#*edit my sister also like acknowledged how my squinting was justified but also saw me acknowledging peoples' responses to hormone therapy

[archiephd]

trying to explain that gender essentialist thinking is harmful just on principal of upholding the concept in society while also acknowledging how like. trans men have noticed more confidence and physicality once they went on testosterone without undermining the point.

#trying to talk to my siblings abt it has been one of the most frustrating experiences of my whole life #like am i in the wrong?? if i squint at my sister using words like masculine energy and feminine energy in her spirituality #to describe a different between forward / penetrative / hardworking energy versus a receiving / being energy in her spirituality? #like to me. wanting to describe those ideas is fine. but why are you using gendered words to do it #it is partly because in english we haven't thought of many replacement words that Aren't gendered #but like. is the reluctance to change that vocabulary a matter of convenience or some room to clear out gender essentialism? #is gender not real but hormones and traits associated with them real? is making a distinction between the two worth it then? #EYE think so. because you can have women with low estrogen who feel masculine but are still content as female #and you can also have women with high testosterone who don't want hormone therapy yet still identify as female #so to link the two feels? unnecessary? even IF there is a likelihood to more easily acquire certain traits with each individual hormone #I DON'T KNOWWW enough about all this i unironically wanna get into gender studies just bc of this conversation hsdfkjsl #which was prompted by me subjecting myself to j*rdan p*terson bc my brother listened to him in the past btw lol #my brother has many disagreements with him and both he AND my sister are trans allies by i feel like... #they still have some concept of gender essentialism and i don't know how to properly confront it when i haven't even done that much researc #and honestly feel like i can't given my schedule #god. if you read all that thank you. also pls share ur thoughts if u have any #i've been thinking abt this for days #and would love any and all extra input especially from trans voices but not exclusively i am desperate #*edit my sister also like acknowledged how my squinting was justified but also saw me acknowledging peoples' responses to hormone therapy #and the difference they've felt in behavior as like. contradictory lol #and how like. if there was a trans woman who didn't want hormone therapy like. Were they tested to see if their natural testosterone levels #+ were low??? #and i was like????? Does it matter #as long as there is one trans woman with high testosterone and one trans man with high estrogen doesn't that mean linking hormoes + #+*HORMONES with gendered traits is faulty? #but i guess like. if there's a generalized likelihood it Would make sense to link them #but IS there a generalized likelihood or is it mostly all circumstantial and socialized?? #also is gender essentialism associating gendered traits with genetalia and Not hormones or are they the same?? #does it MATTER?? i dunnooooooo god