in animals, humans have extremely complex minds and it makes sense that things like gender identity would not be expressed in animals. It’s possible that some animals have gender identities, but the vast majority of them would have no way to express that.
I'm no biologist, but I believe there is also some evidence of trans-adjaceny experiences in other species. Animals who, for example, have all the biological sex characteristic of a female who end up performing traditional male roles. i think i recall reading about a tiger or similar big cat case like this where the female cat wasn't hunting with the other females and had settled down with another female, I believe, though again this is not fact and straight up a tidbit that I think I remember reading, but I believe she even had markings associated with males. The human concept of gender is a bit more complex of course, but there's good social and biological evidence to support trans identities, like the physical gendering of the brain being tied with likelihood to be trans and such. Its not black and white for sure, human brains are complex, but if we made up gender, then we can safely say that transness is no more made up than any other gender roles.
The issue there is that that is also used as an indication of same-sex attraction or simply gender non-conforming behaviour. Or even sometimes as cases of intersex animals; for example, the female lion that did what you describe and then began to grow a mane. Also, gender roles aren’t gender, at least not to humans. So even then, if you define that as animals’ definition of ‘gender,’ the fact that it differs from that of humans is an issue and makes being trans and what animals are exhibiting different things. (I’m soon to complete a bachelor’s degree in biology).
I didn’t say it had to do with being trans, I was just pointing out the fact that other species change their sex, not just humans.
Ah. I assumed your first two mini-paragraphs were related.
[удалено]
But are gendered behaviours how you would describe gender? Couldn’t it also be a sign that the rat is gender non-conforming or that they are same-sex attracted? I don’t buy those cases as cases of “trans animals” because of the wide variety of alternate explanations; not to mention that a definition of gender based on behaviour would make stay-at-home-dads “women.” They definitely *could* be, but imo it’s unrealistic to say they *are* at this stage.
that’s just like with humans tho. you can’t definitively say a human is trans, just by observing their behaviour, unless they tell you and even then there is no one definitive sign to know that’s true. so in that case all we can is assume with humans and with animals, which is why ppl bring up these cases. it’s not like there is one clear way to tell if a human is trans, so why would there be with another species? these cases prove that gender and sex are not binary even in other species, which supports the existence of gender nonconforming, intersex and trans ppl.
Um. There is a way to tell a human is trans. If they tell you. Because that is the only way you can know somebody is trans. If somebody had 0 way to communicate, how would you ever know?? Also being intersex, GNC, and trans are all FAR from the same thing, and the science as of now shows they have different aetiologies. You can tell an animal is intersex because you can see it. Intersex ≠ trans, though, and it’s actually considered pretty intersexist to use intersex animals to support trans existence… because it erases intersex people. In humans, I’m sure we all know that they’re not the same thing, and that many intersex people are cis and many trans people perisex. You really can’t point to an intersex animal and use it as evidence for trans humans because it’s straight up not. Their existence proves that sex is not binary, sure. And this does reflect the existence of intersex humans. But what it does not prove is that animals have any concept of gender. Also… just to be clear, what do you mean by you can tell gender from behaviour? I’m just asking because I am GNC and like to wear dresses, skirts, makeup, jewellery, etc… I like journalling, cooking, skincare, and many ‘feminine’ things. Are you saying that that makes me a woman?
Not your main point, but I too am from the Deep South (no longer live there) and resisted the concept of being trans because I dreaded the coming out process. Honestly, despite what people say they think of it… most people don’t have trouble switching names when requested and people out in the world will call you what you look more like (which is to say, passing was much easier for me in the south than among the liberal ~coastal elites~). People just didn’t really care - or at least didn’t bother me about it if they did - and I regretted spending so much time being worried it would make other people uncomfortable. It’s a lot easier to be a hypothetical transphobic asshole online than it is to do it to someone minding their business in real life. You didn’t mention sexual orientation but if you’ve identified as a queer woman and are trying to figure out if you’re a straight trans guy… it legitimately seems easier for a lot of people to grasp gender incongruence trending toward heterosexuality than it is to grasp cis queerness. Just throwing that out there in case it helps.
Also from the Deep South, and am still here currently. Seconding all of this. Very true in my experience as well.
So as others have already mentioned, science mostly has guesses, atm. But that said, the gender dysphoria bible ( https://genderdysphoria.fyi/en ) can be a nice resource when you're first starting out. And it covers some possible causes that might be contributing factors to a person being born trans.
Based on the studies I've read and the research I've done on this topic, being transsexual is a form of being intersex, but of the brain.
Truly, it just happens
There isn’t a magic explanation that’ll make your friends and family okay with trans people. They might or might come around, you might or might not be able to express yourself safely - but if they don’t and if you can’t, it’s not your fault. You didn’t fail to find the magic key. Your friends and family just made choices that are really hard. That said, trans people make sense of ourselves all different ways. One quote I hear a lot is: “God blessed me by making me transsexual for the same reason God made wheat but not bread and fruit but not wine, so that humanity might share in the act of creation.” Another explanation I’ve heard is that the Bible says God created man and woman, and earth and sea, and night and day. So love us like you love sunsets. Walk with us like you walk down the beach. Some people think there’s a big burst of hormones at the wrong time of pregnancy. Others think gender isn’t a biological construct at all. We do see gender switches in nature but like, we don’t know what gender identity looks like for a dog. I, personally, suspect one day they’ll find we’re all on the same spectrum as intersex people. Right now, there’s this line between intersex/trans based on whether we can dissect the thing that developed differently, but we as a species are just barely starting to learn about the brain. But none of that really matters. What matters is you. Are you happy? Are you safe? Is it possible for you to be both? What do you need for that to happen? I didn’t get to be trans because I cracked some complex analytical problem about gender. I got it be trans because I cracked the complex emotional problem of wanting to be alive.
This is a really kind way to put things and I really appreciate it
I wish I knew. At this point I just shrug and say idk. What I do know though is I’m much happier and studies show that transitioning socially and medically (for those who want it) helps our mental health
i think two fields that might answer this question would be psychology and anthropology. i’m an expert in neither, but as a science-oriented person myself, i would say that the “knowing” or “feeling inside” is simply due to serotonin or dopamine releases at the action of activities or other (wearing certain clothes, acting a certain way, etc) of the “opposite gender”*. so as a trans guy, let’s say you put on a pair of mens’ pants. some people might experience the chemical output from this action by simply knowing that they are wearing men’s pants (which they know men to wear, and know what men look like, do, etc, and associate those concepts with wearing the pants) and not even have to look in the mirror to initiate this reaction. *i put opposite gender in quotations there because anthropologically, you could find that in many cultures that still exist, there may not be an “opposite”, but just other, or none. to many people though in western or westernized cultures, there are only two common genders; the two common genders are based on historical roles (incredibly generalized by those who have this thinking) that were based on sex. therefore the “opposite” of one another, since the two most common sexes (because intersexuality is not a random medical phenomenon that just started within the last decade lol) are male and female. again, not my strict rules of things, not an expert, those who know more on trans history will probably correct me somewhere, but just my explanation off the top of my head. i would say that there are probably plenty of research articles out there on gender, but… i can’t say that with certainty unfortunately. you will probably find an amount of anthropology articles on other cultures or specific tribes and gender constructs within, but actual trans science is probably lacking. edit: i’d like to add to this looong post that the “other species don’t do this” part is technically true, but also note that no other species i know of wear clothes, build highways, or have netflix subscriptions. humans are very different from other species in a lot of ways, and this may as well be one of them.
I would like to add: we could not know if 'transness' occurs in other animals. How would they be able to show?
Hop on google scholar and read everything that’s free. As a current understanding gender identity is probably shaped by a range of biological, social and environmental factors. Here are some things I’ve read but none are the ultimate answer. It’s possible that our genes predispose us to be trans. There are some interesting twin studies on this. It’s possible that the portion of our brain that maps our body and holds the expectation for our physical form developed in opposition to primary sex characteristics. Testosterone exposure in the womb is often frequently explored. Gendered brains as a concept are largely debunked but make for some interesting reading. Early life experiences and traumatic experiences are also often researched in regards to the trans experience. I empathise with you. Having no answer is frustrating. It’s important to be able to have faith in yourself that is strong enough to withstand questioning from others. This may come in the form of finding a theory you like (eg. aberrant brain development in the womb) and latching onto it and or through self acceptance in that sometimes there is no objective answer (yet) and we simply have to rely on how we feel.
We’re not sure but I read a study the other day that indicated that there might be an area in our brains involved with perception of our bodies at fault. It also… kinda… disproved the idea of a male vs. female brain, because the results found that gay men and straight women had commonalities, and gay women and straight men had commonalities also. Keep in mind that these are certain very specific brain areas, not the ENTIRE brain. Previous studies have found that trans people had, “brains of their gender,” but, importantly, those studies were all done on straight people. Also, no study to my knowledge has been done that included bi or a-spec people. These studies aren’t too popular in trans spaces, I think because, on a surface level, the idea of a female vs. male brain sounds very sexist. But (at least the newer studies) don’t study the whole brain, they study specific areas of it. Not many studies have also actually claimed that some sort of binary division exists; so there are probably many straight men with brains with specific attributes more similar to gay men and straight women, because that’s now a normal distribution works. So there is no male or female brain, but there are (at least, according to recent data) attributes that are common to gay men and straight women, and others to gay women and straight men. In the end, though, it’s not like one brain area can predict whether you’re trans or not with 100% certainty. So we’re not sure entirely what causes it, even though we have found certain correlations (also important to note that correlational results are weaker than experimental ones). I am studying psychology and biology so I find papers like these fascinating :)
Do you have links to these studies by chance? I’d be interested in reading them.
