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Trans activists: Trans women should not be required to suppress testosterone to play on women's teams

That doesn't make a case. Map that to a sexually differentiated brain structure. You need to actually do that.

Yes it does make the case and no I don't need to map it to whatever you mean by "brain structures". If (as is the case) there is evidence of a testosterone effect in the brain that varies by gender, which appears to affect, for example, financial risk aversion differently by gender, then that is already evidence of a relevant brain difference. Ditto for example other chemicals, such as oxytocin. How would it not be? You don't think brain chemicals affect thinking and behaviour?

That isn't the point of contention.

If you believe A, why don't you believe B? In that phrasing, A should have some bearing on B or else the question makes little sense.

A, in our scenario, is not merely 'differences in brain activity exist'. A is specifically about sex-differentiated neurological structures. So yes, you do have to map it back to that or else you are changing the question entirely.
 
Not in itself. That's why specific research was conducted in this area. It's not as conclusive as we may like, but there is some evidence indicating there is a connection.

Quick question (regarding the OP topic): if it was not at least partly differences (of whatever sort) in the brain, what else (what ‘nothing to do with the brain’) could it be instead?

Bit of an aside, perhaps, but I get the feeling that you view all of our bodies as being fully controlled by our brains. I think that may not be correct. For example, there are a lot of functions governed by the adrenal gland, which is located on the kidneys. There are a lot of immune responses that are triggered by different lymph nodes, and don't really involve the brain at all. The majority of hunger and thirst are controlled by the pancreas and other abdominal organs that I forget, not by the brain.
 
To me, the question of whether someone should get into women's refuges, compete in a race with women or use women's changing rooms, are all slightly separate from the above, even if it were true that it was a woman (as in a person with a woman's brain) trapped in a man's body (by which I mean the rest of the body since the brain is a body part) and I would not generally be in favour of those things, even in that hypothetical case.
I'm not supportive of a blanket allowance, but I am supportive of a case-by-case decision. Some transwomen really do need a safe space to take refuge from abusers, and to the extent that the other women are comfortable with her being there, I have no objection to her staying at a refuge for women. Hell, even when it comes to prisons, there's some reasonable range of acceptability, depending on the individuals's history and behavior, and potentially whether or not the person has surgically transitioned or not. Transwomen in men's prisons are at a very high risk of rape and abuse, which I think should be addressed. Complete isolation from everyone seems harsh and cruel. So again, case by case on how to handle it. Even when it comes to sports, I think there's some reasonable guidelines around testosterone levels that can be put in place that would alleviate a lot of the concern... even if it can't completely remove the inherent advantages of someone who went through puberty as a male. At least it's recognition that physical differences do exist.

I'm doing this part first because it's easier, as follows: I think we agree. :)

Inorite? It's a mess in here.


I don't think it's role play or just learned behavior.

Aaargh. This is a prickly topic. I don't want to offend anyone, let alone krypton idodide sulfur, because KIS seems cool. And I 100% support her in doing everything she can to lead a happy and healthy life as long as it doesn't harm anyone else. And generally, transition and gender expression don't hurt anyone. There's only a few limited areas where there's some conflict. So I really don't want to offend or inadvertently insult anyone.

I don't think it's role play or learned behavior. I don't think transgender people are making it up. I also don't think that a schizophrenic who firmly and truly believes that they are an angel is playing a role or that it is learned behavior. It's not made up in the way that we generally use the phrase.

I completely accept that a transperson believes themselves to be a gender that is different from their body. I completely accept that as a true representation of how they feel, as well as the effect that such a misalignment has on their mental well-being.

But I'm not convinced that the belief dictates reality. A transwoman is a transwoman - and more power to her. She's got my support in living her life as a woman, to the greatest extent she can. A transwoman isn't, however, female... and I rather disagree with altering the meaning of "woman" to such a drastic extent that it erases the female experience and replaces it with "how I feel".

