A Transgender Remedy

I thought I would start my opinion pieces out with a rather touchy subject. But I suspect it is a good point to start from as I have yet to see anyone truly make the connections on this particular subject matter that I have; Transgender. This should prove to be quite the controversial topic for you, regardless of your allegiance to the biological camp or your allegiance to the entire gender studies monstrosity.

Yes, I say a gender studies monstrosity because you divorce yourselves from the 'heteronormative' reality that it requires a male and a female to produce offspring and procreate the species. You fail to look at the natural evolutionary process that would be required to ensure the species would survive. Instead you make the claim that the basic building block of species survival is an obstacle to 'progress' while ignoring science as a 'social construct' when it is convenient for you. I do find it ironic how this particular field of thought will turn around and support science when it is in their favor. You're like the old, religious, homo-haters. Shut up and sit down, special snowflake. You're about to be opened up more in this opinion piece than your entire time you spent getting your gender studies degree.

Naturally, after the scathing statement to the gender studies camp, I also need to address the biological camp. You are a different situation entirely. While you look at the scientific evidence of the situation, I fear you oversimplify the situation. Not that I can truly fault you that, simply because human beings have a nasty habit of oversimplification to understand the world around them. For you, this piece is more about opening up to a different perspective to consider. To make actual progress toward both understanding this situation and a greater understanding of the world around you. While I disagree with Sigmund Freud's belief that we are attracted to both sexes, his determination that homosexuality is simply a variation of human sexuality holds merit. A view that the American Psychiatric Association adopted with the removal of homosexuality from the DSM in 1973 as a mental disorder and replaced with 'sexual orientation disturbance' for those in conflict with their sexual orientation. It wasn't until 1987 that homosexuality was completely removed from the DSM. The World Health Organization didn't remove homosexuality from the ICD until the 10th revision in 1992, but still carries the 'ego-dystonic sexual orientation'. Which is classified as a person who is not in doubt of their sexual preference, but wishes it were different because of associated psychological and behavioral disorders. The ICD-11 is slated for release in 2018.

Now that I've addressed both camps, time to get down to business.

From the moment of fertilization a chain reaction occurs with a human egg that begins the process that produces a human being. The first issue that occurs in this process is the inability for the DNA present to be properly decoded for maturation. Thus the woman's genotype is utilized for approximately the first three weeks until the embryo has developed to the point of taking control of the process itself.

For a short duration this biological process prepares for the eventual development into either a male or female child. Before you Gender Studies people attempt to jump onto this as a 'smoking gun', I want you to ask yourselves a serious question. What is more efficient in this entire process? To separately develop primary sex characteristics or to prepare to produce both to either degenerate and/or develop these early structures into biological systems based upon information from the DNA? Unless you want a woman to carry a baby longer than the normal human gestation period I suspect the answer is the more efficient path.

And it is in these early stages of development that we are first introduced to two concepts of Chaos Theory. The first is the utilization of Fractals, which are not only pretty art but patterns found throughout nature itself. At the same time the development of a human being is sensitive to the initial conditions during the development process and continues to be sensitive to both internal and external conditions as we experience life.

The deterministic process that produces a human being is not fully understood. The effects of various hormones, enzymes, proteins, and binding of genetic markers are far more complex than we are currently able to properly measure. The natural inclination is to believe that the process is linear, despite mounting research that shows the sheer variations that can occur from the prenatal development process. An interesting BBC documentary on the study of brain sex shows an interesting correlation between testosterone and the effects on the brain. While initial discussions begin at 31:05 of the video, a slightly more interesting test begins at 34:17 and continues on with an interesting display of this hormonal effect on one of the female participants. Though I will highly encourage you to watch the documentary in the entirety for some interesting points in regards to the differences in male and female brains.

Youtuber Blaire White made an interesting video in regards to gender not being a social construct. No, I'm not picking on you. Think of it as a shameless plug for you! Unfortunately I don't recall a video where she mentions that actual cases of the Transgender situation being observed or I would have linked that. But it still serves as an interesting primer when delving into actual research in regards to the Transgender Brain.

