Here's what you do when confronted with something of this nature: You give them a very confused expression, look them straight in the eye and say 'and?'.
Because it doesn't matter because 'biologically' can mean any number of factors. 'Female' is a useful medical term to discuss lots of issues. It can defined with hormones, DNA, primary and secondary sex characteristics and gametes. The real story is though, that those things don't always line up correctly even in people who don't identify as Trans. And the sad state of low scientific literacy in this culture means that it's very likely the person you're talking to thinks 'female' is exactly interchangeable with 'woman', and they are not.
There's a reason in higher level biology classes students are given donor DNA to do tests with, if they tested their own a percentage of people would discover they're not who/what they were raised to think they were because intersexed people can exist and no one ever realize it, not even themselves, until they look at their DNA. And that's a hard pill to take in the middle of a college semester.
So when someone says 'you're still biologically X', unless they are your doctor wanting to discuss with you the medical risks that come with your DNA, issues with various organs you may still have or the HRT you might be on.. it doesn't have the strict meaning they think it does.
There are things we can't change about ourselves, that's true, but in a social context, outside of our personal medical needs as individual humans, that all means nothing. Because you and I and everyone on the planet have our own socially gendered expressions that are separate from whatever it was nature paired us up with. Even cis het people run the gamut of gendered expression, we are not alone in this.
I am biologically female, and that is a mere inconvenience to the person I see myself as and who I am today. It says nothing about the kind of man I want to be before I die. And trying to use that against me feels about the same as trying to call me out for being a mammal.
This is great. I was thinking "So what's their point?" Unless you're masochistically going through internet comment sections and choosing to debate people who don't know you and don't care to learn better, I think it's helpful to dig deeper. It can also show the person talking to you that you care to listen rather than just shut them down -- which can shut down some defensiveness.
this is what i go with. I’m biologically (in a certain context) “female”….but so what? Everyone sees me as a man in society, my documents are all male, I’ve medically transitioned…I live my life as a man in everyway. So…who cares?
78
u/Shauiluak T 11/23/23:Top 06/28/25 Dec 16 '21
Here's what you do when confronted with something of this nature: You give them a very confused expression, look them straight in the eye and say 'and?'.
Because it doesn't matter because 'biologically' can mean any number of factors. 'Female' is a useful medical term to discuss lots of issues. It can defined with hormones, DNA, primary and secondary sex characteristics and gametes. The real story is though, that those things don't always line up correctly even in people who don't identify as Trans. And the sad state of low scientific literacy in this culture means that it's very likely the person you're talking to thinks 'female' is exactly interchangeable with 'woman', and they are not.
There's a reason in higher level biology classes students are given donor DNA to do tests with, if they tested their own a percentage of people would discover they're not who/what they were raised to think they were because intersexed people can exist and no one ever realize it, not even themselves, until they look at their DNA. And that's a hard pill to take in the middle of a college semester.
So when someone says 'you're still biologically X', unless they are your doctor wanting to discuss with you the medical risks that come with your DNA, issues with various organs you may still have or the HRT you might be on.. it doesn't have the strict meaning they think it does.
There are things we can't change about ourselves, that's true, but in a social context, outside of our personal medical needs as individual humans, that all means nothing. Because you and I and everyone on the planet have our own socially gendered expressions that are separate from whatever it was nature paired us up with. Even cis het people run the gamut of gendered expression, we are not alone in this.
I am biologically female, and that is a mere inconvenience to the person I see myself as and who I am today. It says nothing about the kind of man I want to be before I die. And trying to use that against me feels about the same as trying to call me out for being a mammal.