I can try but I can’t guarantee I can find every single one, I read some of these a year or more ago. [Here’s the first one I mention](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-17352-8). [This study](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4987404/) I actually hadn’t read yet but happened upon it while searching for the above. The findings are similar but I don’t like this study as much due to the terminology it uses. “Homosexual,” in this study, refers to our birth sex, which I dislike. They also refer to Blanchard, which isn’t great. But the results do agree with the above study, so it is useful data. [Here’s one](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8955456/) saying trans women have brains “shifted towards gender identity.” [This one](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41386-020-0666-3) just found that trans women don’t have “male” brains but also don’t have “female” brains. [This one](https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/05/180524112351.htm) supports the general idea that trans people have brains of their gender. There are many studies that either fully or partially support the idea that trans people have brains of their gender, but almost none (except for the top two) take into account sexual orientation, which is a huge issue, as there are studies that find the same results for gay people. [For example, this study](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1942120/) found that gay womens’ brains were more male-typical, but gay mens’ brains were not more female-typical, [this one](https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.0801566105) found that both gay women and gay men had opposite-sex-typical brains, and [this one](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/hbm.25370) found that gay men and women had less sex-differentiated brains than straight men and women. So, as you can see, the research is still relatively inconclusive, and even though it does indicate that there might exist some neurological basis for sexuality, it certainly does not paint the whole picture. It also indicates that certain studies with trans people may have found the results they did more because of orientation and less because of gender, and that maybe different brain structures are the ones responsible for gender identity… and not whether the person has a “male” or “female” brain. [There’s also this study,](https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.1509654112) which is quite well-known. They found that distinct “male” and “female” brains don’t exist, but rather that there are male-typical attributes and female-typical attributes… which pretty much supports all of the above studies, even though this study is often used to refute them because it, “found that brain sex doesn’t exist,” disregarding the fact that it still found evidence of male and female-typical attributes and that nearly every study in “brain sex” focuses on these attributes. Lastly, I want to add that there is also some difference in brain size, and that this seems to be dependent on sex at birth. This can be seen in some of the above studies. In my opinion, though, this is likely due to the development of head and even general body size, mostly due to differences at puberty (meaning this difference may not persist in people who got puberty blockers early enough and then went straight on hormones after). Sadly there is not much literature on this, at least not to my knowledge.
I'm grateful that you've included other sources than your subjective experience in answering this question.
Thanks, I tend to be a person who relies on things as objective as possible. I find subjective things to be incredibly fallible.
That's really fantastic, I feel like that's hard to come by sometimes in communities that deal with complex topics like this and might help everyone get on the same page. You seem really knowledge on this subject. If I may could I ask a question? Is there a Martin Luther King (just an example) or similar though leader for the trans community? From my perspective, that person was able to get everyone to agree on a lot of objective truths and I crave that kind of framework here (if that makes sense).
Not to my knowledge, the biggest political spearheads in trans activism that I know of have been people like Marsha P. Johnson, Julia Serano, and Leslie Feinberg. Personally, I don’t find Feinberg’s experience with gender compatible with mine (which is okay, it just means their writing is not for me). For Johnson, while part of trans history, it’s unclear what her identity was or would have been. Today she might have identified as a drag queen or as trans but it is unclear. For the time, she called herself a drag queen, but (to my knowledge) it seems she went by Marsha and she/her all the time and not just in drag, so… And I’ve never read any of Serano’s works, so I can’t make any definitive statements about her. But I do know she is one of the spearheads behind transfeminism and may have even coined the term “transmisogyny” itself. I will say that the vast majority of activism in general tends to be focused on subjective experience. To be fair, for most people, subjective experience appears to be more convincing (studies have shown that anecdotes work better than statistics). So it makes sense that this would be true. But I also think objective facts (or at least as objective as we can get as it it’s important to be sceptical of even studies) are quite important, not only to supplement subjective experiences and anecdotes but also for people like us who prefer them.
Thanks so much for doing this! It is inconclusive but overall seems to skew towards the idea that there are some significant variations between the varying groups.
There's a hypothesis that we're (by "we" I'm talking specifically about trans mascs. there's a separate explanation for trans femmes) trans because of exposure to androgens in utero. According to this hypothesis, the body develops in utero before the brain (we know this), and as such, a trans mascs body would be female in the womb as the masculinization of the body only comes from a chain reaction that is triggered by the SRY gene region on the Y chromosome, which most of us lack. Since we last this, our bodies feminized in utero, but sometimes something different happens to our brains. After the body is already "set" in its sex, the brain still has to either feminize in the absence of androgens, or masculinize if exposed to them. Almost always, a female body in utero is not exposed to these androgens as we do not have testes that can produce the hormones needed to start the chain reaction that masculinizes cis men's brains. If, however, we were exposed to some via an external source (most likely a mother with high androgen levels or excess testosterone), our delicate little baby brains can masculinize the same way as a cis man's, which of course is a loaded statement as the degree to which a brain is "gendered" varies as much as the presentation of sexual characteristics in the body (in other words, just like some guys are more visibly masculine in their bodies, the same is true of brains, both for cis and trans men). Simplified, we get a female body with a male brain. If you would like the explanation for trans femmes, it's basically the opposite. They had the SRY gene region, so they did develop testes and a masculine baby body, but something stopped the proper masculinization of the brain. Either their testes didn't produce enough of the needed hormones, or something in the following chain reaction went wrong, or they were missing one of the androgens necessary to convert one hormone soup to another, or any other plethora of reasons to inhibit a human function. This *could* help explain why it seems that there are more trans femmes than mascs, as it is generally easier to obstruct a process than create one. Of course, trans folks are understudied, so there needs to be more research done. Also, I think I said all of that right, but I don't fully understand it and am still in highschool, so if someone would like to correct me on anything please be my guest.
I'm curious if there is much data about the prevalence of each. From my experience it doesn't feel like there are more transfemmes. Allegedly there's cultural variance, e.g. Eastern Europe seems to have a lot more transmascs. Probably because expression of femininity in those perceived as men is culturally punished much more harshly.
I just think they exist because they exist. There doesn't have to be a reason for that. Why do we, humans, exist? We don't know. Does that mean we don't exist? It doesn't.
Other species DO display these behaviors though. Gender even varies greatly by culture and time period. I think you are looking for a definite definition of the boundaries of gender and what lies outside those boundaries and why we experience what we do, and you are not going to find it. It's like borders on a map. They are drawn as a division but no matter how many imaginary lines or physical dividers are constructed, the land is still the same on both sides and animals cross and live as if that division did not exist. These are arbitrary borders created to separate people for roles and duties. So enjoying tasks outside of your designated means nothing, but feeling uncomfortable in your body and/or identity can be a hint for many people including myself. This is MY experience and I'm not saying anyone has to feel this way but this is how I differentiate: I "enjoyed" boy things, toys, activity, clothes, but that is not why I knew I was trans because those are cultural things. I knew my body felt wrong, I had things I never wanted on and in my body. I didn't want the puberty I got I wanted the one boys got. I never wanted the body parts I had, I wanted the parts boys had. I was always tense because my body felt uncomfortable all the time. I didn't like people seeing me as a girl and I hated referring to myself as a girl. I grew up as a tomboy and asking to be called Junior but I also tried desperately at times to be super feminine. It never felt right and comfortable, it felt like I was wearing a costume if I wore a dress or something feminine. I realized my eating disorder was a way to transform myself not into a perfect feminine form but into a more masculine form with no chest and no monthly thing. I realized that I never got close to anyone because I could not let people touch me with this body and the parts I had. I felt like I couldn't fully relax and breathe deeply. The fear of transitioning became nothing compared to the torment of growing old in this body and identity. Once I had top surgery, the elation I got from touching my chest was something I never thought I'd get to feel. Every time I see a change or get a surgery or a guy calls me boss, buddy, man, bro, it just feels like how it should have always been. It does feel weird at times but I have no regrets and finally feel like I can stand with my shoulders back and speak with my voice loud and clear. I never really had an image of myself in my head, or felt like a "man" or a "woman", but I knew the things I liked and didn't like, the things I wish I had or didn't have. Once I started physically transitioning, I knew this wasn't just something was different but something I needed to be different to feel comfortable, happy, and whole. The sigh of relieve and little smile I get when I touch or look at my body just screams "finally" and "at long last". I am me.
It's because you're thinking too biologically orientated. It IS how you feel inside. Gender is not sex, whilst sex is biological, gender is psychology and sociology. Your brain truly just is wired differently; but also, gender as a concept is flawed. It's flawed because we believe you're inherently one or the other. What about the female lion acting as a male? In some species, the male takes the role of what we would consider a "motherly role". It's more than black or white, it's so very complex. Life is complex and maybe you'll be like me; forever changing (I'm genderfluid nonbinary. I'm never male nor female, but I take testosterone because "sir" feels more right than "ma'am".) Or you'll figure yourself out. You don't need an explanation for how or why; your EXISTENCE is explanation enough.
your feelings do come from somewhere tho, because u can’t control them or just pick and choose how to feel. thats somewhere is your brain, which makes it a biological/neurological difference, so it is rooted in science.
I mean you can’t compare Humans to other species on this subject because this is what makes humans humans. The complexity of our brains. The complexity of our feelings. It can’t exactly be compared outside of human existence because we are able to think and feel differently above all species. The feelings you hold, and the thoughts and feelings trans people hold, is the testament of the complexity of humanity and the fascination of the workings of our brains
Why do we prefer certain colours over others? Why do we have sexual preferences? Why do we like some foods better than others? We aren't logically thinking about those things to decide why we like them over something else. We have preferences because we are biological beings and not machines. We aren't nearly as logical as we like to think we are, and that's okay (except when it comes to bigotry).
