Damn, all I can say is wow, what an incredible piece of writing! Haters and transphobes like Highsmith need to be taken down and shown as the horrible bigots they truly are! You absolutely kicked their asses with every word you wrote, and I hope your words will really make people stop and think before they decide to jump on the bandwagon with all the other idiots who love to bash trans people. I think you bashed them this time! Excellent!
also: i have known since i was small (around 5?) that i wasn’t a boy or a girl. i’ve been wearing men’s clothes my entire teenage/adult life and finally had a name for it in “genderqueer”.
also also: i adore the subtle “misgendering” of highsmith using “their”. 🤣🤣🤣
I’m just not sure of the parallel you’re evoking. If gender-affirming care is inappropriate because trans identities don’t exist, are you also asserting that lobotomy is inappropriate because mental illness doesn’t exist?
I want to learn more about how trans women's brains are more like cis women's than cis men's brains. (And visa versa for trans men). Do you have links to sources on that? Do we know how it happens...I remember reading something about it having to do with mis-matched bursts of sex hormones in utero. But I don't know if that's really true or where the research is. If you could start me in the right direction, I would appreciate it! 🙏🏼
You could also ask any trans person how they felt before and after their hormonal treatments. Hormones definitely influence our emotional selves and our personalities. Of course it follows that hormones that we are exposed to during critical in utero development will have even more profound effects on our developing brains. Check out books and articles by famous trans author and biologist Julia Serano.
This is exciting and fascinating emerging research! But keep in mind, it is emerging research, so nothing conclusive yet. When taken into context of the animal studies (mostly fish and mice) and the very compelling almost damning evidence we have from that, as well as all the other data and studies we have surrounding trans people, it does make for a very interesting topic to dive into and one that is, quite frankly, very compelling - but sadly, not conclusive (yet) for humans. Largely due to limitations surrounding sample sizes. Most of the compelling and very telling research requires, well, brains. Very thin deli sliced, like zombies want on their sub sandwiches.
Here is a good starting point video, plus I really like the Professors lecture style:
there are follow ups/other neat studies like this one, which I think is perhaps one of the more comprehensive studies that is pulling in the various aspects you are thinking of:
Just be warned that it is also discusses Blanchard's typology/theory, which is largely discredited, so don't give that aspect much weight - but the data and discoveries, as well as the conclusions are still valid in regards to brain morphology in trans people - and very compelling imho.
For a different take on brain structures and method (uses MRI and thus has a larger sample size), and also a bit more recent, there is the so called "mega study":
I think from this, you will be find yourself with a plethora of reading and some interesting directions to go. Let me know if you want more, or something different.
The only wet blanket to all this neat science is that we have some good theories, and they seem to hold weight - but they have not been validated yet. The largest shortcoming is sample size, as some of the most compelling research requires brain slices, so that is kind of hard to collect and test. Another is being able to quantify changes at different stages of development, also needing brains post mortem.
So we cannot say "we know trans people are born this way because trans brains prove it" nor can we say "this one area of the brain? This is how we can tell a person is/was trans". However, we can certainly say "There is evidence that trans people's brains share physical structures and characteristics that are more closely aligned to their gender identity." and "that for reasons we do not fully understand, trans people's brains develop differently in some ways that are more like their those of their gender identity." There is a systemic review in 2021 that essentially says the same thing, though that is a more broad systemic review whose scope also includes gay and straight people, and thus their conclusions are a bit less enthusiastic. That said, the data and analysis still bears out and supports these statements.
I think that is a fair and accurate set of statements to make. Keep in mind for as much reading as I do - I am not a behavioral neurobiologist person, nor a researcher in the field, so all the usual disclaimers apply, and I could be wrong. Please read this responsibly and guard against confirmation bias. Oh crap, I accidentally wrote a short paper and summary review. Sorry!
legit amazing. i started using this site a year back and stopped cause the main humour person was a giant transphobe and only just came back the past few months, stuff like this makes me real glad i came back. thank you for using your brain and your time for this.
You are welcome, and I am so happy that you found this to be legit amazing. I am glad to have read your comment, and I am happy you are here :)
It really does help and makes all the difference!
When I joined I was inundated with rather....not nice stuff. After some serious efforts to break through some echo chambers via comments (they just remove them) I decided to make this site to counter it instead. Then I started to meet and get to know some pretty awesome people on here.
Thanks for this! Your writing is consistently methodical and well-sourced. You are providing such accessible and compassionate resources for all of us who find ourselves in debate with those dedicated to perpwtuating Highsmith's brand of alarmist bigotry. I've bookmarked several of your articles as references.
