Thoughts on Anderson Cooper's transgender episode

I watched and liked Anderson Cooper's daytime special on transgendered children and teens. It sparked some thoughts and questions for me, which I wanted to share with you to see if anyone else watched it and would be interested to respond to me!

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[PerpetualTomboy]

Thought-provoking vid. A note about the "throwing like a girl" comment. I seem to remember learning in Anatomy & Physiology class that the female humerus is generally longer that the male humerus, and the male lower arm bones (radius and ulna) are generally longer than those bones in the female. Could it be there is a bit of physiological difference that might contribute to the different throwing styles? (Though I'm sure lack of training/practice in girls has something to do with it as well.)

[TheSLOfox]

@PerpetualTomboy I don't know much about those details of anatomy, but I suppose it is possible. But I doubt that would make a difference in throwing - I mean, there are many women who can throw a baseball just as wickedly as any man, and with great form that's not different from a man's. And boys who haven't learned to properly throw a ball look kind of lame too. I think the phrase "throw like a girl" just equates bad, dorky throwing with girls, while in real life (cont.)

[TheSLOfox]

@PerpetualTomboy (cont.) any inexperienced thrower would look a little dumb and any practiced thrower would look good, regardless of sex or gender.

[TheSLOfox]

@PerpetualTomboy (cont.) any inexperienced thrower would look a little dumb and any practiced thrower would look good, regardless of sex or gender.

[TheSLOfox]

@PerpetualTomboy Also, I forgot to mention that--the way I see it--it's not really an issue of whether there's a difference, but rather the issue is that in that phrase, "girl" is associated with "negative"--the word is a stand-in for "dumbass" or something like that, which is very problematic even if there are actually physiological differences.

[anotherloaner]

you think to much. would you just go with your instincts! ask your self- how do you want to die? as more of boy or as the same handsome girl?

[TheSLOfox]

@anotherloaner Yeah, I do think a lot and can drive myself a little crazy sometimes. But I also really do enjoy thinking, and I just find it fascinating to ponder all these issues, kind of in the same way that reading a book is fun and satisfying, even though reading a book may not really "get you anywhere," so to speak. Also, in this video, I'm not really focusing on what I want my own gender identity to be.

[synapticattack]

I love this, it definitely helped me put into words something I had a difficult time articulating, that is gender as a social construct vs how an individual identifies with their body. The latter also takes into account (and differentiates from) how one interacts with their body and perhaps with their sexual organs, and how they interact with their body (and sexual organs) within a gendered society. With me personally there are a lot of conflicting factors that this video helps dig into.

[mbosman27]

in response to the 'throwing like a girl' comment and bone structures etc. i am pretty sure that if you handed an untrained bio male or female a ball and had them throw with their left hand (supposing that they were right handed) the 'throwing styles' would be fairly similar.

[teaganlovesfood]

i think anderson cooper's show on transgender kids is the best one done on any day time show.

[xxthread]

(cont.) I do feel more happy now; things feel more "right". Sometimes the needs for our body and our social selves are different from how we experience ourselves, and I think that's okay. Like, I still enjoy forming relationships with lesbians, for example, but I can still have that *and* my new deeper voice and new broader shoulders. And I can still align myself with women and "womens issues" without *being* a woman- which is important to me, to keep this connection. *shrug* Just some thoughts.

[xxthread]

(continuation) I also think it's important to remember that we can't weed apart our social selves from our personal selves. We are social creatures, and we do live in a social world- transitioning because of social pressures is I think as legitimate as transitioning because you "feel male." I also think it's important to understand that gender and the body CAN be separate and CAN be separate even transitioning. For me, my body still doesn't "match" my gender (I don't feel that it can) BUT (cont)

[xxthread]

One thing I've considered about the age thing (1:36 or so) is that the longer we've spent in this body, sometimes the more invested we are in it, if that makes sense. I'm 23 and although I was a gender variant child, I navigated away from that for a long while and then I felt pretty invested in maintaining a female identity as an adult. I did eventually decide to socially and eventually medically transition, though. (continued)

[kabardinka1]

As a trans woman, I profoundly disagree that social acceptance of a broader range of gender expression would diminish the number of people who need to transition. They're two essentially different things which occasionally overlap but are fundamentally coming from different places. Would it make transitioning a little less painful... yes. Would it help non-trans people who aren't traditional in their gender expression... yes. Would it impact trans people's need to transition... not at all. Nada.

[vivhopla]

@vivhopla I wonder the same thing about our patriarchal society (there, I said it too!) If something like "tomgirls" was accepted, would we see as many little boys labeled as transgendered? These tomgirls may (or may not) outgrow it just like a big part of tomboys do. Whatever the case, this means there may be nothing wrong with their body but rather with society (being non accepting of diversity regarding gender expression, hypersexualizing everything, being misoginist, and so on..)