Posted on 05/20/2016 9:21:51 AM PDT by Petrosius
The pushback has been swift and strong against Target’s unsafe bathroom policy, along with the Obama administration’s demand that all public schools adopt pro-transgender policies for showers and locker rooms. But for long-term success against these impositions, the response must also be strategic.
That means drilling down to the source of transgender ideology.
The roots of moral issues always bring us to questions about human nature. Both classical Greek and Christian philosophy regarded the natural world as purpose driven or teleological – from the Greek telos, meaning purpose or goal. To ordinary human observation, it is evident that eyes are for seeing and ears for hearing; fins are for swimming and wings for flying.
Because the human body is part of nature, it too was regarded as having a purpose. The delightful diversity of male and female was not some cosmic accident. Instead it showed that the human body is ordered to the purpose of opposite-sex pair-bonding and reproduction. Teleology is the basis for natural law ethics, which aims to tell us how to fulfill our true nature, how to become fully human.
Today it is popular among Western elites to deny teleology. The key turning point was Charles Darwin. He did not deny that nature appears to be designed for a purpose. But as an agnostic, he hoped to use science to demonstrate that the appearance of design was the result of purposeless material process – random variations sifted by the blind, automatic forces of natural selection.
As historian Jacques Barzun writes, “This denial of purpose is Darwin’s distinctive contention.”
The Darwinian worldview implies that the cosmos is merely a vast amoral machine. It reduces the human body to a lump of matter, a collection of atoms and molecules, not intrinsically different from any other chance configuration of matter. There can be no natural law ethic because humanity has no purpose to fulfill. Philosopher Charles Taylor explains, “The cosmos is no longer seen as the embodiment of meaningful order which can define the good for us.”
The implication is that our biological identity as male and female is a cosmic accident after all. The sexual differentiation of male and female has no special dignity or meaning. The body is reduced to raw material to be manipulated and controlled to serve human needs and preferences – like any other natural resource.
Suspicious of Sex
These are the assumptions lurking behind the language of the transgender movement. The Obama administration’s letter, sent out jointly by the Departments of Justice and Education, asserts, “A person’s gender identity may be different from ... the person’s sex assigned at birth.” What's the key word here? “Assigned” – as though a person’s sex at birth were purely arbitrary instead of a scientific, biological fact.
What does that language imply? That biological facts do not matter. Your biology gives no clue to your gender identity. It is irrelevant to the “authentic self.” The result is a fragmented, dualistic worldview that denigrates the physical body as inconsequential and insignificant – a worldview that alienates people from their own bodies.
Consider a recent case in the Fourth Circuit, in which a girl who identified as a boy named G.G. demanded the right to use the boys’ restroom. According to the majority opinion, “G.G.’s birth-assigned sex, or so-called ‘biological sex,’ is female, but G.G.’s gender identity is male.”
Her “so-called ‘biological sex’” – in sneer quotes? This is a judge writing a formal ruling for a federal court, and he treats the very existence of biological sex with suspicion and disdain. Apparently he thinks the girl’s physiology, anatomy, chromosomes, and DNA are less real or knowable than her subjective feelings about her gender.
The Lie of Liberation
Is this fragmented view of sexuality actually liberating? Many who have tried it say no. Jonah Mix, who writes for “Gender Detective,” spent years immersed in queer theory, wearing makeup and nail polish: “It was in those queer circles that I first heard the common admonition to never define a person by their body.”
Eventually, however, he realized the promise of liberation was a lie. To discover whether you “identify” as a man, you must define manhood. If you do not define yourself by your biological sex, then you must define yourself by your actions. Do you act stereotypically masculine? Then you are a man. Do you behave in ways that are stereotypically feminine? You must be a woman. Queer theory actually reinforces gender stereotypes.
By contrast, if you base your identity on your physical anatomy, you can engage in a range of diverse behaviors without threatening your identity as a man. Mix writes, “When we are defined by our bodies, the whole width of human experience remains open. ... There is freedom in the body.”
On a trans website a commenter named Trish wrote, “As a little girl, I enjoyed both ballet lessons and playing in the mud. ... I liked miniskirts and wanted to be an astronaut when I grew up. It looks to me like the trans movement is fighting very hard to force everyone to choose whether to live in the blue box or the pink box, and no playing mix-and-match. To me this is the opposite of freedom.”
Contrary to what progressives say, there is greater diversity when we anchor our gender identity in the objective, scientifically knowable reality of our biology as male or female.
In culture war rhetoric, the existence of intersex people (hermaphrodites) is often used to disrupt the male/female binary. But intersex conditions are a matter of biology, not gender identity. A report filed to the European Commission in 2011 says, “Intersex people differ from trans people as their status is not gender related but instead relates to their biological makeup (genetic, hormonal and physical features).”
Denigrating the Body
Policies that impose transgender ideology on children as early as kindergarten are teaching them to denigrate their own bodies – to see their biological sex as having no relevance to who they are as whole persons. Bathroom policies are teaching them that their male and female parts are not worthy of privacy and safety.
We would do well to retrieve the ancient wisdom that nature is teleological, just as people have long recognized. A teleological worldview leads to a positive view of the body; it acknowledges the purpose and dignity in being male and female; it leads to harmony between biological identity and gender identity.
And it gives a basis for welcoming common-sense protections for boys and girls as they mature into men and women – which should be one of the self-evident norms of the adults who run our governments, schools and corporations.
