Two gentlemen in Portland take a moderate approach to the claim, “Gender is a social construct.” Street Epistemologist Reid Nicewonder facilitates this conversation and explores a proposed analogy: Biological sex is the hardware and gender is the software of the human machine. The question of what defines the “programs” for masculinity and femininity emerges in the discussion.
As the ex-wife of a man who decided "he's a woman," sometime after I gave birth to our second son, I have close written and in person contact with the "gender affirming" psychologist (who stated in a sworn affidavit that she diagnosed him definitively on his first appointment) and the non-credentialed groomer he went to see weekly for the cash-only sessions. The big deal they love to drag out (pun intended, apologies) is called "the true life test." This is cross-dressing and assuming that everyone who's nice to you thinks you are actually female. Neddy, as I call him in my memoir, conducted these charades in Manhattan's Greenwich Village, where everyone knows you can easily find a straight man to have a look at you and buy you a drink in a bar. His other big locale was on a pretend business trip to San Francisco, another hugely rich field to troll for straight men in. He decided he passed that test, while I was actually living our real life, nursing our baby, reading to our three year old. I'd love to see Peter ask the question: could this be a "true life test" with any psychological validity, when basically, they're all demanding to be "affirmed." And yes, Neddy did go there with the suicide narrative, that emotional blackmail he memorized in "the sessions."
Ute Heggen, author, In the Curated Woods, True Tales from a Grass Widow (iuniverse, 2022)
Nicely done. Social pressure to ‘change gender identity’ is obviously a trigger, but sadly people don’t have enough inner strength to stand for their true self and then become manipulated. IMO
I think sexual preference with the current push for transgender to be aligned with LGB has brought nothing but anguish and harm.
As the ex-wife of a man who decided "he's a woman," sometime after I gave birth to our second son, I have close written and in person contact with the "gender affirming" psychologist (who stated in a sworn affidavit that she diagnosed him definitively on his first appointment) and the non-credentialed groomer he went to see weekly for the cash-only sessions. The big deal they love to drag out (pun intended, apologies) is called "the true life test." This is cross-dressing and assuming that everyone who's nice to you thinks you are actually female. Neddy, as I call him in my memoir, conducted these charades in Manhattan's Greenwich Village, where everyone knows you can easily find a straight man to have a look at you and buy you a drink in a bar. His other big locale was on a pretend business trip to San Francisco, another hugely rich field to troll for straight men in. He decided he passed that test, while I was actually living our real life, nursing our baby, reading to our three year old. I'd love to see Peter ask the question: could this be a "true life test" with any psychological validity, when basically, they're all demanding to be "affirmed." And yes, Neddy did go there with the suicide narrative, that emotional blackmail he memorized in "the sessions."
Ute Heggen, author, In the Curated Woods, True Tales from a Grass Widow (iuniverse, 2022)
uteheggengrasswidow.wordpress.com
Nicely done. Social pressure to ‘change gender identity’ is obviously a trigger, but sadly people don’t have enough inner strength to stand for their true self and then become manipulated. IMO
I think sexual preference with the current push for transgender to be aligned with LGB has brought nothing but anguish and harm.