Gender Hypotheticals, I found this on a discord I recently joined and plan to go through and give my responses.
We typically approach gender (how we feel and relate) and sex (what genitals and/or chromosomes we have) as if they are fixed and unchangeable. Culturally, we are taught to assume our gender based on our sex; this is called ‘assigned gender at birth’, or AGAB.
For the majority this is true: their gender does match their assignment. For some, this is untrue: their gender does not match their assignment. These hypothetical situations are designed to tease out this subtle difference.
- Imagine you discover a magical button. Pressing it will change you into another sex, painlessly, with everyone else understanding and relating to you as the associated AGAB. The button will break after you press it.
Would you press it? - Rather than the above, imagine you discover a different magical button. This button erases any and all doubts you have about your gender – from now on, you will never doubt your assigned gender again. You will have no memory of finding this button or pressing it.
Would you press it? - Imagine you’re in a room with both buttons.
Which, if any, would you press? - Now imagine you see the buttons, but are instantly stopped by a guard, who says “You are obviously your birth-assigned gender; what are you trying to do?”
How would you feel? - Imagine you find a magic machine that lets you design your ideal body, and then changes your body to match this design. You can mix and match or omit and include anything from any body you like.
What features would that body have or deliberately lack? - Imagine there’s a test that can conclusively determine your gender.
What gender would you hope for?
Would you try and skew the answers?
Which way? - For the four parts of this hypothetical, imagine you’re stranded on a deserted island, by yourself, with no hope of rescue.
a. You find an abandoned town and enough supplies to live in comfort. What would you wear? Would you present masculinely? Femininely? Neither? A mix of the two? One way some of the time, another way the rest?
b. You later find a lifetime supply of hormones, with perfect instructions for use and dosage. Would you take them?
c. Later you stumble across the room containing the two buttons from question 3. Which button, if any, would you press?
d. You also stumble across the machine from question 5. Would you use it? If so, what would you change? - Imagine you take the perfectly accurate test from question 6, and the results are “Mild gender confusion. Not trans; do not transition.”
How would that make you feel? - Imagine you take the perfectly accurate test from question 6, and the results are “Trans; begin planning transition.”
How would that make you feel?
This is an excerpt from a transgender discord – The Orchard (click on this to join!). The main purpose is to help those who are questioning.