For this part, I think we already pretty much agree but for some odd reason can't get onto the same page.

So first, I mostly agree.

I would add one thing. I'm not saying that in my view a trans woman is necessarily a woman. She may be a female by gender, in a male body.

Does that clear anything up?

As to whether she's 'really' female, she really, actually is, imo, in gender terms.

Now you can go back to the second part, which I did first, above, and we can agree on the implications of that, as we see it.

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Sidenote: We are all having trouble with words. When you said, "A transwoman isn't, however, female... and I rather disagree with altering the meaning of "woman" to such a drastic extent.." you switched from female to woman as if they were identical. I do it too. Perhaps they are and perhaps they aren't. I'm not sure.
 
to expand:

And I would say present some manner of evidence or a coherent line of reasoning. You can't just collect an assorted set of premises and sloppily connect dots that may not be connected.

P1: Sexualized differences in brains exist.
P2: Brains account for behaviour.
P3: Behaviour is a variable in pay.
P4: There is (or may be for the doubters) a gender pay gap.
Therefore: Brain differences account at least partially for the pay gap.

Then I think you should read more widely before forming an opinion one way or the other.

Women are generally more financially risk averse. They are also less likely to push for a pay rise. Just two right off the top of my head and without even going looking for studies.

I'm going to quibble here, because there's a lot of chicken and egg involved.

We may observe that women are more risk averse (it's not limited to finances, by the way). And we might assume that risk aversion affects willingness to take chances in asking for a raise or a promotion, which is a very reasonable assumption that makes sense.

But... are women more risk averse because their brains are wired that way by nature? Or are women more risk averse because girls are taught that they shouldn't take chances? Or is it even more complex? Are women perceived to be risk averse, because society has a gender expectation of women being risk averse, and because women who take risks are subconsciously punished for taking chances, and end up with a negative feedback loop when they act on their innate proclivity toward risk-taking and receive a negative response?

Consider the case with mathematics. For a long time, people in general (both men and women) believed that men were just naturally better at math than women, and that an affinity for math was an inherent sex-based attribute. When enough women excelled in math to question that view, we realized there was a lot of "teaching" in place that girls weren't good at math. Cue Barbie with "Math is hard". Cue all of society steering girls into perception and emotion based interests and pastimes. Now, we're aware that there isn't any measurable innate ability for math that is sex-linked. And we're aware that there's a lot of steerage and teaching in society, and we're trying to overcome it. But there's still a subconscious negative reinforcement in place, where women with a strong interest in math are often viewed as being "unfeminine" or as "an exception". If you doubt this, consider Rachel Riley. She's a brilliant woman, and a mathematician. And the general reaction of many people is "Oh wow, she's a mathematician?" Because she's also pretty and funny and feminine. And because our internal socially-driven expectation is that pretty feminine women aren't into math, only isolated weirdo women are into math.
 
Bit of an aside, perhaps, but I get the feeling that you view all of our bodies as being fully controlled by our brains. .

Can I just stop you there? No, I definitely don't, but am curious as to why you thought I might. :)

In fact I was just reading about the enteric nervous system last night, and I believe it is referred to as being our 'second brain in our gut'.
 
I haven't missed the point. I am saying it is not an issue of consistency. It's about whether certain relationships are valid or evidenced. A belief that there is some degree of sexual differentiation in brains doesn't necessitate or even rationally imply some relationship to a gender pay gap. To make that connection, more facts have to be established. Asserting very generalized statements on brains (on the verge of truisms) doesn't make any obvious argument regarding the limited sexually differentiated structures we do know about let alone a complex social dynamic such as the gender pay gap.

I'll pile on with this, with an analogy (yes, please feel free to call me names here, but I really like analogies and I find them helpful).

Let's assume for the argument that definitive and well documented brain difference between males and females exists, in which males strongly like the flavor of mustard and dislike the flavor of licorice, and where females strongly dislike mustard and strongly like licorice.