Thanks for the kind words LC Sharkey! I am glad that this is useful for you, and that you find some of my articles helpful. Comments like these are really helpful and motivating, and are appreciated! I had an idea about a week ago to better address what you are pointing out here - and when I have some more firm details outlined, there will be an announcement soon. Thanks to you and everyone who participated and engaged (even if it was to simply like) made a big impact on me - I cannot thank you and everyone enough!
It is!! Your arguments and research are so sound and well-sourced! And I especially love that you refer to Kat with gender neutral pronouns. 🤣
I'm the mom of a beautiful, magical, talented trans daughter. This troll got to me and Substack didn't care.
Your patience in engaging with them was inspiring. Your approach to countering their arguments, flawless.
It doesn't matter if you can reach Kat through the cloud of bigotry surrounding them, you bring peace to everyone who reads your takedown because it's so demostrively TRUE, validating, and very, very important to the mental have of trans people and those who love them.
Always feel free to reach out to me via email on the about page, or via DM within substack. I will always respect one's privacy or anonymity, and defend it fiercely.
I am happy that you found the article helpful, I have a couple "Inconvenient Truths" type articles about various other articles and misconceptions surrounding trans people and issues. They are almost always written in response to some article or comment that I feel needs to be addressed. Not all of them are this comprehensive and in depth, and one or two might be too in depth. I hope these may also be helpful for you. If there is something specific you really want, please let me know!
![People with Inconvenient Truths about Transphobes [PITT]](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_80,h_80,c_fill,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep,g_auto/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F704ba0db-3e10-4112-9364-c2f224d0cfae_500x500.png)
![People with Inconvenient Truths about Transphobes [PITT]](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_36,h_36,c_fill,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep,g_auto/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F704ba0db-3e10-4112-9364-c2f224d0cfae_500x500.png)
Extremely well written!
Damn, all I can say is wow, what an incredible piece of writing! Haters and transphobes like Highsmith need to be taken down and shown as the horrible bigots they truly are! You absolutely kicked their asses with every word you wrote, and I hope your words will really make people stop and think before they decide to jump on the bandwagon with all the other idiots who love to bash trans people. I think you bashed them this time! Excellent!
Awww, thanks for this!
also: i have known since i was small (around 5?) that i wasn’t a boy or a girl. i’ve been wearing men’s clothes my entire teenage/adult life and finally had a name for it in “genderqueer”.
also also: i adore the subtle “misgendering” of highsmith using “their”. 🤣🤣🤣
Ah, you caught that did you? Since we can't be sure one way or the other, I decided to play it safe :)
did you get the “howdy internet people…” line from beau?
Yep, I sure did! :)
For what it’s worth, as someone who has done a lot of research on lobotomy, I don’t think she knows much about that either!
I’m just not sure of the parallel you’re evoking. If gender-affirming care is inappropriate because trans identities don’t exist, are you also asserting that lobotomy is inappropriate because mental illness doesn’t exist?
Thank you for asking what else we want to know!
I want to learn more about how trans women's brains are more like cis women's than cis men's brains. (And visa versa for trans men). Do you have links to sources on that? Do we know how it happens...I remember reading something about it having to do with mis-matched bursts of sex hormones in utero. But I don't know if that's really true or where the research is. If you could start me in the right direction, I would appreciate it! 🙏🏼
You could also ask any trans person how they felt before and after their hormonal treatments. Hormones definitely influence our emotional selves and our personalities. Of course it follows that hormones that we are exposed to during critical in utero development will have even more profound effects on our developing brains. Check out books and articles by famous trans author and biologist Julia Serano.
This is exciting and fascinating emerging research! But keep in mind, it is emerging research, so nothing conclusive yet. When taken into context of the animal studies (mostly fish and mice) and the very compelling almost damning evidence we have from that, as well as all the other data and studies we have surrounding trans people, it does make for a very interesting topic to dive into and one that is, quite frankly, very compelling - but sadly, not conclusive (yet) for humans. Largely due to limitations surrounding sample sizes. Most of the compelling and very telling research requires, well, brains. Very thin deli sliced, like zombies want on their sub sandwiches.
Here is a good starting point video, plus I really like the Professors lecture style:
https://youtu.be/8QScpDGqwsQ and this is the associate study in nature: https://www.nature.com/articles/378068a0
there are follow ups/other neat studies like this one, which I think is perhaps one of the more comprehensive studies that is pulling in the various aspects you are thinking of:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4987404/
Just be warned that it is also discusses Blanchard's typology/theory, which is largely discredited, so don't give that aspect much weight - but the data and discoveries, as well as the conclusions are still valid in regards to brain morphology in trans people - and very compelling imho.