I know that this is an issue near and dear to many people. Personally, my wife and I have each been on this earth for several decades have never seen a “transgender person” using a public restroom. And when my dad and mom went off on this the other day; they both had to admit that they had never seen such a thing also. This is a distraction from the real crap that is going on.
Pedophile rights are next.
They’re BORN that way, you know.
There are many professionals, the sacred SCIENTISTS of the progressives, who have determined that no harm comes to children who have sex with adults.
What, you’re anti-SCIENCE? Off to the reeducation camp with YOU.
No facts don’t matter to liberals.
Facts don’t matter. The liberals have told us that gender identity is all about how you feel. They tell us gender is between the ears and has nothing to do with what is found between the legs.
That’s what they say. So based on that we are told to ignore physiological and chromosomal differences between the sexes.
ThinkProgress “LGBT” writer: Men can have babies and menstruate. (he said this, no joke).
If you say men cannot have babies and cannot menstruate you are a intolerant hater.
If you castrate a bull, you get a steer, not a heifer.
What is so difficult with that fact?
Bruce Gender is just a guy with a boob job, a transvestite.
Is he gets clipped he’s a gelding, steer, wether, or eunuch. Still not a female.
exactly. this is all setting the table for the pedophile assault that is next. if people won’t stand up to men in girls bathrooms then pedophilia normalization is next. we are at the end times imo
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The same idiot parents who currently embrace the “transgender” notions of their minor children will probably also embrace any legalized pedophilia (may that never happen, please Lord) that affects their kids. The world has gone mad.
“Distraction”?
Have you noticed the absence of any media coverage as Captain Zero brings 200,000 new “refugees” to America this summer?
NY Times/CBS did a poll that asked folks if they agreed with this insanity. They supposedly have a breakdown on it that includes what men think about it, and what women think about it but haven’t released the actual %s. I would love to know what % of women don’t think this is a big deal. This problem will be resolved or accepted based on what women think about men using their bathrooms.
Freegards
Have you noticed the absence of any media coverage as Captain Zero brings 200,000 new “refugees” to America this summer?
That is exactly the type of thing I am talking about, while people are all in a tizzy over something that almost no one has ever even seen in real life... huge amounts of real crap are being slipped under the wire.
A couple weeks ago someone told me that “transgender” people are using the “wrong” bathrooms all of the time its just that no one notices. If that actually were the case, which I kind of doubt, who cares anyway. This is just being put out there to keep people from noticing things like North Korean nukes, Iranian missiles and 200,000 Muslim “refugees” being slipped in the country.
I will tell you that we live in an area with a lot of middle eastern people who don't bother to learn English, who make themselves serious PIAs regardless of whether they support terrorists or not. The fact that my tax dollars are supporting this nonsense makes me very angry. The other day a middle easterner who couldn't speak English was trying to cash a $4000 government check in front of me in a checker's line at the grocery store. He got all bent out of shape when the clerk couldn't do it. So they took him head of everyone who had been waiting at customer service and gave him the money.
In the world of totalitarian aspirations there are no biological facts or any other sorts of facts. Facts are what the Leader or the Collective says they are and only for so long as it is decreed and only pertaining to whoever and whatever which is all determined by the interest of the State.
“They’re BORN that way, you know.”
Why do they have to be born that way? As long as they self-identify as one?
Who cares? Who cares if biological males are granted access to women's shower rooms? You have no problem with that? Seriously??
And don't pretend it isn't happening. Google it.
The ultra-liberal Charlotte Observer newspaper just came out with an editorial that basically said that girls just need to "get over" undressing and showering next to biological males. It's just (so they claim) the next logical step of the sexual revolution, following after gay marriage.
You have no problem with that?
No longer accepted science
You have no problem with that?
Google it? Is that how you live your life? Checking with the leftists at Google to see if something you have never seen actually exists in the real world? That is pathetic if you ask me. So just one question... have you ever seen a transgender person in a public restroom YOURSELF? And if you did see a transgender person in a public restroom that was making other people uncomfortable were you to bashful to confront the person? Because I can tell you that I am old enough and my wife is old enough that if we saw someone in a restroom that was making other people uncomfortable we would either confront them ourselves or report them to the staff.
If a tree falls in the forest and no one sees it or hears it fall, should we still make a law that says its illegal for trees to fall in the forest? This is a nonissue that is being used solely for the purpose of distracting people from things that actually matter.
Sorry those were the other persons words and I forgot to italicize.
Why limit the question to “biological” facts?
The question should be - do facts no longer matter? Does reality no longer matter.
Postmodernism which is the all the rage in colleges and the source of this insanity says NO.
Why do you think the “no Labels”/PC crowd has gone to such lengths to substitute “gender” for “sex?” Because when you’ve corrupted the language and are using the term “gender” to mean “sex,” than all bets are off.
English-only monoglots are the only ones who fall for this trap, BTW, because English is the only major language that uses natural gender exclusively.
Gender is a grammatical distinction. Sex is a biological distinction. In most other languages, it is self-evident that sex and gender are unrelated.
In English, “potato” is of neutral gender because potatoes have no sex organs. But in German, the word is of feminine gender.
In Spanish, the word for “shirt,” a man’s garment, is feminine. The word for “dress,” a woman’s garment, is masculine. And in French, the medical term for a man’s wedding tackle is feminine, while the medical term for a woman’s lady-bits is masculine.
But by accepting the introduction of terms such as “trans-gender,” you’ve fallen for their ruse.
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