Once Again, Gentle Reader, I was being afflicted with a case of chronic Brain-Fartitis when the CBC after dinner program As It Happens came to the rescue with their interview with psychology professor (U of T) Jordan "I`m Not A Bigot" Peterson. The good professor apparently objects to being obligated to refer to and address transgender persons by the pronoun of their preference, or the generic "they." Having an evident allergic reaction to political correctness he simply refuses to do this, claiming that no one has the right to put words in his mouth and force him to say something he disagrees with. Carol Off, one of the co-hosts of the program, ends up badgering him relentlessly about the importance of respecting the rights of a vulnerable minority. The good professor responds that it should not be the purview of a tiny minority to hold everyone else hostage to their need sensitivities.
Carol suggests that society may be evolving and that gender variance inclusion ought to be accepted as part of this process of evolution in response to the good professor's insistence that society is not obligated to make everyone feel comfortable. He goes on to mention that the more the "radical left" pushes their progressive agenda, the bigger and nastier the reaction from the right and the resulting culture war could be prolonged, violent and ugly.
To me there are never easy answers, especially to this little ethical minefield. On one hand we have the transgender community, a small minority, yes, but consisting of vulnerable people historically mistreated and traumatized. Now, they are finally finding room in society with protections and human rights. And people are coming on board in solidarity. On the other hand there are more conservative individuals who view gender as binary and traditionally male and female. You are male and he and him if you were born with male genitalia; female, she and her if you have a uterus, breasts and ovaries. We have not advanced a lot in our understanding of gender and most of us still have pretty fixed and rigid notions of what makes a man and what makes a woman. Behaviour, preferences, tastes, attitudes. Blue and pink. Guns and dolls. And, of course, biology and anatomy.
Except...
Not everyone fits the binary. And it isn't just those who are clearly transgender, but the many who find themselves almost anywhere on the scale, or, as in my case, absolutely nowhere on the scale. I still struggle with gender reassignment therapy and surgery. I still wonder if it would simply be easier for one to accept the body they were born with and accept compromises of identifying with the gender that doesn't correspond to their biology or anatomy. I would imagine that chromosomes and genetics play some role in our identity. And then we find ourselves feeling completely outside of or utterly incompatible with our birth assigned gender identity. In the case of a transboy or transgirl it seems simple enough to go through the therapy, the surgery and emerge into the anatomical version of our preferred gender.
Except...
A transman, even with an exquisitely reconstructed penis, is never going to produce sperm and father a child. Neither is a transwoman, even with her flawless new breasts and a vagina that would fool any red-blooded cis hetero guy, ever going to conceive and bear a child. No, our reproductive potential does not ultimately identify us but surely it still plays, in our complex human portrait, a role in defining us, if but a little.
I do not believe that a transwoman is a woman. I don't believe them to be a man either. Likewise a transman is not a man. But not a woman either. Regardless of their chromosomal makeup. By the same token, even if on my passport I am indicated as a male, I don't feel like a man. But I don't feel like a woman either. Human, yes. But identified by my anatomy? Not really. I carry with me my femininity and my masculinity and they live mostly in harmony. They are like Yin and Yang and they are in a dynamic dance and that dance makes me who I am. I still answer to he, rather than she, but only out of token respect for the body that is part of my identity.
I am not going to speak for transgendered persons, nor for anyone else. It's really none of my business. If a transwoman introduces herself to me as Gladys, I am not going to be so tacky as to find out that her birth name is John, then proceed to call her John. And I will refer to her as she and her. Not because she is a woman but because of the person she is.
In regards to the good professor Jordan Peterson. It is one thing to want to be truthful and honest. It is quite another thing when one decides to be an asshole about it.
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