Yesterday, Alice Dreger who (literally) wrote the book on “gender” issues, took a break from her local journalism-publishing day-job to post a thread. Earlier, I’d tagged her into a thread where Helen Joyce had quoted her in her own article. More on that later, but first Alice’s thread:
Feels like a good day to reiterate: There’s nothing wrong with being autogynephilic.
” Alice Dreger, Ph.D. (@AliceDreger) September 7, 2021
It took me a while to understand autogynephilia, but that was because I thought I understood heterosexuality. Thinking about AGP made me rethink all sexual orientations. Here’s a short course on what I know:
” Alice Dreger, Ph.D. (@AliceDreger) September 7, 2021
We don’t choose our sexual orientations (what turns us on). We can’t change them. We can choose whether to act on them. We can choose to have sex that is not aligned with our orientations, but it doesn’t feel like sex should feel.
” Alice Dreger, Ph.D. (@AliceDreger) September 7, 2021
For most of us, our orientations have gendered components. I think most of us probably feel our genders most acutely during sexual arousal. That helps me understand AGP.
” Alice Dreger, Ph.D. (@AliceDreger) September 7, 2021
I’ve come to know lots of people who are AGP. Many of them have found joy and peace by recognizing their orientations as just as complex as everybody else’s. (Orientations are like knees: they all look weird on close inspection.)
” Alice Dreger, Ph.D. (@AliceDreger) September 7, 2021
Some people who are AGP live “out” as one gender. Some live bigendered lives. Some are nonbinary. Finding the right place in our Identity Land for oneself is great. Being *accepted* is critical. It is the reason I honor everyone’s gender self-identification.
” Alice Dreger, Ph.D. (@AliceDreger) September 7, 2021
My great hope is that we will reach a point where everyone can get the interventions that will help them, find consensual pleasure, and be at peace. It is easier than you may think to stop your ego and accept others in peace.
” Alice Dreger, Ph.D. (@AliceDreger) September 7, 2021
True to form, Alice’s “hopeful” focus is on care & respect for the individual and on therapeutic support & interventions for them. Would that more people approached the topic this way. However, in terms of the current “TERF Wars” there are some additional points to note, which are also addressed thoroughly in her book.
Firstly the topic here is autogynephilia but not necessarily other dysphoria or intersex conditions. Secondly, and more important here, is the politics. In her book, the bad actors are involved in personally motivated actions against the academic careers (and worse) of other individuals and institutions.
In terms of her thread, Self-ID is indeed the best starting point for all issues of identity politics, so we “honour everyone’s gender self-identification“. But the key is in the final tweet “consensual” and “at peace“. Definitely not at war.
It is absolutely central that the original “Self-ID” basis, and responses to it, are genuine, not deluded and in good faith. Hence Alice’s focus, and that of any competent GIDS clinic, on the well-being of the individual. However, once those individual freedoms and needs are cast as a “rights” in a public social context, beyond the privacy of consensual sex (#TooMuchInformation) the uglier ideological and opportunist motivations arise in the war-like politics of identity.
The therapeutic, individual-care aspects absolutely must be considered distinct from the public politics, and these political aspects then need to recognise more issues. We may not be able to “choose what turns us on” – but that does evolve and develop with exposure and experience. The private-public balance must consider appropriateness and safeguarding in what could and should be considered consensual, the rights and well-being of others beyond the individual subject. Where rights conflict, every bit as much care is needed to resolve.
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Relevant reading:
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- Book – Galileo’s Middle Finger – Alice Dreger
- Book – Trans, Where Ideology Meets Reality – Helen Joyce
- Article – The Truth about Autogynephilia – Helen Joyce
- Book – The Man Who Would Be Queen – Michael Bailey
By @HJoyceGender: “In Galileo’s Middle Finger, [Alice] Dreger offers another insight: since autogynephilia involves a fantasy of truly becoming, or already being, a woman, any reference to it can be experienced as an insult.”
Quite!https://t.co/LUj09dyzsG
” Debbie Hayton 🏳️⚧️🏳️🌈 (@DebbieHayton) September 7, 2021
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Good Faith vs Bad Faith?