The true complexity of the situation didn't begin to emerge, in my opinion, until a 2011 MRI study allowed for an analysis of the brain as a whole to occur. The study of white matter in female-to-male subjects displayed a micro-structure closer to their biological male counterparts than their biological female counterparts. A separate study, performed by the same team, found that male-to-female subjects displayed white matter that was halfway between masculine and feminine. Thus it was theorized that these structures had not completed masculinization. By the same token it could easily be argued that the female-to-male subjects had masculinized instead of completing feminization.

Furthermore, this half-way point for male-to-female transgender individuals may provide additional information in regards to 'female' being a default state. Denote the key word in that statement is MAY. Additional research, as the previous link that provided a slightly more in depth look than the overview I provided in regards to pregnancy.

This does not provide any basis, however, for the use of Transgender as an umbrella term as it has been used for people who don't 'strictly identify' with masculine or feminine. I'll get to you special snowflakes in this article soon enough. But first we have to take some time to dispel the notion that the human brain is little more than a biological switchboard.

Research and philosophy have gradually began emerging when it comes to the aspect that the human brain is on “the edge of chaos”, or to be more specific the human brain is a self-organized criticality; at a critical point between randomness and order. This type of system not only has benefits in regards to allowing the brain to quickly respond to an ever changing environment (sitting on your ass and suddenly a bear comes to maul you) but possesses massive amounts of computational power in regards to the constant stream of internal and external information that must be processed on a regular basis.

But how do we make sense of all the input from both our internal and external sources? Why is it that, despite what we could consider rational, humans instead act irrational? We are often quick to take a short term gain even when we know that the short term gain may have a far worse consequence in the long term?

Enter Quantum Cognition; the application of principles of quantum mechanics as they relate to human behavior. While these links provide a slightly more in depth beginning introduction as to their application, our primary focus in this article is the limits of computational power of the human brain and probabilities as it relates to observed brain structures and the sheer magnitude of stimuli both internal and external we are exposed to.

In both male-to-female and female-to-male transgender individuals the general notion is that they were born in the wrong body. But we have strong indications that biological factors are what created the “incorrect sex”. This makes it difficult to believe that it is a fault of nature. The general notion associated with being born in the wrong body is an attempt for the human mind to reconcile internal feelings, or our perception, with reality. Of all the probabilities this concept has an external stimuli that can be focused upon. It is an irrational thought, but this is the prevailing general thought.

In the face of uncertainty the most 'logical' explanation is truly the most irrational. There are factors we don't understand, or that the individual has knowledge of. But in the attempt to make sense of the chaotic thoughts in their mind they select what can be externally seen, discarding the possibility that the conflict could be internal.

In truth we are interconnected with our environment, biology, and consciousness. All of these are factors that shape our minds in attempts to efficiently function and to make sense of the constant stream of information. We learn skills, only to forget them when they aren't used. Our brains prune the weak pathways for the sake of efficiency in energy consumption and streamlining.

The conflict of gender in transgender individuals is a variation of an extremely complex system. Where factors from conception have an impact and we are forced to make sense of it all. These conflicting thoughts give rise to clinical dysphoria; significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.

This isn't some aimlessness caused by simple confusion by those that use the term Transgender as an umbrella term. If you doubt that then let's try a little thought experiment. Take 5 minutes and write down 7 aspects of masculinity. Then read the next section.

Look at that list and identify how many have a negative and positive connotation. Compare the numbers. Now, how many had any of the following words in them: Discipline, Focus, Confidence, or Assertive (there is a difference between assertive and aggressive). I suspect very few of you actually participated. Given a much longer term view of the infamous battle of the sexes much of your confusion comes from one place. The very movement that has a very interesting habit of attacking masculinity on a regular basis is a key contributor to this problem. It is the same movement that has interfered with research it doesn't like or demands that it be looked through their lens. And there is only one response I deem acceptable for it...

#FEMINISMISCANER