As to mistaking someone's gender--the things people have learned to use to identify someone as male or female are deeply ingrained; even friendly people who strongly support someone's decision to switch genders have a lot of trouble using the preferred pronoun, instead of the one the automatic identifier in their brains comes up with.
Hanging out with transgender people has also alerted me to the fact that the differences between genders are not only physical (hip size, plumbing, facial hair) but chemical/hormonal in nature. Estrogen helps tear ducts work, for instance, thus women cry more easily. I don't make the mistake of thinking that this must mean men feel things less deeply--but then, some male-to-female transgender people DO report being better able to feel and identify their feelings once they start taking estrogen.
I used to think the question was trivial; now I think it is very complex.
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Date: 2008-10-02 10:15 pm (UTC)Hanging out with transgender people has also alerted me to the fact that the differences between genders are not only physical (hip size, plumbing, facial hair) but chemical/hormonal in nature. Estrogen helps tear ducts work, for instance, thus women cry more easily. I don't make the mistake of thinking that this must mean men feel things less deeply--but then, some male-to-female transgender people DO report being better able to feel and identify their feelings once they start taking estrogen.
I used to think the question was trivial; now I think it is very complex.