[ExI] sex again

[Adrian Tymes]

On Fri, Dec 13, 2019 at 1:30 PM Dan TheBookMan via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

> On Dec 13, 2019, at 1:03 PM, Adrian Tymes via extropy-chat <
> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>
> side note on gender - the sad facts are that people who go for the full
>> operation to another sex are rarely happy with it.  They were
>> psychologically messed up (new trendy term) before and after.  They did not
>> need another sex. They needed therapy.  Which they got but did not work
>> well for them.
>>
>
> Personal anecdote - the few I know who went through the whole process seem
> quite happy with the result.  I know, anecdotes are not data; this only
> shows that the success rate is non-zero.
>
>
> I’ve seen studies that show low dissatisfaction rates with gender
> affirmation surgery (also known as SRS). And, like you, the folks I know
> who’ve gone through it seem happy with the result.
>
> This isn’t To say there are no folks who aren’t dissatisfied. But I think
> there’s a push by conservatives to push the view that almost everyone is
> dissatisfied with this surgery. In the same way, they push the narrative
> that most women who get abortions experience severe depression from that.
> (Studies seem to show the overwhelming majority of women do not.)
>

"Damn the facts, my gut instincts must be right!"

That attitude seems to be entirely too common these days.  I suspect that's
part of where the "OK boomer" meme came from: those who insist on lies will
not acknowledge the truth where it opposes their preconceptions, and so can
best be simply acknowledged then ignored.


> That said, in all such cases, there was much psychological counseling as
> part of the process, apparently in part to screen out those for whom gender
> reassignment would not solve their problems, despite their belief that it
> would.
>
>
> There’s also a view floating around that somehow someone — usually someone
> preteen — might feel they're the wrong gender on Monday and they’ll be
> prescribed meds by Tuesday and prepped for surgery by Wednesday and have
> the surgery before the weekend, and then, of course, regret this once
> they’ve had a good talking to by their pastor if not sooner.
>

Ah, yes.  "Rapid onset gender dysphoria", was it?  Which was entirely
concocted by interviewing people who had reason to be willfully ignorant of
prior signals, such that the only "rapid onset" was some step that could
not be ignored?

I might be willing to support more counseling for these cases (both to ease
transition, and to screen out any for whom SRS would not actually solve
their problems) - but then, I think more mental health services in general
would be a good idea, not just in this case.  I'd even go so far as to say
that ingrained denial reflexes are a widespread mental health issue that it
would be useful to society to fix.
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