What possible scenario, outside of 'Jelly Belly Head Tasting Expert', would that definitive sex-differentiated brain structure contribute to a pay gap on the basis of gender?
 
Then I think you should read more widely before forming an opinion one way or the other.

Women are generally more financially risk averse. They are also less likely to push for a pay rise. Just two right off the top of my head and without even going looking for studies.

I'm going to quibble here, because there's a lot of chicken and egg involved.

We may observe that women are more risk averse (it's not limited to finances, by the way). And we might assume that risk aversion affects willingness to take chances in asking for a raise or a promotion, which is a very reasonable assumption that makes sense.

But... are women more risk averse because their brains are wired that way by nature? Or are women more risk averse because girls are taught that they shouldn't take chances? Or is it even more complex? Are women perceived to be risk averse, because society has a gender expectation of women being risk averse, and because women who take risks are subconsciously punished for taking chances, and end up with a negative feedback loop when they act on their innate proclivity toward risk-taking and receive a negative response?

Consider the case with mathematics. For a long time, people in general (both men and women) believed that men were just naturally better at math than women, and that an affinity for math was an inherent sex-based attribute. When enough women excelled in math to question that view, we realized there was a lot of "teaching" in place that girls weren't good at math. Cue Barbie with "Math is hard". Cue all of society steering girls into perception and emotion based interests and pastimes. Now, we're aware that there isn't any measurable innate ability for math that is sex-linked. And we're aware that there's a lot of steerage and teaching in society, and we're trying to overcome it. But there's still a subconscious negative reinforcement in place, where women with a strong interest in math are often viewed as being "unfeminine" or as "an exception". If you doubt this, consider Rachel Riley. She's a brilliant woman, and a mathematician. And the general reaction of many people is "Oh wow, she's a mathematician?" Because she's also pretty and funny and feminine. And because our internal socially-driven expectation is that pretty feminine women aren't into math, only isolated weirdo women are into math.

I don't necessarily want to get into it, but it would be my guess that bodily expressions of things like testosterone and oxytocin, for example, are not fully learned. Do you think otherwise? I think that would be an unusual view and I'm not sure it's supported by evidence.

My guess is that such things are often a complicated and dynamic mix of nature and nurture.
 
A is specifically about sex-differentiated neurological structures. So yes, you do have to map it back to that or else you are changing the question entirely.

No. It may have been limited to 'neurological structures' (whatever you mean by that, as I'm not sure) for you, but it isn't and wasn't for me, and hasn't been throughout the thread, or for a number of other posters who have made similar points, and it makes no sense to arbitrarily limit it to that, imo. So imo I am not changing the question, you are putting artificial parameters on 'brain differences' (or 'brain states' as someone else put it) for no good reason that I can see.
 
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Aaargh. This is a prickly topic. I don't want to offend anyone, let alone krypton idodide sulfur, because KIS seems cool. And I 100% support her in doing everything she can to lead a happy and healthy life as long as it doesn't harm anyone else. And generally, transition and gender expression don't hurt anyone. There's only a few limited areas where there's some conflict. So I really don't want to offend or inadvertently insult anyone.

I wouldn't worry too much about it where I am concerned. My impression is that you are making arguments in good faith.
 
I'm doing this part first because it's easier, as follows: I think we agree. :)
Done!

For this part, I think we already pretty much agree but for some odd reason can't get onto the same page.

So first, I mostly agree.

I would add one thing. I'm not saying that in my view a trans woman is necessarily a woman. She may be a female by gender, in a male body.

Does that clear anything up?

As to whether she's 'really' female, she really, actually is, imo, in gender terms.
For the most part, yes, pretty much in agreement, and for the most part, yes gendered woman.

