Your support makes Blue Moon possible (Patreon)
I don't know if 'but everyone is in some danger' is really relevant to the rights of transgender individuals? That's the also very vague 'but everyone is insecure about their bodies' argument. It simply isn't equivalent.
You're right, there isn't surgery to change your skin colour - I would argue that would be an unethical bandaid over a broken leg of an issue. Of course you could choose to apply this idea to the concept of transgenderism, that some or all (unlikely to be all) transgenderism could be attributed to a dysfunctional society with incomplete and suffocating concepts and repurcussions of gender roles, gender binarism and how your gender and sex effects your value and safety in the world.
I can assure you that having the power to change oneself reasonably to reduce danger to oneself is not a folly of a pursuit. It's not 'how they should look'- I encourage you to investigate the realistic expectations and often limiting reality of genital reconstruction surgery. For MTF folk it tends to be an easier pursuit - reasons possibly being that it is easier to 'change something already there, and reducing and rearranging stuff' as opposed to 'making something out of nothing, harvesting skin and hoping it doesn't get rejected by the body as foreign tissue, hoping urethra tracts don't collapse, hoping you retain sensitivity, etc etc etc.
The reality is that many people are committing suicide because of their stigmatisation, their trauma and psychological instability of their body maps not matching the reality of their physical form and inability to access care and support through legal, social and medical means.
You might want to argue that transgenderism is a privileged issue and that to desire expensive surgery or else you'd kill yourself a very first world issue. On that, I cannot offer you much contradicting data as I am not educated in the exact practises and statistics of transgenderism in second and third world countries, and the suicide rates therein. However it is a very well established fact that being an oppressed minority of some kind (racial, gender, sexuality, disability) can and has and will push people to suicide and other destructive behaviours in a prolonged period of time.
There IS evidence somewhere out there (no source rn, I encourage you to google) of very real non-binary gender culture across the world in non-western countries. Native Americans, for example, have a cultural phenomenon of Two Spirit people. In Middle Eastern and Southwest Asian nations, non gender binary cultural identities such as the Hirja exist. In Judaism, there were neutral gender folk. This is not limited to cultures of wealth, privilege or a particular social or economic climate. Right now in the Middle East there are transgender individuals trying to flee their home nations to avoid the ritual execution of transgender people, who are probably considered to be unholy, heresy, or wrong in the eyes of god/s. These people sometimes live in societies or areas torn asunder by war, political and military conflict, but being transgender doesn't get put under the carpet for when things are just a little less rough.
Also, I would consider 'you can hide yourself a bit better' to be a poor, crude choice of words. I can assure you many transgender people do not intend or like to be regarded as 'hiding' as this encourages the stigma of having something to hide. They're forced to '''hide''' so not to be put at risk by society and its individuals. The very fact that 'shes a trap!' and 'UGH I thought you were XYZ, you LIED to me!' is even a thing is because of this misconception and specific normativity around the gender binary.
That said, there are many transgender people who would not consider their bodies to be 'the wrong ones'- they simply do not match up to their internal map. They may believe there is nothing inherently wrong with their physical form in principle, but it is not accurate to whom they are, whom they are to be perceived to be. They may fight the stigma that being trans is somehow shameful, dirty, freaky or fucked up. They may be activists for this attitude, who are open about their transgenderism or transsexual history as a means of communication, education and awareness.
I'm afraid 'they might not commit suicide' just doesn't seem an empathetic, progressive or understanding argument for a subculture of people where REPORTED suicide is as least as high as 40% and many parents of transgender children have reported their children have attempted or considered grievous bodily self harm or mutilation to 'fix' an issue they cannot even fully emotionally grasp. I'm talking children in single digits being caught using a nail clipper to remove a certain protrusion.
Of course this brings up the idea again, full circle, that with enough therapy and support, they can be cured of this disorderly behaviour. But so can brainwashing, emotional abuse and manipulation tbh, so that's barely kosher.
I'd also like to add that as a UK person, I've watched maaannyyy US documentarys on individuals who are transgender, from children to adults, and its really quite disgusting and distasteful. Even the children are baited with inappropriate questions, misgendering and invalidation is rampant, and the focus is usually on how very strange it all is. There is a specific genre of documentaries that profit from atypical lifestyles and people, and take advantage of exhibiting them, very quietly and unsaid, as freaks.