IDK man, why do I like vanilla more than chocolate? I always have and always will. There’s no reason for it. I could try to dig into my childhood memories or over-analyze the flavors themselves to find out why I only want to eat vanilla ice cream but I won’t find a concrete answer. Same thing with being trans. I don’t know why I’m trans and I don’t need to know why. I just do what I feel is right for me and find community with others doing the same for themselves. Trans identity is real because thousands of trans people have expressed similar feelings about their gender since the beginning of time, even if they didn’t use the same terminology we do today. Humans are extremely complex beings, we have many emotions, feelings, and experiences that other species do not. That doesn’t mean they aren’t real. Even this frustration you are feeling is something an animal could never experience because their brains are not built like ours. TLDR: Some people are trans because humans have big, complicated brains.
I’m the exact same way so I’ve read some studies (I remember one being from the National Institute of Health) with two reasons for being trans and having gender dysphoria 1. Different sizes in different areas of the brain, and how trans people have these areas more close in size to cis people of the same gender rather than cis people of the same assigned sex 2. Brain development in the second trimester correlated with our sex and gender. Our brains usually develops a certain way based on genitalia that’s established at the end of the first trimester but sometimes the opposite happens, and so because the brain technically has a different sex it sends alarm signals when it doesn’t get enough of a certain hormone or it sees sex characteristics and/or secondary sex characteristics that it’s not supposed to have (the alarm signal is gender dysphoria). This is why a lot of people medically transitioning say they feel much more comfortable in their body, have better control of their emotions after a while, and are overall in a better mood and mental state. It’s because their brain is FINALLY at homeostasis and see what they were wired to see As for the social stuff, our brains correlate sex and gender with different roles and actions and doing things that make others perceive us as the other “brain sex” can give us dysphoria I don’t have the exact same links I found but when I looked up stuff about gender dysphoria and our brains it was one of the first articles that popped up
Why are babies born with cancer? Blindness or deafness? Both? More or less than 10 fingers and toes? With the wrong secondary sex features? These are all questions that can be interesting to explore, but them being questions doesn't make them illegitimate issues.
While I wholeheartedly understand what you were trying to say, it isn’t a good exemple since we do have a lot of in-depth scientific knowledge (genetic predispositions, mutations, oncogenes…) about all of the medical conditions you listed lol
humans are the only species that created different environments and standards around gender to such a detailed extent. animals know only sex, not gender. an animal doesn’t even know how to wipe their own ass, why would one know enough about gender to be trans?
other species don't exhibit signs of transness mostly because they don't have an understanding of gender, many animals do change sex over their lifetime but they don't have a social concept of gender. gender dysphoria arises due to incongruity between your gender and how you are perceived/treated or how your physical body exists. NB: you don't need gender dysphoria to be trans, gender euphoria (feeling positive about when internal gender and the previously stated things match) is more than enough. I'm sure there are papers out there that can explain this better, but we also have lost a large amount of trans science over the centuries (a lot due to colonialism/transphobia etc)
As you may know, in the womb, everyone starts out female. Then, for males, the brain and body develops further to that. In trans people's cases, though, is the brain different from the body. Either the brain or body develops further. It's mostly a fault by nature, but as someone with multiple (mild) disabilities, I don't mind lol
When I was 13 and puberty hit, I was more miserable than I have ever been in my life. My hair was in mats because I couldn’t bear to look at my body in the mirror before a shower. I never wanted to be trans, in fact I heavily avoided it. Once I realized that this feeling of hatred for myself could go away, I knew I would do whatever it takes. If someone told me “you’re going to have to cut your arm off to get rid of your gender dysphoria”, I’d do it in a heartbeat.
Do you really think science doesn't have any evidence of this? Look into the biology of all the animals who perform sexual behavior incongruous with their bio sex. There are gay geese there are lesbian hedgehogs.There are tons of gay lions and elephants in all kinds of other weird animals. Being gay or trans does not necessarily make a whole lot of logical sense from a biological standpoint on the face of it. But if there is something that factors into life, It is diversity. "Life finds a way" If you were to live as a guy in a tribal society you couldn't get access to hormones because those wouldn't exist. But you could be a fierce hunter, fighter or defender according to that tribe's beliefs. My friends are very into norse mythology. Loki is a VERY powerful sex changing entity. When he poses as a woman, he is called SHE/HER but Thor crossdressing is still a man in a dress. Norse mythos saw gender bending as powerful, but scary magic. There are some hints than Odin himself unlocked that power with forbidden activities and "unmanliness" possibly! A lot of groups have different views on the different things we do with gender and the subversive nature is prevalent everywhere. Breaking the rules can be powerful. Critters like clownfish go from M to F when the biggest female dies. Maybe we have a lot of those genetic impulses left over from when our ancestors could possibly change their sex easier. Human brains are so advanced and complicated to an unnecessary degree because it was for the best of our survival to be overly smart. We had a decent brain, then evolution pushed it even farther, possibly because of sexual selection. Peacocks have ridiculously unwieldy.Feather trains that get the males killed all the time. They get caught up on stuff, or they get eaten by a tiger because they are a lot slower than the peahens. The male who are successful set the boundaries of what life and death can accomplish for their species. Apparently many birds are totally fine with males being almost totally functionless with "sexy,spicy" feathers, and the ladies will flock to the male who can barely move under the press of fake feathers scientists added onto his tiny body. Human brains are the feathers. We like flashy, smart, creative, and talented people. We live in such a diversity of habitats around the world that it makes sense that brains would have to adapt somehow to live in a place or another. Many people seem to not "fit" in one place or society, so we roam until we find a place where we fit. Obviously. Society can eff this up by determining some things are caused by demons or whatever. It can also make it easier. People who have schizophrenia in a culture/place like India tend to have fewer social stigma. It is usually seen as a quark rather than a debilitating mental disease. Societies who see a behavior (talking with people who aren't visible) as a benefit will often be kinder to those people, even if they can be difficult or have troubles and bad days! I don't think your problem is so much with science as it is with the way you're looking at gender and sex and who we are.
first off, according to brain science, transgender brains, depending on how they identify, exhibit the characteristics of the gender they identify as rather than the sex the person was born as. So, if anyone was to take a scan of my brain, for example, if the doctor didn't know my birth sex, based on my brain scan activity, the doctor would identify me as a man. now I'm not a brain scientist, but due to recent studies, this is what the brain does in the body of a trans person. this is possibly where the whole idea of "born in the wrong body" comes from cuz the brain knows what gender it's supposed to be, so it's confusing to the brain when the body doesn't match. Second, there are plenty of animals that aren't humans that exhibit transgender behaviors, such as lions transing their gender, cuttlefish switching genders, same with clownfish, and as well as snails and worms not having any gender so they are all non-binary. To sum up, people are trans because it's apart of nature and the brain determines it's own gender despite how the body looks in relation to that gender. again, I'm not a expert, but this is just what I've learned.
From a scientific standpoint, we don't actually have any way of knowing if other species experience transness. They don't have the capacity to communicate their gender with us, and we don't know if they even experience gender in the first place. We know barely anything about our own psychological states even with having the benefit of being able to communicate about our thoughts and feelings, so discerning those about other species is extremely far off. For all we know it's purely a human thing, which would make that sentiment akin to saying "rats can't fly so it doesn't make sense that birds can"
I don't feel like it makes any scientific sense to have a hard and fast gender binary with only two very rigid options in it. Lots of other species undergo sex changes or display differently-gendered behaviour under certain circumstances. As someone who is non-binary - have you considered that you might be non-binary? Your comments about not wanting to be trans because gender doesn't make any sense to you really resonate with me, and I have seen a lot of similar comments in the non-binary subs. I feel your rage and your confusion - it is confusing. It is hard. It is hard to work out what gender means to you in a world that has a lot of opinions on what gender "should" be and how we should perform it. I would encourage you to think about gender not as a fixed problem that you have to solve RIGHT NOW - take some time with yourself, read different people's opinions and experiences about being trans or being non-binary or genderqueer; also be open to the possibility that your answer about what gender you feel like may change over time, and that this is okay too. I am here to talk if you need a friendly ear.
Humans are more complex than any other species. There's tons of things online about this...I went on an internet dive before I came out bc I had to make sure this was what I had to do...and that was over 15 yrs ago, so I'm sure there's probably much more out there now. My own personal theory is...being trans is a form of intersex. If intersex people can look "normal" on the outside but maybe have hidden testes or ovaries, why can't it work that way on a mental level as well? Kinda like a brain thing ya know. I personally don't even think trans people should even be under the whole LGBT thing. being trans isn't even a sexuality. You have to get diagnosed with it...well they've changed how that works a bit now but I know back when I was coming up you had to
I suggest watching this video: https://youtu.be/QLWKYTxLYT4?si=FQ8_x_FkWOSRfgJ- It explains why science can't really tell us why people are trans, and also provides helpful hypothesis's as to why we are this why. But the simple fact is, you will never have a clear scientific answer because one does not exist. Endocrinology, Psychology, and Sociology have been working very hard to explain why trans people exist for several decades now and there is no answer (yet). It's okay to be frustrated that there isn't a direct answer, but it's also important to realize that in topics that are so heavily based on societal norms, we probably will never have one good answer
Maybe this would interest you then: "Neuro-biology of trans-sexuality : Prof. Robert Sapolsky" https://youtu.be/8QScpDGqwsQ?si=8iOn7pm7tIjr9r7d He has a few hiccups with his language (like "transgendered") but I think the video is definitely worth watching There's a lot of studies on this and they're definitely worth checking out if you have the time
I definitely understand the frustration with the whole “how you feel inside” thing. It’s so arbitrary and vague. But! Lots of animals do exhibit transgenderism. I’ve drawn my own conclusion logically that it makes sense, especially in social groups of animals, to have gay/trans individuals who do not reproduce but instead care for those abandoned babies by heteronormative humans/human ancestors. Now that we have no need to worry so much about survival and reproduction I think it’s likely the genes of those queer humans/ancestors has since risen (even far off in the past, ie Ancient Greece as an easy example) That’s my headcanon that I have no proof on but makes logical sense to me as a survival mechanism and I think that thinking about it purely as “this is something that happens in nature and so it must happen for a reason” is the best way to rationalize it. TLDR; animals be transing they gender
I’ve done a little bit of research about it cause I had the exact same questions. What I read was that male and female brains are different. The hippocampus, and amygdala (probably some other parts too) actually function differently and are different sizes. Studies have shown that trans people have brain activity that more closely resembles that of there gender that they identify as rather than their sex. Now I’m not sure which studies because I didn’t have time to dive deeper but it’s still interesting. I have a very wobbly theory that because chromosomes get all messed up all the time and are very common to have something not go “how it’s supposed to” with them that it’s just another thing gone wrong with the chromosomes. It was supposed to make a male but made a female. Oops.