Sidenote: We are all having trouble with words. When you said, "A transwoman isn't, however, female... and I rather disagree with altering the meaning of "woman" to such a drastic extent.." you switched from female to woman as if they were identical. I do it too. Perhaps they are and perhaps they aren't. I'm not sure.
That was actually intentional. It really is meant to focus on the difference between sex and gender identity. A transwoman is not genetically or biologically female. But there has been a purpose-driven attempt to change the definition of "woman" over the last decade or so. For most of history, "woman" meant adult human female, and it encompassed the aspects of sex as well as the lived experience of female humans within society, including disadvantages, sexism, gender bias, and gender roles. It's been redefined to be representative of one's internal view of oneself as being "a woman". It makes it tautological as a trivial matter. "Woman" means "feeling like a woman" or "identifying as a woman". But beyond that, the redefinition of "woman" to focus exclusively on the identity aspect ends up negating and erasing both the sex-related aspects of being a female in society as well as the lived experience of it. It obfuscates the existing and very pernicious barriers that female humans face. By extending the definition of "woman" to be any person who feels themselves to be a woman, regardless of whether they have (or even can experience) the very real biological aspects of femaleness, and regardless of whether they have been subjected to a lifetime of gender bias and role-based expectations creating boundaries on their behavior and their success and their liberty, it effectively strips cis-women of their identity as women within society.

It creates a social narrative wherein the differential treatment foisted upon us by society at large is framed to be unimportant and not meaningful... or to not exist at all. In many cases, it creates a message (whether intentional or not) that because transwomen are defined as women, and because their struggles are severe and more dramatic (which they are, absolutely), then the needs of that subset of women are more important. The desires of that subset of women get prioritized as the fight that must be fought first, because it's more extreme. The challenges and barriers faced by females in our society end up being expected to take a back seat.
 
A is specifically about sex-differentiated neurological structures. So yes, you do have to map it back to that or else you are changing the question entirely.

No. It may have been limited to 'neurological structures' (whatever you mean by that) for you, but it isn't and wasn't for me, and hasn't been throughout the thread, or for a number of other posters who have made similar points, and it makes no sense to arbitrarily limit it to that, imo. So imo I am not changing the question, you are putting artificial parameters on 'brain differences' (or 'brain states' as someone else put it) for no good reason that I can see.

Neurological structures is plain English. The form and arrangement of our neurological parts.

It was quite literally what the conversation was about when the question was asked. There is no 'for you' or 'for me'.



So, you now apparently believe that men and women have different brains? So, you accept that the 'gender gap' in earned income is due to the inherent differences in the brains of men and women? Or, are wages among the list of things completely unaffected by men's brains and women's brains?

I'm asking you, if you actually believe that men's and women's brains to be systematically different, why do you not also believe this could be a cause, or partial cause, of the gender pay gap?
 
Bit of an aside, perhaps, but I get the feeling that you view all of our bodies as being fully controlled by our brains. .

Can I just stop you there? No, I definitely don't, but am curious as to why you thought I might. :)

In fact I was just reading about the enteric nervous system last night, and I believe it is referred to as being our 'second brain in our gut'.

It is an impression driven by you having circled back around to the assumption that the distinguishing attribute of a transgender person must be an element of neurological function. Happy to be wrong :)
 
Then I think you should read more widely before forming an opinion one way or the other.

Women are generally more financially risk averse. They are also less likely to push for a pay rise. Just two right off the top of my head and without even going looking for studies.

I'm going to quibble here, because there's a lot of chicken and egg involved.

We may observe that women are more risk averse (it's not limited to finances, by the way). And we might assume that risk aversion affects willingness to take chances in asking for a raise or a promotion, which is a very reasonable assumption that makes sense.

But... are women more risk averse because their brains are wired that way by nature? Or are women more risk averse because girls are taught that they shouldn't take chances? Or is it even more complex? Are women perceived to be risk averse, because society has a gender expectation of women being risk averse, and because women who take risks are subconsciously punished for taking chances, and end up with a negative feedback loop when they act on their innate proclivity toward risk-taking and receive a negative response?

