Transmedicalism

I recently watched part of a podcast where a caller objected to someone else not being "trans enough". This 28 year old transgender person calling was complaining about someone they know with a beard not being the genuine article because they weren't feminine enough.

The two hosts, one of whom was transfeminine and looked to be in her twenties, took issue with the caller's stance. It made me think about the transmedicalist arguments of the past which created a pyramid of respectability at the top of which would have been androphilic transsexuals. In the past they would have been obliged into stealth transitions to live as normal a life as possible.

As the visibility of gender variant people increased over time it widened the aperture of the lens which meant more shades were being noted. It is why the language morphed to include people who saw themselves as non-binary, gender fluid, etc rather than only on those who considered themselves women born with a mistake between their legs.

So while society takes note of the spectrum in front of them,  it has complicated the way we describe the different iterations of straying beyond the binary. This segment I watched was evidence that the issue is still very much present in the discussion of what consititutes a genuine transgender person.

My view has evolved over the years to the point where it is the amount of investment the person has which dictates what constitutes what an identity is. In other words, you embrace who you are and respect it to the point of not bending to someone else's will. For only you know who you are.

In that sense it tends to put everyone's identity on an equal footing because each of us is unique and our identity is not a game or a mask we put on.