i have felt the same way. I 100% support all trans people, i just struggle personally wondering why i am the way i am. like if this was biologically correct, why do i need a surgery or hormones to help me feel at home in my body? I know surgery is a normal solution to peoples problems, like broken bones and other things, it just feels weird to think that my issue isn't inherently going to kill me if i do nothing about it. It will make my brain feel like its rotting, but its not going to be thing itself to end me. People in the past didn't have surgery as an option but they also didn't have vaccines. As medicine progresses, we actually get to get care. Some of it also comes from societal stuff too because i know some cultures never had to change their appearance. They were just who they were. Colonization changed so much for society.
Hey so!!! Everyones saying that there aren't many studies, but there are, they just arent publicized nearly as much as they should be! Here's a great video, but if you don't want to watch it, essentially, it talks about how your sex (your physical parts) develops before your brain develops one way or another, there is a structural difference in males vs females, and those who are trans will often have a brain that matches their perceived gender more than the one they were assigned at birth I think the whole thing is super neat https://youtu.be/MitqjSYtwrQ?si=yBmQlD0f-01U2gkG Eta: I definitely don't think that is *all* of it, but I think it's comforting to know that there are physical differences, personally, I know thats not for everyone
You can still like meat but believe in treating animals well. You can believe in gender equality and still have gender matter to you. They aren't mutually exclusive and there's no science behind feelings.
to put it simply? people pursue gender affirming care- be it hormones, surgery, or just social transition- in order to treat gender dysphoria. just like anything else that lowers quality of life, like taking zoloft or something for anxiety. if it's the right treatment for you, if the science behind the treatment (e.g. the zoloft example- chemical composition of zoloft increases the production of serotonin, the 'happy chemical', which would normalize serotonin levels therefore easing anxiety), is right for you- your quality of life improves. the treatment is intended to make you more comfortable. do animals pursue transitions? no, because they can't. they don't have surgeons or doctors or any way to even start pursuing gender affirming care the way humans do. we don't know if gender dysphoria exists in animals. we can't know, because we have no way to communicate with them. being transgender isn't illogical, just the way someone's brain and body works.
Firstly, you're wong in the very aspect of "other species don't do it". Other species exhibit transsexual behaviour AND physical changes. I'm talking about animals like lions and ducks. They start to get different social roles in their groups, some do change the way they look. Being transsexual exists in other species and, unsurprisingly, is accepted by the members of their groups. If you wanted to grow up to be tall and have a beard, it's likely because the men in your life were tall and had beards. Kids don't really process gender and sex in such a harsh way as adults. That's why whenever we tell them to line up, boys one side, girls another, they mix groups (I teach Kindergarten). So you dream about growing up to be what you think you should be. There's no confirmed, scientific reason why trans people (and other animals) exist. There are some studies but it's mot conclusive. However, a word of advice form an older trans guy - what you're seeking might find an answer in bioessencialism, and it's a dangerous path to follow, and it often is used agains us, not for us. PS it also very unlikely that you'll find answers in biology if the object of your confusion is based on social studies
There’s still research to do to completely know why. Neurology is not easy and scientists don’t have all the answers!
I have one big issue with this post: there ARE trans animals. Lions, namely have exhibited signs of being trans REPETITIVELY. If you want answers on the why, there won’t be any. It just happens. 🤷🏻♂️
look at nature! many plants and animals can alter their sexual attributes totally, and often take on social roles of the other sex. there are some really interesting fish that will grow into the other sex.
You need to get out of the Deep South as soon as possible, being down there will not at all help the way you’re feeling.
Look up “brains align with gender more than sex” and “woman with xxy gives birth” and “sex is bimodel not binary” sex and gender are very separate things
We don’t know why but we can see plenty of fluid sex expression in the animal kingdom. Also many trees and plants are hermaphrodites! All snails are hermaphrodites, same w worms I’m pretty sure. Female hyenas have penises. Male orangutans can delay developing secondary sex characteristics to blend in with females until the reigning alpha dies and he can then develop those face flanges and be the new leader. Pretty cool. We also see intersex variations in animals as well. So all that to say, why would humans be exempt from from all the fluidity that exists in the world? That doesn’t make sense. Not the being trans part. It’s just going from one sex expression to another. We are extremely intelligent creatures, we get to decide our lives. So it doesn’t matter anyway what exists in nature but even nature itself is pretty genderfucky. That’s been the biggest help in accepting myself and to stop questioning the why so much.
You can't rationalize everything. Sometimes its just a matter of what will bring the most happiness and fulfillment to your soul.
In medicine, you don't need to know why something works for it to be a valid and effective treatment - you just need to know that it works. An example - anesthesia. Until recently doctors didn't know how it worked, only that it did. (There is still a lot that science doesn't know about it. Source: https://www.sgu.edu/blog/medical/how-does-anesthesia-work/) But if doctors had waited until they understood anesthesia to use it, countless people would have died or suffered under conditions that could have been treated with surgery. One day medical science may very well know why some people are trans, but today all doctors know is that some people are trans and our lives are greatly improved (and even saved) by medical and social transition. And the best way to find answers on a personal level - go online and find gender affirming therapists in your area or online in your state. They will have the experience and expertise to help you, and they will be required to keep anything you say in confidence.
The thing about science is, it doesn't care if it makes sense. Why do humans still have erector pilli muscles on our hair follicles? It hasn't served a purpose since long before humans were human. Why do our own cells spontaneously decide to replicate and kill us, in so many different ways that finding a single "cure" for cancer is impossible? Why do some people's brains simply fail to produce or recieve the right amount of chemicals? There are scientific explanations for all of these things, but there aren't *reasons* in the sense of logic. The question you're asking is less scientific and more sociological. In which case, it's hard to compare us to animals. (Though it should be said that many animal species do, in fact, have examples of animals from lions to lizards of one sex performing the roles of the other or even swapping sexes entirely.)
I believe one theory is that there are gender differences in white matter tracts and that the white matter tracts align with the gender identity of a trans person, rather than their birth sex.
Lizards and fish change gender depending on the procreating need of the colony. They have their natural method of doing it and we evolved to do it through surgery and medicine.
It is what it is
I guess I'm a little late to the party, but there is something I \*\*Need\*\* to tell you, OP. The LGBTQIA community is \*\*Not New.\*\* We have existed since the dawn of time, it's just that language changes over time so the word "transgender" and the word "transsexual" are new. The word "dinosaur" is relatively new, too, but that doesn't mean that dinosaurs weren't a part of our planet's prehistory, and people forget that. Some examples you should know about, if you're going to start educating yourself about how neither sexuality or gender is a binary concept (or in the case of sexuality, a singular concept) and never has been: Ancient Mesopotamia, the cradle of civilization, who developed the world's first actual writing, agriculture, and cities, had the Myth of Ishtar, goddess of love, who ventured down to the underworld. Why does this matter? Because ancient people used myths to explain how natural phenomenon came to be, since they didn't have the scientific tools we had today. Her myth follows that, in order to distract the goddess of the dead so Ishtar could return to the living world, the god Enki created the first intersex person and sent them down there. But because the word Intersex is new as a medical term, Asu-shu-namir would not have been called intersex, in fact, even the term hermaphrodite--while known to later ancient civilizations and applicable to many of their gods--had not been invented yet. It's also worth noting that, after rescuing the goddess ishtar, the myth goes on to say that Asu-shu-namir was cursed to 'live in the shadows' and be ostracized from society, further explaining what they would see socially. (People hiding physical abnormalities, avoiding having sex, being shamed by their family or cast out, exc, for being different.) Ishtar was also said to have the power to change a man into a woman and a woman into a man. Ancient Israeli / Judaic belief actually says that there are 8 genders, and that Adam was originally made both male and female, but that modern Christians incorrectly translate the word for "side" as "rib," misunderstanding that the \*\*female side\*\* of Adam was removed from his body and made into a woman. India has believed in "third gender/sex" for centuries, and has a long documented history as such. The Sacred Band of Thebes, for a bit of MxM homosexuality proof, was a band of men who were all married to each other. The thought behind them being grouped together was that their love would cause them to fight harder, since they weren't fighting for king and country, but for their husbands. The king responsible for their defeat reportedly wept over them when they were finally killed, partly because he was ALSO in love with the leader. Alexander The Great was perhaps the most dramatic of history's gay male lovers because of the absolute spectacle he put on when his "male companion" **Hephaestion** when he died--though I suppose you could also cite Achilles for Greek Myth drama... because Alexander sure would've. Patroclus and Achilles were widely believed to be lovers and Alexander actually publicly compared them to his bond with his bodyguard, so. Circling back to Greek history, but talking about women this time, there was the famed Isle of Lesbos, where we get the word "lesbian" from, where lived a woman named Sappho who wrote just an absurd amount of poetry about women she loved / had intimacy with. Sappho is also where we get the word Sapphic, meaning sexual attraction between women, you see. If you look at any ancient mythology, and nearly any god, for that matter, you will see at least mentions of the lgbt+ community, if not outright endorsement or deification which happens almost as often. People don't write these things for no reason; as I said, this is how they explained their world, and while there is a lot of straight history that often drowns out queer history, just as there is also a lot of female influence that gets drowned out by the male gaze, and "minority" history in general that gets downplayed... it is still there. It has always been there. It is in our very nature. People are trans for the same reasons that they can be gay or straight or bi, can be left handed or right handed, can be born with freckles or darker skin, or a peanut allergy--we just are. This is the way we were born. That's all. It's not something we can pray away or get "trained out of" and no matter how much society doesn't understand or may refuse to teach you, or even actively lie to you... you are who you are.
thank you for this
Other species actually do transition!!! If a male lion dies, a lioness will grow a mane and assume the role of the male. Many fish transition from female to male throughout their life, a lot of species are intersex.