Consider the case with mathematics. For a long time, people in general (both men and women) believed that men were just naturally better at math than women, and that an affinity for math was an inherent sex-based attribute. When enough women excelled in math to question that view, we realized there was a lot of "teaching" in place that girls weren't good at math. Cue Barbie with "Math is hard". Cue all of society steering girls into perception and emotion based interests and pastimes. Now, we're aware that there isn't any measurable innate ability for math that is sex-linked. And we're aware that there's a lot of steerage and teaching in society, and we're trying to overcome it. But there's still a subconscious negative reinforcement in place, where women with a strong interest in math are often viewed as being "unfeminine" or as "an exception". If you doubt this, consider Rachel Riley. She's a brilliant woman, and a mathematician. And the general reaction of many people is "Oh wow, she's a mathematician?" Because she's also pretty and funny and feminine. And because our internal socially-driven expectation is that pretty feminine women aren't into math, only isolated weirdo women are into math.

I don't necessarily want to get into it, but it would be my guess that bodily expressions of things like testosterone and oxytocin, for example, are not fully learned. Do you think otherwise? I think that would be an unusual view and I'm not sure it's supported by evidence.

My guess is that such things are often a complicated and dynamic mix of nature and nurture.

I don't think that the expression of hormones are learned ;). The question is whether those hormones have a material causal effect on behavior in a way that sufficiently explains difference in the lived experience of males versus females that can be clearly attributed to nature, and not to nurture.

For example... testosterone is known to increase aggressiveness. There are sound evolutionary hypotheses on why this evolved, and I don't have any reason to dismiss those hypotheses. I do, however, question whether or not aggressiveness being treated by our society as a positive attribute in business is a "natural" outcome of testosterone, and whether or not that status-quo is reasonable to continue and support. On the other side of things, estrogen will absolutely make a person more likely to cry when they feel strong emotions. But is that hormonally-driven difference sufficient reason to treat women differently in terms of employment, career path, or leadership capability?
 
But I'm not imagining the sex-based differences that men and women already have. There's a very large difference in the interests of men and women, and of course interests are solely determined by your brain state.

This is a lot more complicated than you seem to imply here. In particular, it conflates "current brain state" with "innate brain structure". Current brain state includes the effect of conditioning and socialization - what we have been taught that girls should be interested in and what we have been taught that boys should be interested in. Innate brain structure, on the other hand, would imply that the brain of a female is different from the brain of a male from a fetal stage.

That a pay gap exists isn't the question - it's a question of the cause. Does it exist because male and female brains have innate natural differences in behavior and tendencies? Or does it exist because men and women have been conditioned to express different interests and to exhibit different behaviors?

That question of nature versus nurture is one of the sticking points with respect to the brain research that Toni has presented. Differences can be observed (although in only small areas of the brain, and with small measurable differences). But that doesn't tell us whether those differences are an inherent attribute of sex, or whether they're a learned behavior that expresses via plasticity.

You're doing it too, and have been throughout. Where does thing requirement for something to be 'innate' (whatever that is) come into it? It doesn't, surely?

Ditto plasticity. Etc.

Hypothetically (I am NOT saying this is the case) having super-duper amounts of a certain chemical (something like...oxytocin) in your brain could make you have at least a slightly different mindset and thoughts and behaviours than if (again I'm going too far to make a point) all the oxytocin was swopped for something else (eg.....something like testosterone).

Personally, I see the brain as a very dynamic system indeed. I would feel fairly confident that if there are any innate or 'fixed' structures, the boundary between them and the 'moving parts' or the 'not fixed parts' is probably quite blurry. So I don't see the validity of limiting ourselves to one of them.
 
A is specifically about sex-differentiated neurological structures. So yes, you do have to map it back to that or else you are changing the question entirely.

