A brief note on why all this matters. Independently of whether the two-type taxonomy is in fact taxonic, there are obvious political incentives to dismiss the explanatory value of autogynephilia, because it could be construed as invalidating trans women. I get that.
-But here's the thing: you _can't_ mislead the general public without thereby also misleading the next generation of trans-spectrum people. So when a mildly gender-dysphoric boy spends _ten years_ assuming that his gender problems can't possibly be in the same taxon as actual trans women, because the autogynephilia tag seems to fit him perfectly and everyone seems to think that "Blanchard-Bailey theory of autogynephilia" is "clearly untrue", he might feel a _little bit betrayed_ when it turns out that it's _not_ clearly untrue and that the transgender community at large has been systematically lying to him, or, worse, is so systematically delusional that they might as well have been lying. In fact, he might be so upset as to be motivated to start an entire pseudonymous blog dedicated to dismantling your shitty epistemology!
+But here's the thing: you _can't_ mislead the general public without thereby also misleading the next generation of trans-spectrum people. So when a mildly gender-dysphoric boy spends _ten years_ assuming that his gender problems can't possibly be in the same taxon as actual trans women, because the autogynephilia tag seems to fit him perfectly and everyone seems to think that the "Blanchard-Bailey theory of autogynephilia" is "clearly untrue", he might feel a _little bit betrayed_ when it turns out that it's _not_ clearly untrue and that the transgender community at large has been systematically lying to him, or, worse, is so systematically delusional that they might as well have been lying. In fact, he might be so upset as to be motivated to start an entire pseudonymous blog dedicated to dismantling your shitty epistemology!
<p>—KT Tunstall, "Suddenly I See"</p>
</blockquote>
-_Seemingly_ hazardous but actually careful and humane thoughts about gender, social science, and epistemology, by a man who aspires to something more. Featuring a special focus on the phenomenon of _autogynephilia_ ("love of oneself as a woman") in males, both in its own right and as one of at least two (and probably only two) etiologies for MtF transsexuality; and the project of reformulating queer-theoretic and liberal-feminist goals for implementation in a universe where evolution actually happened, introspection doesn't work, and Bayesian reasoning continues to work even when some of the hypotheses are about people.
+_Seemingly_ hazardous but actually careful and humane thoughts about gender, social science, and epistemology, by a man who aspires to something more. Featuring a special focus on the phenomenon of _autogynephilia_ ("love of oneself as a woman") in males, both in its own right and as one of at least two (and possibly only two) distinct etiologies for MtF transsexuality; and the project of reformulating liberal-feminist and queer-theoretic goals for a universe where evolution actually happened, introspection doesn't work, and Bayesian reasoning continues to work even when some of the hypotheses are about people.
I know that my opsec is probably terrible and that [pseudonyms don't work](http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2010/08/04/the-information-that-is-needed-to-identify-you-33-bits/), but please don't doxx me. Thanks! <span style="color: #E00040;">♥♥</span>
projects / Ultimately_Untrue_Thought.git / commitdiff