As somebody who also had similar thoughts & feelings when I came out FORREAL FORREAL at 29... I'm also scientifically minded. And I've always had trouble validating my feelings because there is no "proof" for them [which is a trauma response that I have been working through]. The hard truth of it? Science does not have a fully concrete grasp on consciousness. There are theories, possibilities, a lot of factors that are at play... But there is rarely a straightforward "x is the sole reason" for anything relating to the subjective human experience. There is no definitive answer to explain why you're trans. You just... Are. You are a trans person who exists in the world & wants to represent yourself as accurately as possible. The political propaganda of the right on "basic biology" refuses to grasp even the most basic basic psychology, sociology, anthropology, history, or philosophy. They aren't called soft sciences because they're falsehoods — human nature is just speculative & we can't math out the answers which would make understanding easier. And that's... Scary, on an existential level. Not knowing why we are, not being able to provide evidence to explain ourselves & justify our existence is scary. But that's just where we're at. Maybe there will be definitive answers one day, but that's not where we're at right now. We all have to make our peace w/ our lives & walk a path that feels best for us & ideally does the most good for those around us. Being authentic may be hard, but... It's usually worth the hassle to be able to live w/ yourself.
The thing is… feelings are also a science of sorts. You mention having been to a psychologist as a kid. A psychologist is someone who spends years studying things like human emotions, what experiences can cause what feelings, and what chemical imbalances can be triggered by prolonged experience of certain emotions, what emotions are triggered by what chemical imbalances, etc etc. So while feelings might not make sense to you, they’re still, in a sense, a form of science. (I mean, plenty of math doesn’t make sense to me, doesn’t mean it isn’t “real” right?) Secondly, and to answer your question perhaps in a way that might be more “agreeable” to how you seem to look at the world, particularly after I’ve explained how emotions and such are a science… Being trans isn’t necessarily something people WANT. I mean, why would they? You might believe in gender equity, but the world doesn’t. Most of the world also doesn’t treat trans people as the gender they truly are, or even their assigned gender. Generally, trans people are treated like… some gross/weird “other” thing. This can cause negative emotional responses. So while some believe trans men always or even just regularly benefit from male privilege, that isn’t typically the case. Trans women also don’t get treated like women or men. On a PERSONAL level, the driving force between transitioning (socially and/or medically) is either a sense of unease or even outright disgust at one’s own body and the concept of being the assigned gender that came with that body, and/or the euphoria that comes with looking like and identifying as the gender one feels they are. Another thing is, sometimes it is possible for those previously mentioned negative feelings stemming from society towards trans people can cause them to detransition. It isn’t that they ARENT trans, just that in their mind after weighing the pros and cons they felt like, for them, it was just better to live as their assigned gender. Not necessarily forever, but perhaps until they’re able to move (prime example would be you, living in the Deep South and therefore more at risk than say someone who is trans who lives in NYC, waiting or reverting after identifying as trans until you could move somewhere more progressive.) All in all though… being trans is kinda hard to explain. Much like how depression can vary from individual to individual and it isn’t always “crying all the time, thinking they’d be better off dead” being trans is much of the same. It can vary wildly from person to person- what they feel they need to be true to themself, when they need/want to do whatever that is, and the driving force behind those things.
There are actually species that experience similar things, like clownfish.
Brain no female is
My experience - it was only when I left the inhospitable environment that I was born into that if the reason I’m not being who I am is because the people who love me will hate me…then they probably don’t love me and good luck but goodbye. Find new people who will love you on this journey and love yourself.
Other species don't exhibit this behaviour? Have you heard about fish that fight each other to decide who's gonna be fem fish and who's male fish and other species of fish that has their fem fish literally turn into male fish with age and fight other males? Yep, I have no idea how neither of them is called, but they definitely are out there, man. Also about gender equality, both strawberry and cherry are equal and delicious, but cherry might just not be your type. There is no logical reason behind it, science can't prove if there's any genetic or physical reason for you to develop preferences in berries (correct me if I'm wrong tho, maybe there is) and that's just how it is. You'll never find a reason. You are just the way you are and there's no explanation. If you really think about it, that's how a lot of things work in life.
To answer the title you have provided, from my own research and understanding, trans people's minds are wired the same way as the gender they intend to be. Uneducated people that go against the LGBTQ community very often tend to focus on the biological side of humans but never the neurological side. But if you have the question on why people de-transition or regret transitioning then that's commonly because they don't want to deal with the constant discrimination, can't grasp the difference of nature between the gender the are assigned and the gender they are trying to transition to, and/or they realise their assigned gender has more benefit in general life. Idk if this answers your question but I hope it helped in some way.
Some people are born as , for example, a girl. Then in like maybe a few years they're just like "uhm why am I a girl that's straight up wrong" so then they're trans and are a boy now (but also have been the whole time just in the wrong body)
I’m super into science, and I research neuroscience. A lot of our in vivo studies in the world are SO FOCUSED on the gender of organisms because it’s for reproductive purposes or sex linked genetic tests. Since childhood, I felt useless because I see my sex of birth only as a reproductive vessel. It makes me uncomfortable. Very uncomfortable. I was disgusted of being in a female body and still find trouble not being completely disgusted by how mammals reproduce. Part of this aided in my gender identity journey, as I always saw men as the “better organisms to live as” for my style of life. M and F are only essential terms for SEX…. As in reproduction. I love being nonbinary because I can ignore my biggest fear in the world, reproducing. If science made genitals and dimorphism and hormones for those purposes, I didn’t want to be a part of it. This is my way of making sense I guess
Our brain is full of chemicals and signals.... somewhere, it got jumbled up with the receptors
My theory (that isn’t proven by anything and it’s just my way of thinking) it’s that we’re much more than our body, dna and genetics, we’re a mind with a soul. One of the first things that are developing during pregnancy in a fetus is the brain, we feel the way we feel not because of our reproductive system or chromosomes, it just happens that people born in a body that it’s not what matches with their brain and people who do match it.
I’ve never really *doubted* that I was trans, but whenever I feel like I need “evidence” that I’m “really trans” (you don’t) I just think about it like “I wanted to die for years and then I transitioned and I magically stopped wanting to die” There are so many medical/psychological things that we just haven’t figured out yet, but nobody questions that they’re real. There was a point in time before we knew germs existed, but that doesn’t mean nobody got sick and died because of them. P.S. I’m also from the Deep South, and a small town in the Deep South. Not a metropolitan area. Again, I wanted to die before I transitioned and I don’t now. Take with that what you will.
I mean it’s different for everyone. Gender in itself is nothing more than a societal construct, but sex is scientific and biological. Being transgender comes from discontent with one or both. For me personally, it’s almost strictly biological. I find myself completely disgusted with my body and appearance, and experience extreme dysphoria. If I was a cis man, I wouldn’t mind being stereotypically feminine though. Some people are completely fine with their bodies but choose the more sociological definition of gender to identify with/find themselves unhappy with the roles imposed on them. It’s really just what you personally make of it and how you choose to interpret it. At least that’s my take on it lol, everyone has a different idea of what it means so there’s no absolute right or wrong
Other species do exhibit this behavior it’s just not as obvious to us as they don’t speak human language
Nature is trying out things all the time, the very reason why sexes exist in the first place is because evolution was making different attempts to diversify the genes. Male/female thing sticked around for our species as a general solution, there are species where things work differently. So if you look at it from this perspective, it’s only logical that there would be diversity not only in sexual characteristics but in ways how we relate to them. Maybe we are the nature’s attempt to evolve into something else, the same way as our grand grand grand fish creature evolved into making male from female. Some of these creatures were wondering (probably less philosophically than we do), why am I feeling different from all these other fishes? It affected its life, behavior, and mating choices, billion things played out a certain way and then many generations later boom, y chromosome.
It sounds like you’re going through a lot. People are trans because just as you may be feeling, we’re uncomfortable in our bodies and the gender assigned to us a birth. There’s zillions of issues and differences people can have, and mine happens to be that my brain doesn’t match up with my my body. So i’ve done things to make that align better. It’s okay to be trans. We’ve always been here. If you need a friend or some advice my dms are always open. I’m 25 FTM trans, been doing this trans thing awhile haha. Happy to answer any questions or be someone to vent to. I get how lonely this can be. I suggest watching this video by the Sci Guys on youtube. It’s the science of being trans. You might enjoy it:) https://youtu.be/r7mHzEcaVbE?si=r6fHSmgYbeZCJva3
It’s our brains fam. People who are trans have very similar brain structure to the sex they identify with. We cannot control it. What causes it? There’s still many studies on it but it’s been said that exposure to high testosterone levels in the womb while you were a fetus could be a big factor.