No. It may have been limited to 'neurological structures' (whatever you mean by that, as I'm not sure) for you, but it isn't and wasn't for me, and hasn't been throughout the thread, or for a number of other posters who have made similar points, and it makes no sense to arbitrarily limit it to that, imo. So imo I am not changing the question, you are putting artificial parameters on 'brain differences' (or 'brain states' as someone else put it) for no good reason that I can see.

Mmm... not sure here. If the argument being made is that there's an inherent quality of mind that determines gender, then I think you do actually have to be able to demonstrate that there's a difference in underlying structure or functionality that cannot be attributed to environmental factors acting on brain plasticity.

If an argument is being made that A is a cause of B, then you do have to demonstrate that A is causal as opposed to correlational.
 
Aaargh. This is a prickly topic. I don't want to offend anyone, let alone krypton idodide sulfur, because KIS seems cool. And I 100% support her in doing everything she can to lead a happy and healthy life as long as it doesn't harm anyone else. And generally, transition and gender expression don't hurt anyone. There's only a few limited areas where there's some conflict. So I really don't want to offend or inadvertently insult anyone.

I wouldn't worry too much about it where I am concerned. My impression is that you are making arguments in good faith.

Thank you :) If I get out of line, please let me know. I really do want to understand, but I also have some internal conflicts. My niece recently came out as transgender and began HRT, so it's gained a new level of importance in my life to be able to fit this into my view of the world in a way that makes sense.
 
I don't necessarily want to get into it, but it would be my guess that bodily expressions of things like testosterone and oxytocin, for example, are not fully learned. Do you think otherwise? I think that would be an unusual view and I'm not sure it's supported by evidence.

My guess is that such things are often a complicated and dynamic mix of nature and nurture.

I don't think that the expression of hormones are learned ;). The question is whether those hormones have a material causal effect on behavior in a way that sufficiently explains difference in the lived experience of males versus females that can be clearly attributed to nature, and not to nurture.

For example... testosterone is known to increase aggressiveness. There are sound evolutionary hypotheses on why this evolved, and I don't have any reason to dismiss those hypotheses. I do, however, question whether or not aggressiveness being treated by our society as a positive attribute in business is a "natural" outcome of testosterone, and whether or not that status-quo is reasonable to continue and support. On the other side of things, estrogen will absolutely make a person more likely to cry when they feel strong emotions. But is that hormonally-driven difference sufficient reason to treat women differently in terms of employment, career path, or leadership capability?

Obviously. But you are going beyond the point at hand. Metaphor's question. You are answering yes (as I think any reasonable person should). Because even metaphor did not say such things 'sufficiently explains differences' he only asked if they had a partial effect.

Clearly it gets a LOT more complicated after that.
 
A is specifically about sex-differentiated neurological structures. So yes, you do have to map it back to that or else you are changing the question entirely.

No. It may have been limited to 'neurological structures' (whatever you mean by that, as I'm not sure) for you, but it isn't and wasn't for me, and hasn't been throughout the thread, or for a number of other posters who have made similar points, and it makes no sense to arbitrarily limit it to that, imo. So imo I am not changing the question, you are putting artificial parameters on 'brain differences' (or 'brain states' as someone else put it) for no good reason that I can see.

Mmm... not sure here. If the argument being made is that there's an inherent quality of mind that determines gender, then I think you do actually have to be able to demonstrate that there's a difference in underlying structure or functionality that cannot be attributed to environmental factors acting on brain plasticity.

If an argument is being made that A is a cause of B, then you do have to demonstrate that A is causal as opposed to correlational.

I did not, and neither did several others, as far as I can recall, ever argue that 'neurological structures' (whatever they are) are causal. It's that simple.

Some people appear to have been either fixated on them (whatever they are) or arbitrarily limiting themselves to them, that's all. And quite honestly, I personally am continuously baffled, because I think I cited things like brain chemicals very near the start of my posting in the thread, which I think was very near the start of the thread itself.
 
