Sophie Ottoway was reassigned at birth due to a penile abnormality and was only told at age 22. Unlike David Reimer however, she does not appear to intend on living as a male but wants to make people aware that this happened without her consent. What I find fascinating about these two cases is just how much our awareness of self is not tied to our plumbing but resides in brain chemistry as well as to socialization. In other words, it can be a complicated stew.
Here gender criticals would do well to take note but they won't because it does not fit a script which desperately wants to tie a perfect bow on the alignment between gender identity and birth sex.That both these cases took the same action yet yielded different outcomes shows us just how unique we are. David reverted to living as male while Sophie appears to have no intention to do so possibly because she has come to terms with her masculine and feminine energies.
There's a lot to find questionable in her story, I have serious doubts to the details. Couple that with the fact that UK transphobes are shoving her forward makes it even more suspicious to me. It's stretching my credulity. Nevertheless, every law trying to prevent health care for trans youth creates an intersex exception that would have let doctors do this to her anyways. They don't care about doctors doing this without the child's consent.
ReplyDeleteYou are correct that they don't care and transphobes will use every story to their advantage. My main point here is that every person is a unique blend of nature and nurture and that some of us turn out to be transgender. People need to get over that and move on
DeleteIt's interesting to note how some should theoretically be disappointed that she does not start living as a male since this should be her "true" gender. The fact that she does not is not helpful to them
ReplyDeleteActually, it is and therein lies the problem and it's the reason they're pushing her forward. Basically, it comes back to the original notion that John Money claimed: you can nurture into a gender identity. If nurturing into a gender identity was actually possible, I (and millions of others) would not have transitioned. I just find her very not credible to be honest and that the only groups talking about her are ones seeking to block access to affirming care regardless of the age.
DeleteShe is being used as a pawn. Money was wrong with David Reimer in assuming that a gender identity is only about socialization. Clearly there is a biological component and what is fascinating about Sophie is that she has likely come to terms with both her socialization and biology in that she may possibly feel in between and not see a major life change as worthwhile. Many people fit into an in between
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