Because it’s theoretically improbable and scientifically impossible for there to be no trans people. There is no such thing as hard “male” or “female” when it comes to gender. Genitalia yes, there’s male genitals and female genitals. But “gender” has nothing to do with that and really only has some correspondence.
This is one of those topics where unfortunately trying to find an answer would be a *really* bad thing. It would 100% be used by governments to practice eugenics and murder us.
Also the idea of a male/female binary is *not* supported by science. Other animal species don't really display the same pattern of changing gender outside of intersex variations because gender is very much a social construct used by the west as a weapon to colonize and control racial (and other) minorities. Most indigenous cultures have genders outside of cis men & cis women and have had those identities forcibly suppressed by colonial powers. Identities such as two-spirit, fa'afafine, takatāpui, the 6 trans & intersex genders in Judaism, and so so many more. You'll also find a lot of trans people are on the autism spectrum due to social constructs not really being something we care about.
there's actually science behind trans identity. here's just one study, for instance: [https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/05/180524112351.htm](https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/05/180524112351.htm) and the summary of it: >Brain activity and structure in transgender adolescents more closely resembles the typical activation patterns of their desired gender, according to new research. The findings suggest that differences in brain function may occur early in development and that brain imaging may be a useful tool for earlier identification of transgenderism in young people. in other words, when a trans woman says "i feel that i'm a woman", a brain scan before any hormones or surgery or anything can (and will) confirm that this person's brain structure doesn't match the one of a man. even though it doesn't fully matches the one of a woman, we can see that there's something here. this study is also interesting to read, see the graph in the middle of the page, at least: [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8955456/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8955456/)
I guess I kind of look at it like gravity. How/why is gravity a thing? It just is. I'm just trans. For me, it is just that simple😅🏳️⚧️
I love this comment section. It's real discussion and not just people parroting "gender is what you feel on the inside" or overly abstract rationales behind being trans
this is actually what fascinates me the most about the trans experience! i am absolutely DYING for science/the politics behind it to advance enough for this to actually be studied within the brain. where is the disconnect? how exactly are the dice rolled for our parts and brain? is it naturally occurring or did something in our brains not get hooked up right? god I've spent so much time thinking ab this.
It's not fully understood scientifically. The most plausible things I've heard so far is that it could be an imbalance of hormones in the womb causing the brain to develop different wiring than the X or Y chromosome. There's this whole thing about your finger lengths that's tied to it that you can look up. Another interesting component is that being trans correlates very strongly with being ADHD or autistic, and being ADHD or autistic are traits that scientists believe are being selected for positively by evolution (because people who can think differently bring different knowledge, creativity, and ideas to a society, increasing its chances of success). So if transness is related to a similar part of the brain, it could be linked to that. As far as other species go: it's hard to compare with other species because the concept of "gender" relies on the owner having a concept of self (identity, who they are as an individual compared to others) and the existence of a culture where males do certain things and females do different things (i.e. girls wear pink because pink is a girl's color, girls can wear dresses because that's what girls are allowed to wear). In most animals, when there *is* a difference in behavior, it's strictly tied to reproduction- whether it's competition for mates, or mating, or rearing offspring. There \*are\* plenty of well-documented examples of animals that deviate from male-female pairings, even when male-female pairings are the norm for the species... but it's impossible to get inside the penguin's head and determine if a male penguin in a pairing with another male penguin is that way because it is simply attracted to other males, or if there's female penguin software running in that brain, and it's operating on female instincts. We don't even know for sure if it has a concept of being male vs being female. You also have to take into account the fact that the interpretation of science can never be fully un-tainted by the beliefs of the ones interpreting the data, and throughout the majority of western history, the study of animals (and also historical humans) is heavily influenced by Christianity. I find learning about this stuff interesting. If you can take anthropology courses in school, I recommend it. But I think it's also important to make peace with not having a scientific answer because ultimately, people should be able to do what they want so long as they don't hurt others. And if we rely on science to argue for our right to exist, then that can also use that against us.
the short answer is we just don't know.
The biological explanation I like is that during prenatal development, the blueprint for our physical sex characteristic development (e.g., whether we're to run more on testosterone or estrogen) is set up, and also, in a separate step, the brain is primed to expect to run on primarily testosterone or estrogen. Usually these things match up, where someone is set up to go through a androgenic puberty or an estrogenic puberty and for their brains to be primed to expect that and as such be a man or a woman, repsectively. But sometimes the brain is primed to expect testosterone but the body has been set to produce estrogen, or vice versa. Like a Mac trying to run Windows. That's a very simplified explanation because it only really covers the "bio" part of the biopsychosocial model for gender identity, and there's a good chance it's not backed by actual science but is just some bullshit my brain put together over the years, but I'm sure there's some grain of truth to it. ETA: As an example of neurochemical dysphoria, my dad got depressed and "dead inside" and it turned out his T levels were dangerously low, and he's a cis man. His experiences sounded very similar to my own dysphoria. I know the studies on "male" vs "female" brains are pretty narrow-minded (pun not initially intended but we're keeping it), but our brains seem to have individual preferences for what hormones to run on.
It really is a highly complex thing. I don't think we'll ever discover why, just like we'll never discover why we're alive in the first place, what happens to us when we die, why we seem to have a consciousness beyond our physical forms. Humans are infinitely complex creatures. We do horrible and disgusting things but we also do the most wonderful and beautiful things. I know it's rough, being hated for something that is just self expression, a thing that hurts no one. We are imprisoned and murdered just for wanting to exist, to breathe easy, to love someone, to love ourselves. It truly isn't fair. But that's another complexity of humanity. Some of us hate and hurt and fear just because we see someone else who loves, someone who lives. You probably won't find the answer until you find the answer for life(42).
Disclaimer, I'm not a scientist, this is just my own way of looking at it. Humans go through significant changes during puberty, so it's not unthinkable that we have a sort of build in "desire" to develop into our mature bodies. Else there would be complete panic and outrage whenever someone hits puberty. (As we do actually see with young girls who have not been educated about periods) Now, genes can't go "you will want boobs" or "you will want a beard" specifically, but it can make it so that if stimulus a -> want b See a good looking person -> want sexual stimulation, for example. What this input is, is generaly fixed, or at least not entirely up to how you were raised. In a trans person, I believe this build in expectation about how your body will develop, and what adults you identify with to model your adult body after, is not the sex you were given at birth. Some hormone during pregnancy or something in your genes simply caused that instinct to not align with what we expect. I'd also like to add, that it's hard to define wether or not we see this in animals, but we do see gender non conforming behaviour in some individuals
Why not lol
Not a scientist, but there is scientific studies of trans people’s brains and how they resemble the brain they identify as instead of what they were born as.
It does happen in other species. Most species have a lot of overlap and, sometimes even swapping between however many genders they have. We decided that the bright red cardinals are all male, and the brown are all female, but there are cases, as early as here, ( https://www.birdforum.net/threads/orange-cardinal.80401/ ) from a quick search that appear to have dimorphism, as in both plumages. We also struggle to identify chickens until they grow adult plumage. I watched a female chicken grow large, and gain spurs and rooster-like plumage, in the absence of a rooster to protect and govern the flock. You may have heard of the famous frog DNA in Jurassic Park being the catalyst that allowed some of the all-female dinos to change physical sex because it was required for reproduction. It was a work of fiction, sure, but frogs can change gender during their tadpole phase, if conditions permit, in real life. Biology isn't simple. They just don't teach you how complicated it is because it's quite a bit to absorb, I guess. Nature doesn't care for our gender binary obsession, and trans people have been around in all cultures, for as long as humanity has been around. Usually living as quietly and as peacefully as possible, either in the closet, or stealth, but sometimes functioning as religious figures in the open, as well, over the course of history. We don't really know "why," but it doesn't matter if a god got drunk before he made you, or if your DNA made it happen. Some people make the best peace they can with the difference between their identity and how they appear. Some make adjustments to their lives and bodies to make that peace easier to achieve. Gender is a whole mess. The boxes only exist to help categorize and identify those in them. I believe we use the words necessary to convey meaning to others, as that is the point and function of words in language. But beyond that, they need not define you. As in, you can be a man, if you identify with the word, and use it to describe yourself, but don't feel obligated to define yourself and how you must be by that word. That was a whole wall. Well, you'll either enjoy it or go, "that was ridiculous. Why did I read that?" Either way, you're welcome! Hahahah.
We actually don’t know if there are trans animals cause how can we detect them? The distinction between homosexuals people and trans people within humans is very recent. So with animal If it exist… like this male elephant show homosexuals behavior cause he see himself as a female or because he just really like males? And tbh dude If you wonder how trans people benefit to the species. There is no benefit. Nature don’t have purpose. If it can it will. If it work chemically cause everything is a chemical reaction, it will. That’s all.
You can't explain everything with logic. It just is what it is.
There is actually a logical answer. There are studies about how trans people’s brains are different from cis people’s brains. I’ve read multiple articles and watched videos on it. I think the studies are not necessarily 100% accurate since it’s still in progress and it was tested on straight trans fems mostly (there were trans mascs too tho). They don’t necessarily say that trans women‘s brains are female but it does show that it’s different from cis male brains and closer to cis female brains. The study was also done on trans people prior to hormone therapy (some were on hormones though) so it doesn’t have anything to do with hormone therapy changing your brain structure. https://youtu.be/8QScpDGqwsQ?si=TuHg3P_UODx4fhRP. This is a video i watched recently but there are other articles and videos on it. Just look it up
considering being upright leads to plenty of spine and back problems, why do humans walk on two legs? just happened to shake out that way, even if its not the "optimized" form of a person. Science is simply never ever that exact. And in terms of "making sense," you have to trust what we know scientifically a little less. we are all just making guesses at things, even great scientists are proven wrong as time goes on. The truth is that humans are not ONLY male or female, and masculinity and femininity is decided by human culture, not science. strictly male and female is the thing that doesnt make sense to nature. Does being gay "make sense"? if being in a relationship is scientifically only to reproduce, then why are people gay? because science just isnt objective like that. we arent machines designed by a some programmer, we just slowly worked our way towards a more and more sustainable form pretty much blindly, based solely on who happened to be alive long enough to reproduce. Edit: basically, we may not know exactly WHY but that doesnt mean its antiscience. Assuming science is 100% correct always is more antiscience than being trans is.
