Firstly: Why is this discussion important?
See : http://www.transchristians.org/intersex/transgender-Is-intersex
(Quote): “The intersex community gets upset when the public confuses intersex with transgender and believing their non-binary bodies must given them a non-binary gender identity as well. Their anger is well deserved; most intersex people identify fully as either male or female. I do not want to imply otherwise. Nevertheless, and I'm not skilled with being politically correct, the movement by both the intersex community and gender defenders paint transgender and intersex as too exclusive and unrelated phenomena injures transgender advocacy and is just not true. There are obvious examples of people clearly intersex who self-identify as transgender (such as Josef Kirchner and Raven Kaldera) which we all agree on, but I am not including those cases. I believe the entire categories of intersex and transgender are, in fact, two different sides of the same circumstance, that circumstance being the breaking of the sex and gender binary.”
Gender identity have been shown to be correlated to portions of brain areas processing the perception of self and body ownership. For the case of transgender individuals, these specific parts of the brain essentially have the sexual structural connections more aligned with the gender-identity which the person identifies as leading to a persistent sense of gender incongruity ever since a very early age that can be remembered (i.e. probably once the child gradually becomes self-aware of her/his place in "society"). Though, other parts of the brain, not correlated to gender-identity, may vary in structure that is not sexually typical of the sex which one identifies as; what is key is the realization that "who we are" (our sense of self) is intrinsically tied to our mind's perception of "self" -- a mind which arises from a functioning brain.
The common equation of transgender people (like myself) is a persistent sense of gender incongruence ever since young (which can at a later time develop into gender dysphoria). Perhaps gender identity is kinda like "fish in the water" -- It is only when the fish is out of the water that it feels "out of place" and can eventually become excruciatingly suffocating.
"Cogito, ergo sum” (I think, therefore I am) - René Descartes
See also: https://www.hawaii.edu/PCSS/biblio/articles/2015to2019/2016-transsexualism.html
(Quote): "Another feature of transsexual development needs understanding. This too points to its natural biological nature. It is known that the genitals and brain develop at different times. The genitals develop early prenatally during the first 6 – 12th week and they may develop in masculine or feminine form. If the genitals develop under the influence of the androgen testosterone they are masculinized. If they are not, female genitals develop. In comparison, the brain, it is believed, develops during the latter period of pregnancy and also is subject to the influence of androgen. If there is significant androgen present at that time there will be brain masculinization, if not, there will be brain feminization. It thus is clear that the brain and genitals can develop independently and under different forces (Bao & Swaab, 2011; Savik, Garcia-Falguera, & Swaab, 2010). As Reiner has said “The etiology of gender identity may be neither obvious nor easily conceptualized. Yet what is obvious is that the presence of androgen is critical. It is the determining factor in the development of ... behavioral dimorphism in humans—genital structure, ... male-typical behaviors, masculinization of the brain …“ (Reiner, 2002)."
In some scientific literature, “sex” is frequently classified solely based on the type of chromosome a person has; i.e. purely weather a person has Y or chromosomes or not (e.g. even for an intersex individual who has an XXY chromosome, or someone with XY chromosomes but is born with severe androgen insensitivity, and hence develops anatomically as a female, both are still regarded as male, following this specific method of classification). Basically, the genetic basis of sexual-classification (useful specifically in scientific studies) is being generalized to apply to “sex” in general. This method of sexual classification disregards any other biologically sexual characteristics that may be present, and is absolutely binary by its very nature of classification (i.e. if you have a Y chromosome, you are biologically male. If you don’t, you are biologically female, period).
There are some who uses this to absolutely discount the proposal that transgenderism could possibly be explained based on the sexual dimorphism of the brain (specifically the existence of parts of the brain which governs gender identity), despite of some relatively recent studies that have provided evidence that may actually support this perspective. In their view, since sex is purely of genetic (specifically chromosomal) origin, the sexual-structure of the brain is hence totally irrelevant in the discussion. They then go on to conflate the experience of transgender people to nothing more than the body-dysmorphia of people, comparable to those who develops anorexia (a delusion of the body w/o any possible biological underpinnings). This justifies their staunch misgendering of trans-people, and refusal to acknowledge a trans-person by their identified gender.
However they forget that in the end, even though science is based upon evidence-based reasoning, the classification of things (even if scientific) can be quite subjective (base on utilitarian grounds); to drastically simplify a highly complex system/properties into a more manageable bits -- painting an oversimplified (or approximated) picture so as to enable a generalized understanding to be attainable in the analysis.