HOWEVER many dozens if not hundreds of people I have seen HIGHLY recommend 'The T Word', I believe narrated or driven by Laverne Cox. So I can't recommend it highly enough for a more appropriate and accurate narrative of trans folk.
You're right, there isn't surgery to change your skin colour - I would argue that would be an unethical bandaid over a broken leg of an issue. Of course you could choose to apply this idea to the concept of transgenderism, that some or all (unlikely to be all) transgenderism could be attributed to a dysfunctional society with incomplete and suffocating concepts and repurcussions of gender roles, gender binarism and how your gender and sex effects your value and safety in the world.
I can assure you that having the power to change oneself reasonably to reduce danger to oneself is not a folly of a pursuit. It's not 'how they should look'- I encourage you to investigate the realistic expectations and often limiting reality of genital reconstruction surgery. For MTF folk it tends to be an easier pursuit - reasons possibly being that it is easier to 'change something already there, and reducing and rearranging stuff' as opposed to 'making something out of nothing, harvesting skin and hoping it doesn't get rejected by the body as foreign tissue, hoping urethra tracts don't collapse, hoping you retain sensitivity, etc etc etc.
The reality is that many people are committing suicide because of their stigmatisation, their trauma and psychological instability of their body maps not matching the reality of their physical form and inability to access care and support through legal, social and medical means.
You might want to argue that transgenderism is a privileged issue and that to desire expensive surgery or else you'd kill yourself a very first world issue. On that, I cannot offer you much contradicting data as I am not educated in the exact practises and statistics of transgenderism in second and third world countries, and the suicide rates therein. However it is a very well established fact that being an oppressed minority of some kind (racial, gender, sexuality, disability) can and has and will push people to suicide and other destructive behaviours in a prolonged period of time.
There IS evidence somewhere out there (no source rn, I encourage you to google) of very real non-binary gender culture across the world in non-western countries. Native Americans, for example, have a cultural phenomenon of Two Spirit people. In Middle Eastern and Southwest Asian nations, non gender binary cultural identities such as the Hirja exist. In Judaism, there were neutral gender folk. This is not limited to cultures of wealth, privilege or a particular social or economic climate. Right now in the Middle East there are transgender individuals trying to flee their home nations to avoid the ritual execution of transgender people, who are probably considered to be unholy, heresy, or wrong in the eyes of god/s. These people sometimes live in societies or areas torn asunder by war, political and military conflict, but being transgender doesn't get put under the carpet for when things are just a little less rough.
Also, I would consider 'you can hide yourself a bit better' to be a poor, crude choice of words. I can assure you many transgender people do not intend or like to be regarded as 'hiding' as this encourages the stigma of having something to hide. They're forced to '''hide''' so not to be put at risk by society and its individuals. The very fact that 'shes a trap!' and 'UGH I thought you were XYZ, you LIED to me!' is even a thing is because of this misconception and specific normativity around the gender binary.
That said, there are many transgender people who would not consider their bodies to be 'the wrong ones'- they simply do not match up to their internal map. They may believe there is nothing inherently wrong with their physical form in principle, but it is not accurate to whom they are, whom they are to be perceived to be. They may fight the stigma that being trans is somehow shameful, dirty, freaky or fucked up. They may be activists for this attitude, who are open about their transgenderism or transsexual history as a means of communication, education and awareness.
I'm afraid 'they might not commit suicide' just doesn't seem an empathetic, progressive or understanding argument for a subculture of people where REPORTED suicide is as least as high as 40% and many parents of transgender children have reported their children have attempted or considered grievous bodily self harm or mutilation to 'fix' an issue they cannot even fully emotionally grasp. I'm talking children in single digits being caught using a nail clipper to remove a certain protrusion.
Of course this brings up the idea again, full circle, that with enough therapy and support, they can be cured of this disorderly behaviour. But so can brainwashing, emotional abuse and manipulation tbh, so that's barely kosher.
I'd also like to add that as a UK person, I've watched maaannyyy US documentarys on individuals who are transgender, from children to adults, and its really quite disgusting and distasteful. Even the children are baited with inappropriate questions, misgendering and invalidation is rampant, and the focus is usually on how very strange it all is. There is a specific genre of documentaries that profit from atypical lifestyles and people, and take advantage of exhibiting them, very quietly and unsaid, as freaks.
HOWEVER many dozens if not hundreds of people I have seen HIGHLY recommend 'The T Word', I believe narrated or driven by Laverne Cox. So I can't recommend it highly enough for a more appropriate and accurate narrative of trans folk.
