Transgender people, evolution and sexual mimicry
A question from someone on tumblr leads to some reflections on whether "sexual mimicry" can explain trans and queer identities and behaviors.
The short answer is no.
I know that many of us, me included, appeal to science in the face of the current transphobic onslaught, and science can indeed be used to check and correct for irrational bigotry.
But we must never forget that scientists are human as well, and have been raised in a specific cultural context that to a certain extent determines the questions they ask, and the mental framework they use when observing the world around them.
It is only the interaction between different scientists with different backgrounds that can free us from this kind of intellectual lock-in.
Indeed, the more women and queer folk we find in the natural sciences, the less obvious the “dominant males rule over inferior females” paradigm becomes.
The “sexual mimicry” explanation for gender variance in animals requires a strict binary to make any sense at all. And there is no strict binary.
Read the post Transgender people, evolution and sexual mimicry here!
More from my Medium and Tumblr blogs:
Elon Musk is destroying one of our most important transgender social arenas: Twitter.
Trans and/or queer and on twitter? You need to know this!
Transgender Ukrainians struggle to continue treatment
TERFs do not actually believe in biological sex, not really!
Finally, take a look at this heart-warming pro-trans ad from Spain! (No, J&B is not our sponsor…)