Yes, when it comes to health-matters, the classification of a person base on their genetical-sex is more useful. However, I believe in a social context, it is the gender-identity of the individual that determines who people are (i.e. as people and not scientific specimens/subjects). Philosophically speaking, "who we are" (in my view) is determined not by our physical body (even though that may influence how we think of ourselves), but our minds (which arises from a functioning brain). Swap a person’s brain into a different body, and the “self” (or the ego) of that person would be expected to follow where the brain goes.
Certainly, the brain is (to a large extend) malleable to a significant degree, and it is known that there are significant overlaps between a "typical male" and a "typical female" brain (from population-average generalizations that is). However this still does not discredit the plausibility (as evidenced in the very recent nature paper referenced below) that certain portions of the physical brain, which may specifically dictate the "sense" of gender-identity of the sexes, may be misaligned for trans-people. Ergo, it couldn’t be ruled out that there are also parts/aspects of the brain that tends to be intrinsically persistent through a person’s life, such as gender identity or sexual orientation, etc.
Furthermore, this question needs to be raise: to what extend is the brain plastic, and to what extend that the brain isn't? i.e. are there parts of the brain that fulfill specific functions that may be a lot less malleable one they had been established during prenatal development -- such as sexual orientation or gender identity for instance?
The very fact that cruel reparative therapy does not tend to work on actual diagnosed trans-people, and the sense of gender-incongruency is presence form an early age, which eventually develops into dysphoria, for some regardless of gendered-upbringing shows that the parts of the brain that regulates gender-identity is "non-malleable" by nurture and external conditioning. Note: This is not necessary true for many self-IDers (e.g. those who claim to be “trans” by have not been formally diagnosed by a qualified gender-psychiatrist) -- who are exploring their freedom of social “gender expression”, but mistaken it to have anything to do with “gender identity”.
(Quote): "John Money, who went so far as to posit that a male baby with a congenital abnormality of the penis, or who had lost his penis in a surgical accident, could successfully be raised as a female following treatment with surgery and hormones. In at least one of Money’s cases, however, this course of action backfired dramatically: the subject reverted to living as a man during his teen years, and later committed suicide."
Identity wise, a non-binary person's gender-identity may lie somewhere between the male-female sexual-spectrum. While a cis-person's gender-identity may lie significantly more towards the "typical" ends of the spectrum with varying degrees. While for trans-individuals, her or his gender identity falls on the opposite end of the spectrum wrt to all/or most other sexual characteristics (including genetic markers). Most people have gender-identities that is good alignment with their genetic- and reproductive-sex, and which is likely related to an evolutionary advantage for people to function within a complex society, to survive and to pass on their genes via sexual reproduction. Hence, it can be argued that parts of the brain which dictates the innate sense of gender-identity that an individual has can be categorized as also a biological sexual-property in its own right -- together with genetic- or reproductive-sexual markers.
It is also not surprising that for intersex individuals, most would have gender-identities that are perfectly in-line with their genetic-sex (and/or even reproductive-sex, despite of some “medically-regarded” atypical characteristics), with extreme-transgenderism being a pretty rare condition as well. Note: “extreme-transgenderism” being a condition where a significant and persistent sense of gender incongruence is ever present, to the extend that they eventually develop gender dysphoria.
In these particular regards as discussed above, transgenderism can therefore be justifiably viewed as a "very mild" form of intersex (or rather, intersex-related) condition -- of very specific parts of the brain which regulates the innate sense of “gender-identity” that one possesses. But of course, physiologically, it would likely not qualify as such in a medical sense -- akin to say mild forms of hypospadias (which typically also isn't regarded as an intersex condition) since the person would not likely face the same set of complex issues that medically classified "intersex" people may face (from health issues, to difficulty in finding acceptance of they body in our narrow minded society, or even had non-consensual surgeries performed on them in secret right after birth -- which IMO should be regarded as a severe crime). But even though, for trans-people suffering from gender incongruity, the sex-incongruent area(s) may encompass only parts (perhaps small, in the sense of %-volume, and if disregarding consideration of its "function") of the overall brain in trans-people, the impact of this on the lives of trans-people as the result of their natural perception of self (as the result of their sub-brain physiology) is by no means insignificant at all in its own right.