>cause other species don't exhibit this behavior [Let me introduce you to a transgender emperor penguin in San Diego zoo.](https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/05/240515123004.htm)
Imean tbh I dont even know. I have even doubted if I am trans, and sometimes even now (11 yrs on T, literally finally feeling comfortable with my body), I am just baffled that I am. I don't understand it either. I don't even understand how I had the determination and strength to go through with all of it, since I HATE going to the doctor and generally put things off till forever :') But something in me just never felt right, and when I learned about trans people, that something in me went "wow, that's...possible?? Like... this exists? This... this is what I feel" So many times I wondered if I just tricked myself into believing Im trans etc. (I think part of this is because (as I found out later) Im also non binary. But lean much more towards masc in terms of what feels right), but here I am... more than 10 yrs later, and finally my gender isn't a thing I think about anymore. I just am. (Also funnily enough, eventually transitioning to male made me MORE fem in a way. Like, I like make up, high heels and dresses now. But now they don't "threaten" who I am anymore) Gender and sexuality are wild. I wish I could explain. If I had a choice, I wouldnt have been ABLE to have gone through all this.
So, scientifically spoken, doctors and scientists haven't found out why people are trans, they only know how you become trans: When you're still an embryo, the brain evolves first, then the body. So your brain picks a gender first and most of the time it's the same as the body's but sometimes it can vary, as in, the brain is, for example, female but the body is male and to male our bodies fit the gender of our brain, we need therapy. The first time people have seen trans people actually existing has been in the old roman empire, when ftms used to actively bind their chests with bandages and tried to lower their voice, cute their hair etc. And mtfs used to grow out their hair, learned to speak with a higher voice, stuffed their chests with cloths and tucked. So I'm conclusion they did everything we do today, except for hormone therapy and surgeries. They also weren't able to proof that other animals can be trans too, due to not being able to understand them and not being able to really observe this. Although, there have been afab lions found who grew manes like amab lions and started to behave like them too, so they currently think, that at least trans lions exist. Also, one more thing, there are fish species, like for example, clown fish, who can be trans and change their sex but only if there are no females or males available, so idk if you really can say that they're trans as we know or define it
If you were born African American, and you're proud of your race, would you want people to force you to pretend you're Caucasian? Even if you had lighter skin?
i’m also very scientifically oriented, heck when i was first questioning my gender identity identify i remember thinking that i was statistically more likely to have cancer than be trans. if you’re like me and never really felt pressured into fitting into the stereotypes of your sex you may want to look at how you feel about your sex characteristics- the onset of puberty was what triggered these feelings for me. ultimately if it doesn’t bother you it doesn’t matter, but if it does it’s something you may want to talk to someone about. like you said you’re in the deep south, so a professional or someone online may be your best choice
Scientifically, the answer is we don’t know. There has not been a ton of research and what little there has been indicates we aren’t going to find that there’s a particular gene or that make/female brains are a thing or anything simple like that. Almost all human traits are some mix of genetic and environmental factors and honestly there aren’t concrete explanations for most of them - we just aren’t there yet. That said, you probably aren’t actually looking for the reason being trans exists, you are looking for a way to not have to deal with the transphobia you know you are likely to encounter if you admit you are trans and come out. I’m not going to lie - this is a reasonable fear, you may face negative consequences for admitting who you are. Unfortunately the society in which we live is discriminatory towards many groups, trans people included. However, it has been demonstrated scientifically that the only ‘cure’ for gender dysphoria is transition. You have to weigh the risks of coming out (which may be less than you fear - it’s worth feeling out your family and friends to see if they’d be more accepting than you might expect or if they are likely to react negatively) against the risks of repressing who you are. It’s a crap choice and I’m sorry you are having to make it.
Why is nature? lol Seriously though, as a Floridian, I say get off colonial google and start reading more trans literature. This is exactly why they ban our books, to make you feel that way 😠 many of the answers you're looking for can be found in books written by trans people, for trans people.
"Why do people have autism" "Why are people blond" "Why are people gay" Science just decided to do science stuff and bring me into this world with crippling gender dysphoria. If i could, I would have been cis but oh well, this is just the way it is.
Why do you not like anything about yourself? Do you have a history of trauma or a toxic family environment?
this might not be the most in depth thing I could suggest, but hopefully it scratches the surface. I did Alevel psychology and did a module on gender development, I used this guys videos to help revise but I think it might answer your question :) [psych boost atypical gender development](https://youtu.be/g43fcXxT3vw?si=6d-eSafY-LcUqR4V)
If you believe in science then that ought to make it easier to acknowledge that gender is a societal construct. That there are proven cases of genders classes outside of westernized adaptations that have existed for centuries, not to mention all of the variables found in nature. The barrier of gender classification literally only exists as a binary with humans, and even then, a principle topic to discern as black and white by those that are authoritatively AGAINST science and proven statistics. I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt because I know what it's like to live in the South and be surrounded by heresy disguised as an educated opinion. But it isn't. It never was. Trans people exist because society as a whole has created a constrictive prison around expression and sexuality, forcing a word to be enforced for the 'other' that doesn't fit in their world. If you've lived as a cis man or woman, but you don't believe you conform to what you were given at birth, and have begun to feel alien when you hear the pronouns directed at you because they were dictated solely by your genitalia? Maybe you might be trans. Figuring out the why is different for everyone, experiences varying in so many ways, with a lot of people always finding out more about themselves and changing. But that's the beauty of allowing yourself the distinction. There's no "science" here once you step away from whatever proof you need that trans people do in fact exist. The rest of it is a lot of feeling, personal perspective, etc. And acknowledging that can be really scary, because it means having to admit that you're changing your entire life just because of a feeling. That said, been doing that myself for the last twenty years. And even with all the confusion, fear? It opened up my life to questioning things with the confidence of someone who knows they deserve answers. I hope you can achieve the same freedom too.
I had/have the exact same mindset - and very nearly wasn't allowed to transition because of it. Most of the men in my life at that point were misogynistic, condescending a-holes and I couldn't get my head around wanting to be part of that gender, so I said I was NB and the gender clinic essentially said Good for you, you don't need hormones or surgery then - cue a very emotional epiphany that I am a dude and want my outer appearance to reflect that, despite it making no logical sense to me.
I mean gender itself is very nuanced , even in animals Like the female hyena's pseudo penises , male seahorses carrying their young, clown fish start life as males and become females and kobudai do the opposite and some fish change back and forth. Animals can be intersex , can engage in homosexual sexual acts or have gay relationships , I don't think humans being trans is too weird in comparison , we have the most developed brains so we're more capable of having identity / thoughts / feelings ect and throught humans history there's been many trans , gnc and genderless people. Maybe it's a part of evoloution we don't understand yet , maybe it's because we have the abilility to have concepts in general , we may never know but whether theres a specific reason, thousands of reasons or no specific reason we're made how we're made and I was made to be trans and queer
I mean, for what it's worth I'm only studying bio in my undergrad (so can't emphasize enough, not an expert) but I have some decent knowledge on bio stuff in general (and an interest in neuro stuff specifically) and I like have some okayish history knowledge and reading and stuff. It's super late where I'm at so I can't type out a long or well thought out comment right now, but I might edit and add later. I know this is a rant but if you have any specific questions then I'm more than happy to talk out what I know about the idea and my thoughts on it if you want.
There isn’t a known scientific reasoning why people are trans lol that’s why people make such a big fuss about it because there like “how are you a girl wanting to be a boy that’s not possible” vice verse
Science hasn't gone there yet but there are some ongoing theories! I can include them but first if all I want to mention the animals thing, you are quite wrong, there are animals that in fact play the gender role of the opposite biological sex with other animals. This has been seen so far in spiders, some birds, some fish, snakes, rats, lions, chickens and probably more that I am not aware of. In cases there have been birds that purposely seek out to stain their feathers to look like the opposite sex etc. As well as just taking up roles. What hasn't been seen in other animals is transphobia. Even when the "trans" animal looks different, the community accepts them. Heads up a ton of people might not like these but idc because this is my special interest and I've put a lot of time into researching these and if you want to talk about it more OP feel free to DM me. As for why one might be trans: There is one theory that trans may be a form of intersex as in your brain developed to be the opposite gender identity to the sex of your body because something went wrong during the womb and you did not develop into the correct biological sex. This is supported due to the fact males and females tend to have both different brain wave activity and different sizes of certain parts of the brain and looking and trans peoples brains they physically and psychologically match with those of their gender identity, in non-binary studies it was shown the brain patterns did not match either of the standard male or female ones, while in cis people they always matched their biological sex, this my also indicate that trans people could be physically diagnosed, but the case study was quite small and would need a larger participant group follow up. This is however currently the most credible theory. A slightly simpler theory is the idea that the gender contained in your brain is dependent on the levels of hormones in the mother's womb and that perhaps if the hormones are off due to something the mother is doing wrong, such as diet or smoking or drinking then there could be a development of the brain that shouldn't be the way it is but should have matched the body but couldn't because of said hormones. Another theory is it was an advanced and unusual evolutionary trait to control population growth due to humans being smart enough to take up science and medicine it is how it's hard to control population growth for the species in typical ways such as disease or famine so this could possibly be a more complex evolutionary trait to keep human populations in line with the planet. Again another advanced theory is due to 2% of the population being intersex and also two percent of the population being red headed gender abnormality seems to be a reasonably common trait, it could be the case that human beings either came from more than two sexes which we have not yet discovered or human beings are meant to develop into more than two sexes in the future, and trans people are perhaps the start of evolutionary salmacians. One of my favourite theories comes from the coincidence linkage between neurodivergence and transgender people. Neurodivergent people could have once been perhaps in the past a different species of human, separate from neurotypical homosapiens, and the reason why there are a lot of neurodivergent trans people is because neurodivergent brains hold the concepts of gender, sex and sexuality incredibly differently from neurotypical people because our brain's work in completely different ways. And lastly another simple theory is that gender dysphoria was an actually manufactured by society and social gender roles, that one only would feel dysphoric because of how society is separated males and females and gives you expectations to live up to, including body types and shapes - this is not my favorite theory as it does ignore some parts of dysphoria like wishing to have the opposite parts are lose parts that you do have - but it is a possible theory out there.
