Getting the urge to Man Up: Gender Identity Disorder.

Usually I post on current events or other random social phenomenon with a psychological point of view, but having been asked to talk about this for a bit, who am I to argue?

For those of you not in the know, Gender Identity Disorder or Gender Dysphoria is essentially a condition that effects people who feel that they were born in the wrong body, the “man trapped in a woman’s body” to coin more commonly known expression and of course the “woman trapped in a man’s body” on the flipside of that coin.

It’s something of a sensitive topic for a lot of people because it comes with a lot of political baggage, historical (and current day) prejudice, negative preconceptions by people with strong opinions and big mouths.

The most obvious question is: “What causes it?” and frankly, like in most of psychology, there is no set answer. There are strong studies to show it’s caused by hormonal imbalances in puberty and the developmental years, other studies show a strong trend in difference in fundamental brain anatomy, some (rather specious) studies show it as the result of childhood trauma. Like most things it is likely caused by a combination of factors, genetic, environmental, developmental, social etc etc.

For the longest time it was categorised as an Illness, much like Homosexually was until (relatively) recently, and people were attempted to be “cured”[0]. Paradoxically one of the most damaging cases in terms of establishing the legitimacy of GiD as something other than an “illness” was by a psychologist called John Money (undoubtedly named after his primary motivation for getting into psychology, considering his following actions).
Money decided that the argument often preached “Gender is a Social Construct”[1] meant that if a child was raised as a girl, treated as a girl, and told they were a girl then regardless of their biological make-up, they would be a girl even if they had a penis dangling between their legs. This theory cumulated in the sad case of a young man called David Riemer

Mr Riemer had the unfortunate destiny to be born in a part of the united states where they still circumcise healthy boys for no good reason. In this case, as it is distressingly common, his circumcision was botched and a large portion of his penis burned away. In stepped Dr. Money, claiming to Mr Riemer’s parents that if he was raised a girl, and continues to have his genitals surgically altered to match that descriptor then he would be none the wiser and be a happy, well-adjusted little girl. So at the age of 22 months, with his penis already burned beyond repair, the infants testicles were surgically removed, and his life as a little girl began. Dr. Money would use Mr Riemers twin brother Brian as a “Control” in this very unethical study, and even have him contribute to re-enforcing his brothers new gender identity.
Needless to say, despite Dr. Money’s best attempts to falsify his data and some VERY ethically bankrupt psychological therapy which I will not go into, David Riemer the girl became very depressed, suicidally so. His sense of identity was so disrupted and conflicted that he (still under the impression that he was a “she” at that time) felt there was no other recourse but to end his life.

Faced with this possibility, David’s parents felt they had no choice but to come clean with what they had done to him, and tell him the truth.
There is much more to this then I am telling, and feel free to look him up on Wikipedia. Suffice to say this does not have a happy ending. The only “good” to come of the whole sordid affair (if any) was that it provided very strong evidence that what gender a person is can only be decided by the person themselves and cannot be dictated to by them by society. It is as personal and unique a part of you as your sexual preferences, your mental state, and your reflection in the mirror.

Again, sorry. I’m light on the comedy this week, not really a happy subject.

So why is this important? Well for a start legitimising it as a medical condition means you’re eligible for treatment. You can get psychological and surgical support to ensure that you can feel happier in your own body. Interestingly despite the media liking to poke fun, sexual desires of people suffering from GiD mirror the general populations fairly evenly, and like most of the general population they represent no risk to your children or your anal virginity.

As far as what this means to you and me? Well it means very little, we go on with our lives as normal and somebody gets a shot at being happy, if you happen to be friends with somebody with GiD they will be much like any of your other friends, there isn’t a special personality that you get issued with, you can be a total asshole or a saint, or anywhere in-between. GiD is a very personal thing, and rarely impacts with behavioural traits or any other kind of psychological symptoms (except perhaps a vulnerability to depression for obvious reasons).

One last comment I would like to make on the subject.
As a minority group, people with GiD are often represented as an oppressed group, and they are. Even in western countries they are often murdered simply for the crime of existing, a few years ago the Daily Mail even “Outed” a teacher who as a result lost her job, and shortly thereafter killed herself. This represents a societies fear of the “other” often as a result of ignorance or cultural stigma, the only cure for that is the light of understanding and education. You cannot fight that kind of fear and hatred with more hatred, all that does is feed it, and justify aggression against the “other”. Yes this sucks, and it goes against your animal urges to fight back. But you will never resolve a conflict by feeding it, it’s easy to hate a faceless enemy that hates you back, it’s hard to hate the person whose only crime was wanting to teach your children their ABC’s.

Also: Mayonnaise is not a gender.

[0]I remind critics of the field of psychology that medical science once made it abundantly clear that the approved medical procedure for somebody losing consciousness was to blow smoke up their butt with a pair of bellows, so let’s not be too judgmental of a young science, hey?

[1]What this actually means is that we as a society decide what “gender” means in terms of how it effects your gender roles and societies expectations of men and women.
Anyone who bellows "Gender is a Social construct!" to you after their Women's Studies lectures as a way of denying the fundemental biological differences between men and women needs to be sent back to University via the hospital because apparently her head has become lodged in her own vagina.