tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post7324368271462729127..comments2024-03-28T18:32:05.933-04:00Comments on bensozia: More Feminists against TransgenderingJohnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01037215533094998996noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post-26880557133884241482015-06-08T11:59:53.722-04:002015-06-08T11:59:53.722-04:00My disturbance came when I read the FDA is going t...My disturbance came when I read the FDA is going to allow the sexual enhancement drug directed at women. <br />These sex issues serve to undermine and minimize the real pertinent issues facing the working public. They are issue scapegoats. <br />Is Congress requiring insurers to cover all classifications described by the US weather bureau? No, they cover vague 'flood' conditions but the policy then fails to cover flood damage as there was a sub clause defining a separate element. <br />It seems to me as I age, that 20 years is the time frame that any actions by our private enterprises are allowed to run for profit regardless of the harm incurred. Only after the 20 year of profit taking does any action to limit the already substantial harm occur. It is intentional. <br />Even after the supposed corrections are proposed and discussed in Congress, and even passed in a weak form (often claimed to be the best one can expect), what happens is that the focus is removed and the legislation is sidetracked. Remember the hue and cry that produced to make the tax increases passed for education be applicable in a high percentage to the students and not for teachers? <br /> Guess What? In Minnesota the legislation was derailed in the legislative bodies and has not been heard of again. We older folks understand this. Sadly. <br />One might even suspect that without a 20 year replacement of us that capitalism would soon fall by the roadside. <br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post-53559579939546688952015-06-08T09:50:29.446-04:002015-06-08T09:50:29.446-04:00"I am not interested in telling Caitlyn Jenne...<i>"I am not interested in telling Caitlyn Jenner or anyone else how to live, but I refuse to get heavily invested in this debate, because I think we are already paying quite enough attention to it."</i><br /><br />I'm of much the same mind.<br /><br />As a person who has never felt any sort of disconnect between my identity and my body - except in the sense that I view the body as being largely irrelevant to who we are as people - I believe I have nothing useful to contribute. I also don't think it's much my business.<br /><br />On a conceptual level I can recognize the discomfort others may feel regarding this issue, but I can't understand it personally. It doesn't make sense to me that someone could have such a profound need to reshape their body one way or another. I imagine this is chiefly because of the irrelevance I attribute to my own body as regards who I am, but still, it is beyond my proper comprehension.<br /><br />It certainly doesn't seem like it has much rational basis - indeed these issues are often framed in terms of "feeling" or "just knowing" intuitively. But like other seemingly irrational behaviors - religious devotion, absolutist political thinking, the consumption of lutefisk, et cetera - as long as there is no demonstrable harm being done, what do I care what people choose to do or believe?<br /><br />Of course, there's a bit of a gray area in determining if "demonstrable harm" is actually being done. I'm not a fan of "cosmetic" surgery, and the more drastic it is, the more concerned I become. It seems to be to betray the medical ethos of <i>primum non nocere</i> - it sacrifices biological health to accomodate purely psychological problems, rather than treating those issues; it abandons rationality in favor of satisfying emotion.<br /><br />But obviously opinions differ on the subject. One might even turn my own position against me - if I view the body as irrelevant to a person's identity, shouldn't that make any changes to the body likewise irrelevant?<br /><br />And yet I can't help but compare the desire to undergo massive surgery to appear more in line with one gender stereotype or the other to things like Body Integrity Identity Disorder, wherin an individual feels that they would be happier living as an amputee, and often actively seek to remove one or more limbs. What is the logical difference between these two psychological desires? Most people would consider a desire to cut your own leg off to be unhealthy, and indicative of other deeper mental problems. So why, then, is wanting to reshape your physical sex not equally concerning?<br /><br />I've attempted to discuss this exact point with others previously, but apparently the comparison is seen as outrageous and offensive to some - which saddens, me because I have no desire to outrage or offend anyone regarding such topics, I just want to understand things rationally.<br /><br />Overall, it's just yet another thing that, to me, seems irrational and possibly harmful to the people who embrace it, but that I can't really do or say anything genuinely productive about, so I try to simply not to be concerned by it. I don't always succeed, but I do at least try - and what concern I do feel, I also try to keep to myself.G. Verlorennoreply@blogger.com