For a different take on brain structures and method (uses MRI and thus has a larger sample size), and also a bit more recent, there is the so called "mega study":
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34030966/
Also with some very interesting findings.
I think from this, you will be find yourself with a plethora of reading and some interesting directions to go. Let me know if you want more, or something different.
The only wet blanket to all this neat science is that we have some good theories, and they seem to hold weight - but they have not been validated yet. The largest shortcoming is sample size, as some of the most compelling research requires brain slices, so that is kind of hard to collect and test. Another is being able to quantify changes at different stages of development, also needing brains post mortem.
So we cannot say "we know trans people are born this way because trans brains prove it" nor can we say "this one area of the brain? This is how we can tell a person is/was trans". However, we can certainly say "There is evidence that trans people's brains share physical structures and characteristics that are more closely aligned to their gender identity." and "that for reasons we do not fully understand, trans people's brains develop differently in some ways that are more like their those of their gender identity." There is a systemic review in 2021 that essentially says the same thing, though that is a more broad systemic review whose scope also includes gay and straight people, and thus their conclusions are a bit less enthusiastic. That said, the data and analysis still bears out and supports these statements.
I think that is a fair and accurate set of statements to make. Keep in mind for as much reading as I do - I am not a behavioral neurobiologist person, nor a researcher in the field, so all the usual disclaimers apply, and I could be wrong. Please read this responsibly and guard against confirmation bias. Oh crap, I accidentally wrote a short paper and summary review. Sorry!
ALL the receipts! Excellent work. I will boost this in my own newsletter. Thank you for the work you put into this.
Oh wow, thanks for the kind compliments! It means a lot to me, it really helps :)
And I am happy that I am able to help and give back <3
legit amazing. i started using this site a year back and stopped cause the main humour person was a giant transphobe and only just came back the past few months, stuff like this makes me real glad i came back. thank you for using your brain and your time for this.
You are welcome, and I am so happy that you found this to be legit amazing. I am glad to have read your comment, and I am happy you are here :)
It really does help and makes all the difference!
When I joined I was inundated with rather....not nice stuff. After some serious efforts to break through some echo chambers via comments (they just remove them) I decided to make this site to counter it instead. Then I started to meet and get to know some pretty awesome people on here.
Thanks for this! Your writing is consistently methodical and well-sourced. You are providing such accessible and compassionate resources for all of us who find ourselves in debate with those dedicated to perpwtuating Highsmith's brand of alarmist bigotry. I've bookmarked several of your articles as references.
Thanks for the kind words LC Sharkey! I am glad that this is useful for you, and that you find some of my articles helpful. Comments like these are really helpful and motivating, and are appreciated! I had an idea about a week ago to better address what you are pointing out here - and when I have some more firm details outlined, there will be an announcement soon. Thanks to you and everyone who participated and engaged (even if it was to simply like) made a big impact on me - I cannot thank you and everyone enough!
I am saving the link to this article and will be sharing OFTEN.
It's delicious from start to finish!
Thank you for taking on this troll and writing all of this down!!!
Thank you for the kind words and sincere compliment! I think that is the first time someone has called my writing delicious! I am so happy!
It is!! Your arguments and research are so sound and well-sourced! And I especially love that you refer to Kat with gender neutral pronouns. 🤣
I'm the mom of a beautiful, magical, talented trans daughter. This troll got to me and Substack didn't care.
Your patience in engaging with them was inspiring. Your approach to countering their arguments, flawless.
It doesn't matter if you can reach Kat through the cloud of bigotry surrounding them, you bring peace to everyone who reads your takedown because it's so demostrively TRUE, validating, and very, very important to the mental have of trans people and those who love them.
Thank you for what you do!! 🙏🏼
Way ahead of ya... She popped up in some comments my second or third day on substack. Immediately reported and blocked.
Oh, I can be a nasty little raptor when I need to be.
Always feel free to reach out to me via email on the about page, or via DM within substack. I will always respect one's privacy or anonymity, and defend it fiercely.
I am happy that you found the article helpful, I have a couple "Inconvenient Truths" type articles about various other articles and misconceptions surrounding trans people and issues. They are almost always written in response to some article or comment that I feel needs to be addressed. Not all of them are this comprehensive and in depth, and one or two might be too in depth. I hope these may also be helpful for you. If there is something specific you really want, please let me know!