Transgender? Sex, Sexuality, Orientation and Gender

Originally posted 2019-06-17 07:22:12.

‘Transgender’ is a catch-all term that is used, today, to include all forms of  ‘Gender Non-Conformity’ or (better) ‘Sex Non-Conformity’. These are expressions in which individuals, for a variety of reasons, reject the social norms of dress and behaviour. Most ‘transgenders’ in the West today are in fact expressing fashionable youthful rebellion, just as hippies, punks, New Romantics and Emos did, in their turn.

However, there are some for whom this is a much deeper issue. Individuals of one sex who wish to appear to be and even live as a member of the opposite sex, do exist, although the numbers are hard to pin down.

To understand this, we need to quickly recap on sex, sexuality and gender.

 

 

Sex

Sex is a reproductive system in which individuals of one sex produce small, highly motile gametes and those of the other, large, immotile ones. We call the former male and the latter female. Which one you are is defined at conception, when one of each of these gametes comes together, inside the body of a female, to create a new individual. It is usual for the sex of an individual to be identified at birth, by visual inspection, as the external genitalia are different; males have penises and testes and females have vaginas. (There are a small number of births where this is not clear, but these are intersex conditions which are outwith our scope here.)

So, sex is purely physical, it is fixed for life and there are only two, male and female (leaving aside intersex births). It is NOT a ‘construct’.

Sexuality

Sexuality is, essentially, how we want to have sex. In general, males are penetrators and females recipients, because the nature of human reproduction requires that male gametes (spermatozoa) are placed inside the vaginal cavity of the female, so that they can swim to the female gamete (ovum) and fertilise it. So, those with male sexuality desire to penetrate and those with female sexuality to be penetrated.

Orientation

So-called ‘orientation’ clearly follows from sexuality; it reflects the kind of person you wish to penetrate or be penetrated by. (Note that the Western male ‘gay’, the New Gay Man, is exceptional in world terms and was only invented about 60 years ago; everywhere else, and throughout history, males having sex with other males always adopted modes wherein one partner was exclusively and identifiably dominant/penetrative and the other submissive/penetrated.)

However, sometimes the relationship between sex and sexuality breaks down and so we have males who want to be penetrated and females who want to penetrate, or at least, play the dominant socio-sexual role. This is called Sexual Inversion and has been understood for over a hundred years. Its cause is most likely to be anomalies in testosterone delivery to the developing foetus. Many studies have suggested this. (There are links on my website https://www.rodfleming.com/links)

Just as there are two sexes, there are two sexualities: male, desiring to penetrate and female, desiring to be penetrated. (True bisexualism, in the Western sense anyway, occurs when an individual is only slightly affected by Sexual Inversion and so is somewhat intermediate.)

Gender

Gender is how we advertise our sexuality to others. If we want to attract masculine men, we make ourselves appear feminine, and vice versa. The entire beauty and fashion industries are based on this simple premise. Gender is not a ‘social construct’. I am afraid the Blank Slate theory, that we are all the same and are ‘conditioned’ to be what we become, has been debunked so often now it hurts. Men and women are different, intrinsically.

As a result of the above, Gender is inseparable from Sexuality. However, as we have also seen, Sex and Sexuality can be at odds. So, we can have someone who is actually male but feels much more comfortable appearing to be, living as, and interacting with others, as a woman. (and vice versa.) The discomfort that a Sexual Invert would feel in trying to conform to gender standards usual for their sex, is called Gender Dysphoria.

Gender Dysphoria

Gender Dysphoria or transition desire  is a more or less severe feeling of discomfort at having to present in the gender opposite to or inconsistent with your sexuality. Notice that it’s not a mismatch with sex, but with sexuality that causes the issue: gender and sexuality cannot be separated and gender dysphoria is what happens if you try.

If you have female sexuality and appear as a man, you will experience ‘homosexual gender dysphoria’ and the same in reverse. (This is irrespective of your actual sex.) Most ‘gay’ men in the West experience this more or less strongly. However, Sexual Inversion is governed by the general biological rule of variation: it affects some people more than others. These individuals are not just inverted sexually; physically they tend to look like the opposite sex, being smaller, lighter, more neotenous (baby-faced) etc than related males. In some males in particular, this can be so marked that the individual cannot actually pass as a man. Kim Petras, Janet Mock, Blaire White are all of this type.

 

Homosexual Gender Dysphoria typically sets on in early childhood, around the age of 2 to 3 and begins with strong opposite-sex behaviours and identification. These will become ‘insistent, persistent and consistent’. As time progresses and sexuality begins to develop, the individual will begin to exhibit same-sex desire and at puberty this will normally crystallise, in step with the adult persona. Because it appears so young, this form is called, in the DSM, ‘Early Onset Gender Dysphoria’. Individuals with it who transition are called ‘transkids’, ‘True Transsexuals’ or ‘Homosexual transsexuals’ or HSTS.

Homosexual gender dysphoria occurs in both males and females, although there appear to be significantly more males.

Non-homosexual forms

In males there is another condition also called gender dysphoria, which occurs in non-homosexual cases. This is far more complicated than the simple type discussed above. It only ever occurs at or soon after puberty and never before. So the DSM calls it ‘late onset gender dysphoria’. These are often called autogynephiles or AGPs, Pseudo-transsexuals or, simply, non-homosexual transitioners. Typically this will begin to set on around 13, though sometimes as early as 9, and may be hidden by the individual for decades, although today, more are ‘coming out’ in their teens. If the individual hides the condition they are likely to overcompensate, seek highly masculine jobs and pastimes, get married young and so on. (Jenner is typical of this profile.) This form, unlike homosexual gender dysphoria, which is fairly easy to understand, is ferociously complex with at least five different subtypes and three sexual modes. It is very common, although, again because of variation, many men with it go to their graves and nobody ever knows.