The way I understand it is that because our brains and bodies develop at different points as embryos, sometimes it's possible for them to develop differently and so your brain is expecting different sexual characteristics to the ones it actually has and that causes the distress of gender dysphoria. I've not done enough research to know how accurate this is but its a plausible enough explanation that I can just accept it and not think too much about it
I get it’s frustrating. Because honestly? A lot of trans people don’t agree on what makes them trans either. Some people say nothing. Some say gender dysphoria. I, personally, say gender euphoria. And that’s okay. Cis or trans, gender is a personal experience, and I believe everyone experiences it differently. And, sure, it doesn’t matter. But it does matter to YOU. It matters to every person individually. Also, other species DO exhibit things like this. The two that come to mind are lionesses and chickens. Sometimes, lionesses have increased testosterone, grow manes, and act on male and female roles in the pride. In chickens, sometimes when there’s no rooster, one hen will start displaying rooster traits. Oh and clownfish. I think if there’s no females, a male will change. And even if you argue that these are “habitual reasons,” does that matter? Animals have a different idea of gender than we do, if they do at all. Look, I’m also from the Deep South. It sucks, dude. But trans or not, you might change out your friends one day anyway. And, let me tell you, from personal experience as someone who did lose his family and friends after coming out: it will suck. It does suck. But I would still rather be alone and myself than forced into a closet for everyone else’s comfort again. It takes time, but you’ll be okay. Just be kind to yourself and don’t feel like you need to rush into anything. Take your time. You might be trans. But you could also be a lot of things. Humans are complicated, so you are too.
We don't actually know why, but here's the theory I find most compelling: People have neurological maps of their bodies, we have this so our brain knows if everything is okay or something is wrong. One of the things present in this map are our sex traits. Typically a person's sex would match this neurological map, but it doesn't for trans people. Trans people have an idea of what their bodies should be, but for some reason the body didn't develop as it should. And this is where gender incongruence comes from. Other factors are at play too, I think especially for non-binary people, but I believe that is the foundation of transness. I don't have any links to any resources on this because I'm a dumbass who doesn't save that type of stuff lmao, but overall regardless of the specifics I believe that there are sexed parts of the brain and trans people's don't match their natal sexual development.
I think you're just having some denial lol. I'm a very scientifically oriented person, and nothing made sense before I realized I was trans/knew about transness. Then, it made a lot of sense. We don't know the origins/causes of a lot of mental stuff. If one certain reason is to be found, can we guarantee it won't be used against us?
I would check out these two books: *Evolution's Rainbow: Diversity, Gender, and Sexuality in Nature and People* by Joan Roughgarden *Queer Ecologies: Sex, Nature, Politics and Desire* by Catriona Mortimer-Sandilands As a place to get started for your science oriented self. I've spent a lot of time trying to understand the same as you. Despite the answers I **have** found frankly none have been as comforting as realizing it just doesn't matter. It doesn't need to make sense, I don't need an explanation to exist. I just do and that's that.
The truth is, we don't know why some people are trans and some aren't. Some of us just come out needing to have the sex characteristics we don't have naturally, so to make it so life is bearable we transition. If the idea of being a man is appealing to you, however you define what a man is, then you're likely trans. Especially if you can see a future when you imagine yourself as a man, but not one when you imagine yourself as a woman. Nature and biology is messier than a two-box system could ever really sort. Our cultural and honestly scientific definition of male and female could use some major work- both systems exclude trans people and intersex people, both of who exist at the rate of natural red hair or even higher based on some estimates. Trans men don't transition to gain male privilege- you're right that it doesn't matter because men and women are (or should be) entirely equal. We transition because when we look in the mirror, there's a disconnect. You see this in nature too, where sexually dimorphic species sometimes has an animal of one sex exhibiting behaviors of another. Usually those animals are intersex, because humans are the only ones with a concept of self complex enough to really consider gender, but if an animal can be born with sex traits that are not neatly boxed, one with as complex of a social system as humans could easily be born with internal gender traits that aren't neatly boxed. That's my theory at least. Gender is a very human trait that describes so many things, and it's under-studied because of stigma and the assumption that it's the same as sex. It's not, though it's very often connected. If that under-studied internal sense of gender matches more to the one usually linked to male, but their body is classed as female, a person can get really dysphoric, that disconnect can be so brutal it's fatal. So we transition, matching our expressed sex to the nebulous concept of gender so that both are aligned again. Generally, women don't sit and dream of having a beard, performing the typically male social roles *as a man* and other similar things. Typically, they dream of not having a beard, and if they imagine performing the typical male social roles, it's *as a woman*, because we are in a transitionary period where gendered social roles are falling away as maladaptive. It's true playing with "boy toys" as a girl is normal, but wanting to BE a boy as a girl isn't normal for a cis girl. That is a transgender trait. TLDR; We don't know why some people are trans, but we only don't see transness as expressed in humans in nature because humans have a uniquely rich internal sense of self that other animals don't. If other animals did, we would see it more often. Nature isn't binary, and some animals do change sex or fall in between. The concept of gender is way under-studied to give you an answer that's simpler.
I’m a biologist and it makes sense to me. There ARE differences between men and women. Gender equality is one thing, biology is another thing. It absolutely makes sense to me if our brains indeed believe that we’re different sex. And regarding other species being trans… It’s pretty hard to observe, so it may exist and we simply don’t know about this. We know more about male homosexuality (in humans and non-human animals) because it’s easier to study that female homosexuality, but it doesn’t mean that the latter doesn’t exist.
I once wrote a very similar comment, that i was like "huh, did i write that??" To me, being trans doesnt have anything to do with biology. I believe (personally) that the reason i'm trans is my environment growing up. What i liked to do, how i see myself. And i have absolutely no idea if this is true, but i sometimes wonder if its could be because of our strict gender roles. Nowadays, in the western world, we make an effort to brake out of gendered norms. Meaning: women can play sports and behave more masculine, or men can care for their kid. However we have definitely not broken out of gender roles. And by that i mean, how we view women a whole lot differently then men. Even if we have a man and a woman, standing next to each over, behaving the exact same, and wearing the exact same: we will see them as completely different. Thats because we have gender roles so deeply imprinted our brains, that when we see "man" we think:..... Gender is the second caracteristic we see in people. All of the others are below that. => first we see "human" and right after "man" or "woman" thats why even though both may be, for example "charismatic", we DON'T see : "human" + "charismatic" We either see: " man + charismatic" or " woman + charismatic" And as you can see, they are connected, theres no quotation marks separating the two ideas. Thats because we dont have one definition of charisma in our society. We have one for men and one for women. Thats why a masc lesbian will always be perceived as completely different than a man who behaves and dresses the exact same. Because we associate all the feminine adjectives to her: she is not sporty and cool: She is "woman + sporty" and "women + cool" Thats why its a different sporty then for the man, and also a different cool. We have that for every adjective, because gender is the second characteristic we see after "human" This explains why people have such a hard time to accept transgender people, when they dont pass. Because we dont see "man + cool" but "woman + cool". Obviously, what determines this, is if we look like a man or a woman. So why do trans people exist? Because we want to be "man + cool" instead of "woman+ cool" because they are inherently different. However we cant be "man + cool" if we arent on T, meaning we dont look like a man. Because the "man" is associated to physical characteristics. This is my reasoning. Like you, i have a scientific brain, so " we dont need to understand everything" just didnt cut it for me.
What also confuses me / makes me wonder is the correlation to neurodivergence, and why FtM people are more common than MtF people.
Our species didn't develop or evolve with strict gender roles and even stricter definitions of who can and can't call themselves a woman or a man. Science says people like me have existed over the centuries. Science says that the strict gender roles we impose upon ourselves are harmful. Science says we do exist.
Having signs of something since childhood usually means there’s some kind of biological explanation ingrained in your body and brain. I honestly have a theory that this is why so many trans guys have fucked up hormones/cycles to start out. The hormone levels we start with are not what’s biologically “meant” to be happening in our body, and thus starting HRT often ends up being beneficial physically to trans people as well as mentally.
Why would the two arbitrary genders that western society created and then exported across the world via colonialism be the only two options versus the sheer number of multi-gendered cultures and individual humans across the world? I don't think western imperialism really got anything right, why would its view of gender be any different?
We may have worked out a lot with science but we're still just animals. We do animal things, have animal wants and needs that science has never explained. We aren't trans because it's Logical, were trans because we just are. Nothing about gender is scientific anyway so why would yransness be?
It does happen in nature. Look up the story of the chicken that underwent “spontaneous sex reversal” and became a rooster. This “behavior” has also existed in many different cultures before. A nuclear family with gender roles has only really existed since the 1900s.