Thread: Transgendered man thinks he is a female, looks like a female- is he?

yup.

It would depend on the specific definition of female.

Exactly, it depends on the definition. I'll go ahead and say yes though.

He still has male sexual organs, so as far as I'm concerned, it's a dude.

yes, female with a penis

Is the person in question the OP? She thinks she's a female, since the gender says female. And it might explain why her avatar is a cool glowing X chromosome.

He has male sexual organs, he has male chromosomes, then he is a male. If you say you are a dog, that doesn't mean you are a dog.

On an interesting side note I decided to look at what is required to legally change it, as in changing your gender on a drivers license. Some states only allow you to change it if you have sex reassignment surgery. Some allow it if you have a note from a therapist. Some wants documentation that you are actually living that way full time, so no half time being a woman and half time being a man.

So apparently the government has talked about it and decided where they draw the line.

Even a post op Transexual with hormone injections and fake boobs is Technically not a female since, she has no organs to bear a child. doesn't have a period either.

No I am not the person. This is like, hypothetical.

Originally Posted by Alric

He has male sexual organs, he has male chromosomes, then he is a male. If you say you are a dog, that doesn't mean you are a dog.

That's a pretty bad analogy.

On an interesting side note I decided to look at what is required to legally change it, as in changing your gender on a drivers license. Some states only allow you to change it if you have sex reassignment surgery. Some allow it if you have a note from a therapist. Some wants documentation that you are actually living that way full time, so no half time being a woman and half time being a man.

So apparently the government has talked about it and decided where they draw the line.

In the end, it's all about how you feel as a person.

I would differentiate between sex and gender. I would define being a male as having a y chromosome and being a female as having two X chromosomes. There are people that don't fit into either category.

I would say that gender is defined by the role that a person plays in society. So I would say that the person is of the female gender and essentially treat the person as such.

Well, their gender is certainly female, but with the penis, I'd say their sex is still male. I'd refer to them with female pronouns, anyways.
If they got sex reassignment surgery, then I'd consider their sex female as well.

Overall, I only give a hoot about what pronouns I should be using.

It is a perfect analogy. Gender isn't a philosophical question, it has a set definition.

Originally Posted by Alric

It is a perfect analogy. Gender isn't a philosophical question, it has a set definition.

nah, you're thinking of sex. a sex is something you are given at birth. gender is something you can choose. you are not wrong.

your dog analogy was accurate for sex, but not gender. gender is like a name, you can change it by wishing for it to be so and saying that you are. sex is more physical, and can also change.

Sounds like you are playing a little loose with the definitions of words to me.

Female - a person bearing two X chromosomes in the cell nuclei and normally having a vagina, a uterus and ovaries, and developing at puberty a relatively rounded body and enlarged breasts, and retaining a beardless face; a girl or woman.

Now that is the definition of a female. It does say "normally having a vagina..." and stuff because is physically possible to be missing them. However, the first part is always true. A person bearing two X chromosomes. If you don't have two X chromosomes your not female.

However if you are technically a man and are able to get pregnant because of having female sexual organs due to a rare medical condition, you may fall under another definition of female. However if you are genetically male, and you lack female sexual characteristics, you are not female in any sense of the word.

Originally Posted by Alric

Sounds like you are playing a little loose with the definitions of words to me.

Not really. The definitions only accommodate what we now know to be true. That a person can be physically male (their sex) while at the same time being mentally female (their gender).

Regardless of sex, however, I think I would always have to think of said person as female. For me, in this instance, their mental feelings on the subject completely trump what their physical sex is. After all sex can be changed and, as far as I'm aware, gender can not.

Originally Posted by Blackberryfox

gender can not.

wait, why is that?

If you use the definition of gender as how you feel, then there is no reason it can't change as much as you want. You could switch back and forth each day, or even by the minute.

Originally Posted by no-Name

wait, why is that?

In case I wasn't clear I meant that the way a person feels mentally. Such as in OPs question of a man who feels like they should be a woman.

Because as far as I know there has yet to be a therapy developed that can make a person feel like they should be the opposite gender of what they were born as. Or in this case feel like they should be what their physical gender is.

The XX-XY distinction is not as absolutely clear as many think. It works fine most of the time but there are documented cases of people being, to all intents and purposes, healthy normal adults of one sex, but who nevertheless have the opposite sex chromosome configuration due to rare sex chromosal disorders. The development into being physiologically male or female is almost entirely controlled by hormonal systems during fetal development which occasionally fail or do the opposite of what is normal. XY females cannot reproduce. But lots of normal females can't reproduce either, so this seems an insufficient basis for determining sex. So what are the necessary and sufficient conditions for classifying someone as male or female? I don't have an answer, I only intend to point out that the answer is not obvious.

Originally Posted by Alric

If you use the definition of gender as how you feel, then there is no reason it can't change as much as you want. You could switch back and forth each day, or even by the minute.

I thought that was the beauty of language is it not? That words can change in definition to meet the needs of the society that's using them.

But I think there's a misunderstanding of what I'm trying to say, but I'm not exactly sure what it is...

Originally Posted by Alric

If you use the definition of gender as how you feel, then there is no reason it can't change as much as you want. You could switch back and forth each day, or even by the minute.

Correct.

Originally Posted by Blackberryfox

In case I wasn't clear I meant that the way a person feels mentally. Such as in OPs question of a man who feels like they should be a woman.

Because as far as I know there has yet to be a therapy developed that can make a person feel like they should be the opposite gender of what they were born as. Or in this case feel like they should be what their physical gender is.

why does there have to be a therapy? people can't be something else if they want to?

Originally Posted by no-Name

Correct.

why does there have to be a therapy? people can't be something else if they want to?

As I said I think there's a misunderstanding on what I'm trying to say. All I meant was basically what you said earlier.

Sex is what a person is physically
Gender is what a person is mentally.

And I didn't say there had to be therapy. I said that as far as I know while there is hormonal therapy and surgery to change what a person is physically no such therapy exists to change what a person is mentally.

So because of that, I will always hold gender in higher regard then sex. I will always see a person as female, if they define themselves as such, even if they have a penis.

A person can naturally change mentally though. They might consider them self one, then later consider them self the other.