Example: I take SSRIs for my depression. As you probably know, these are intended (it's in the name) to selectively inhibit the reuptake (back into the presynaptic cell) of serotonin molecules between the synapses of (in the synaptic cleft between) my neurons, so as to keep them circulating in my brain (in the cleft to be precise), so that more of them bond to certain receptors on the other side of the synapse (called postsynaptic cells). Whether that's what actually happens or is what modifies my mood, I don't know but I'm setting that aside.

Now, if we are asking "is my depression a brain condition", we would not restrict ourselves to the 'neurological structures' (whatever they are meant to be) and discount the serotonin molecules, would we?
 
You're doing it too, and have been throughout. Where does thing requirement for something to be 'innate' (whatever that is) come into it? It doesn't, surely?

It comes into it in the broader concept of social justice and acceptance, as well as medical treatment.

Let's step a bit sideways, knowing that this is purposefully leaning toward an absurd example. But I think it might help illustrate why nature versus nurture comes into this discussion.

Let's talk about race. Specifically about black and white Americans. There's a measurable difference in outcomes on the basis of race in the US. And there's a substantial amount of evidence for differences in the lived experience within society of black people compared to white people. There are significant differences in how people are treated, how they are perceived to be likely to act, and what is expected of them on the basis of skin color. It's a thing, and nobody thinks it's not a thing.

Historically, people believed that the differences were natural. That black people were just by nature, inferior. They were believed to be less intelligent, less capable, and more aggressive and violent. That belief presents a very real social barrier to black people in the US. But there hasn't been any solid evidence to support the argument that there is an inherent, innate, natural difference between black people and white people that sufficiently explains the observed differences in experience and outcomes.

Now, however, there's been an upsurge in people who identify as transracial. They are white people (sometimes mixed people) who identify as black. There are also some black (or mixed) people who identify as white. For the most part, it doesn't make any difference, nobody cares what race you identify as. Dress however you want, hang out with whoever you want, etc. Surround yourself with people that you resonate with and feel comfortable with. But, because there has been such a well-documented history of disparity on the basis of race, there are also some social systems in place that are aimed at addressing that issue and providing a more equitable experience to black people. And to the extent that a person may claim they are transblack, there is an expectation that they would have access to scholarships and educational grants set up for black students. There's an expectation that they would fulfill a company's affirmative action requirements for diversity by being classified as black. For people who are mixed, or who are "dark enough", there's a fair bit of acceptance, and not a lot of push-back. For people who look like a comic-book version of a Swede, however, there's a bit more skepticism.

Now, into this hot-bed of mixed objectives and potential conflicts of objectives... someone comes along and says that there are differences in the brains of black people and white people, and that transracial people's brains are closer, in some few aspects, to the brains of the race their identify with than to the race they were assigned at birth.

Because of the impact of this on black people as well as transracial people, the question of causality does become fairly important. If there is an innate root cause - something in the brain of that transracial person that definitively supports their identity as black, then that ends up meaning that there's a real and material difference in the brains of black people compared to white people that is not the result of their lived experience and conditioning. There's also, however, a whole lot of risk that such differences, no matter how immaterial to outcomes, could be used to justify and rationalize the continuance of disparate treatment on the basis of race. On the other hand, if those differences are not innate, but are the result of external exposures and brain plasiticity, then that jeopardizes the strides that transracial people are making toward their own recognition and acceptance.

The question of nature or nurture (or both and to what extent), then, ends up being a fairly important question for both black people and for transracial people... and there's opportunity for antagonists to abuse that information on either side.

For most reasonable and well-intentioned people, it's not a big deal one way or the other, because we treat people with respect and dignity regardless of their race or gender or what color socks they wear. We care about behavior and actions, and we're simply not judgy about people's personal lives. But not everyone is a reasonable well-intentioned person, and even if it's a relatively small number of people, misogynists do actually exist. And sadly, there also exit a very few transgender people who are bad actors across the board. No answer is going to make everyone happy, every solution has the potential to dislocate someone, and every solution opens the door to some abusers of that solution.
 
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