(Quote): "with implications far beyond the pronouns with which we identify. “Phylogenetically, and with respect to evolution . . . it is important to know whether one is a male or a female,” and with whom to copulate, he says. “It is one of the pivotal points in biology, and the biology of humans.” - Antonio Guillamon of National Distance Education University in Madrid
As much as I do believe that comparing (not conflating) transgenderism as a very-mild intersex condition (physiologically speaking) is justified, it must also be highlighted and repeated that trans-people in general do not face the multitude of complex issues that genetically- or reproductively-intersex people face even in this day and age, and from an advocacy standpoint, it is important for the trans-community to avoid conflating their experiences and issues with that of the “intersex community” so that the very important issues that intersex people face are not buried and overlooked by society:
See important TEDx Talk on the experiences of biologically/physically intersex people, which (needs to be emphasized again) is different significantly from those of general transpeople: https://anunnakiray.com/my-tedx-born-intersex-we-are-human/?fbclid=IwAR3XGz_cuYz9SVZRFLAkO55Qo8Yfa3pLyQ_EisWp0429NXNvgWrjzUCXK50
For one, the transitioning surgeries that is performed on trans-people are purely on a consensual basis; whereas, the unethical "corrective"[sic] surgeries performed on the perfectly natural bodies of intersex individuals to (force them to fit into the narrow definitions of ‘sex’ and ‘gender’ created by society) certainly isn't. The other experiences, complexities and and difficulties with navigating society and healthcare, faced by intersex people (as the result of widespread ignorance, even by medical staffs) are also sadly commonly overlooked, even within the LGBTQI community and advocacy
See: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/intersex-and-the-city_b_8855230
~Juni LEE
EOS: cybernetwork
References:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-17352-8
https://www.the-scientist.com/features/are-the-brains-of-transgender-people-different-from-those-of-cisgender-people-30027
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5953012/?fbclid=IwAR1e4tUps0dDg0l2AbVA95rmK_3hW3fBuiOb_aSZsuCwxMh_dbkh7LXwc4k
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/the-british-journal-of-psychiatry/article/extreme-male-brain-revisited-gender-coherence-in-adults-with-autism-spectrum-disorder/23D058B59E5B837C55C6F9F174C7BD24
Non-peer-reviewed Articles:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-there-something-unique-about-the-transgender-brain/
https://www.hawaii.edu/PCSS/biblio/articles/2015to2019/2016-transsexualism.html
http://www.transchristians.org/intersex/transgender-Is-intersex
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Relevant latest article: (Links provided below)
Connection between Asperger's with physical androgyny due to prenatal hormonal influences could explain the prevalence of Asperger's in people who experiences a persistent intense sense of gender incongruence since adolescence (i.e. transgenderism).
"Background*
The ‘extreme male brain’ theory suggests that autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is an extreme variant of male intelligence. However, somewhat paradoxically, many individuals with ASD display androgynous physical features regardless of gender.
Method
Serum hormone levels, anthropometry, the ratio of 2nd to 4th digit length (2D:4D) and psychiatric symptomatology were measured in 50 adults with high-functioning ASD and age- and gender-matched neurotypical controls. Photographs of face and body, as well as voice recordings, were obtained and assessed with respect to gender coherence, blindly and independently, by eight assessors.
Results
Women with ASD had higher total and bioactive testosterone levels, less feminine facial features and a larger head circumference than female controls. Men in the ASD group were assessed as having less masculine body characteristics and voice quality, and displayed higher (i.e. less masculine) 2D:4D ratios, but similar testosterone levels to controls. Androgynous facial features correlated strongly and positively with autistic traits measured with the Autism-Spectrum Quotient in the total sample. In males and females with ASD dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate did not decrease with age, in contrast to the control group.
Conclusions
Women with ASD had elevated testosterone levels and several masculinised characteristics compared with controls, whereas men with ASD displayed several feminised characteristics. Our findings suggest that ASD, rather than being characterised by masculinisation in both genders, may constitute a gender defiant disorder."*
https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/the-imprinted-brain/201410/the-x-factor-explains-androgyny-in-male-asperger-s?fbclid=IwAR0ydn8DFfIq9s2VhTepwG059-3DEBZP54BjbuLOfO5h6i5XnW--wm1QtrE
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/the-british-journal-of-psychiatry/article/extreme-male-brain-revisited-gender-coherence-in-adults-with-autism-spectrum-disorder/23D058B59E5B837C55C6F9F174C7BD24
This is a very nice, nuanced look at gender that we all need.