Ray Blanchard

The cause of male non-homosexual gender dysphoria was finally identified by Dr Ray Blanchard as Autogynephilia, male love of the self as a woman. These males are strongly heterosexual, that is, attracted to femininity. At some point in their early sexual development a switch appears to be flipped so that they become the object of their own sexual and romantic desire; this is called an Erotic Target Location Error, since the erotic and romantic targets are normally outside the self. However, these are heterosexual males, so there is immediately a problem, since they are not attracted to masculinity. As a result, a second character is formed, who plays the role of a woman — the object of the sexual and romantic desire.

The trouble is that as the second character develops, nourished by sexual reward (this is often physical but might not be) it gains strength and begins to compete with the host. If it is not prevented from doing so it may well overwhelm the host completely — and at this point, it suffers Gender Dysphoria, because as far as it’s concerned, it’s a woman walking around dressed as a man. This, however, is not the same as homosexual gender dysphoria, as the ‘woman’ character is not real, but a fiction. The result is an ego-dystonic conflict between the two characters inhabiting the psyche, who are permanently struggling for ascendancy. What they feel is not the simple gender dysphoria felt by a transgender homosexual, which is directly linked to a sexuality/gender mismatch, but a more complex form, which is exacerbated by their sexuality, which is male.

It is often said by AGPs that ‘having sex with men would be the most affirming thing we could do’ but only around 20% actually do this. AGPs are often extremely androphobic and resent any approach by men. I have noted that those who do become androphilic, or, more precisely, pseudo-bisexual, that is, attracted to men, do tend to be far better adjusted. I suspect this is because their female character’s gender dysphoria is assuaged by male attentions and as long as she’s in charge, the situation stabilises.

These individuals, especially in the Anglo-Saxon West, typically have many issues co-morbid with their Gender Dysphoria, eg weak and variable self-ideation, extreme narcissism, possibly Borderline Personality Disorder, other ETLEs and so on. They are incredibly fragile and given to Narcissistic rage if ever their status as a ‘real woman’ is questioned, and this is especially the case for those who are non-androphilic. People like Riley Dennis and Bruce ‘Caitlyn’ Jenner are of this type; it is the most prominent type in the West, though not elsewhere.

Females

Female homosexual gender dysphoria is much like the male form, inverted and has a similar cause. It does appear to be less prevalent but that might be due to sampling bias.

Female non-homosexual Gender Dysphoria is quite different. It is a recent, localised occurrence which appears only to occur in the West. Until about 2010 it was vestigial. However in recent years it has exploded in incidence, with referrals for female non-homosexual gender dysphoria, to the Portman Trust in London, now being several times all the others combined; they have increased by some 4500%. The only serious study so far done on it concluded that this is a new phenomenon called ‘Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria’ which is essentially a social contagion brought about through peer pressure and the overuse of social media. (See Littman 2017 on my site).

I personally do not think ROGD is a form of true gender dysphoria at all, I think it is an induced psychosis that manifests very similarly to Gender Dysphoria. In it, typically, young women ‘identify’ as ‘transgender’ and then seek homosexual male partners. This has caused significant push-back from within the ‘gay’ male community, although there do appear to be individuals who accept it, even becoming fathers with their female (but masculine-presenting) partners. These relationships, interestingly, are really heterosexual, although they are ‘homogender’.

All forms of sex non-conformity, gender non-conformity or ‘transgender’ involve a considerable social element and so culture is a major factor in deciding the precise form that any such presentation will take.

Asia: a transgender comparison

For example, in southeast Asia, a far larger percentage of those who might be ‘gay’ in the West are in fact transsexual (True Transsexual or HSTS), because of the much lower levels of transphobia there. In the Philippines, any male Sex-non-conforming person, including homosexuals, would be considered ‘bakla’ (or other dialect equivalent like beki, bading, bayot etc) which is roughly but not exactly equivalent to ‘gay’. The same happens in Thailand, with ‘kathoey’ and in Indonesia and Malaysia, with ‘waria’. These all mean exactly the same thing — feminised male. Here, although there is a measure of self-identification, more important is the society’s identification of the individual, which sees no difference at all between a slightly feminised ‘gay’ and a full-blown transwoman. Both, to use Kulick’s term, are ‘not-men’ and any divisions within that are irrelevant.

All of the more recent expressions of Western male ‘transgender’ and the absurd ‘167 genders’ would be lumped together and summed up here as ‘baklas’ — one size fits all.

So, absent the social constraints which prompt so many homosexual males in the West to appear to be ‘masculine’, a far larger number simply say ‘hang it’, grow their hair and hit the hormones. At the same time, non-homosexual transitioners or AGPs normally ‘come out’ in their teens and the society around them, far from discouraging them from finding boyfriends, actively encourages them. This is very different from the typical Western AGP, where the average age of presentation was 43, until recently at least.

The fashion transgenders, or ‘transtrenders’ are likely to disappear in time, just as punk and Emo did. However, it’s possible that there has been a fundamental shift in the Anglo-Saxon West which might bring it more into line with what’s seen elsewhere. In this case I should expect to see far more True Transsexuals, at the cost of fewer conventional Western ‘gays’ and more AGPs who transition in their teens rather than waiting till middle age, as has tended to be the case till now.

As for ROGD, there is no equivalent in southeast Asia for me to compare it to. As I said, I don’t think it’s a real form of Gender Dysphoria anyway, rather a completely new social phenomenon and we just don’t know how it will pan out in the future.