About three weeks ago there was an article in Wall Street Journal [paywall] under the headline:
The first half of the article crystallised what I’ve been thinking for a while: that although there are rare instances of intersex individuals, to insist that biological sex is a spectrum is erroneous. Supplanting biological sex with a subjective and fluid “gender identity” arrived at “by the whim of the owner” (my deliberately slightly irreverent words) is unrealistic and impractical. To quote just one paragraph of the article:
There is a difference … between the statements that there are only two sexes (true) and that everyone can be neatly categorized as either male or female (false). The existence of only two sexes does not mean sex is never ambiguous. But intersex individuals are extremely rare, and they are neither a third sex nor proof that sex is a “spectrum” or a “social construct”. Not everyone needs to be discretely assignable to one or the other sex in order for biological sex to be functionally binary.
From here on I dislike the tone of the article which to me sounds very right-wing, misogynistic and derogatory. Added to which I’m far from convinced the authors’ arguments follow logically.
That is not to deny (a) that some individuals’ biological sex is ambiguous, nor (b) that some individuals may self-identify to a different gender than their biological sex. While I will admit to not fully understanding this (cis-hetero male privilege and all that), it seems to me that the disconnect between an individual’s biological sex and their gender identity begins in some way as a psychological process. My gut feeling is that the medicalisation of this to sex reassignment is not sufficiently controlled or counselled (especially in adolescents), and is thus somewhat dangerous – as the quoted article goes on to imply.
This is also not to deny the psychological stresses that those affected go through in coming to terms with their situation, leading up to gender-reassignment, and that they encounter during transition – this latter is something I’ve witnessed in a work context and which was quite disconcerting even to a completely uninvolved bystander.
So basically I’d say: by all means gender identify however you please, but in the vast majority (not all) of cases biological (anatomical) sex is binary, not a social construct. Yes, gender reassignment surgery is possible, and some require it. However it is not something I’m personally comfortable with – just as I’m not comfortable with IVF etc.
As with so many other things, while I may not agree with you or be comfortable with your views, I would defend and support anyone’s right to gender identify however they wish. It’s your life, not mine.
Of course, YMMV.