Taken from "how sex changed: A History of Transsexuality in the United States"

[draegonhawke]

In the Netherlands, where doctors keep such records, they calculated in 1993 that 1 in 11,900 persons born male and 1 in 30,400 persons born female had taken hormones to change sex.

First person to guess the primary reason this struck me as significant/unexpected gets a prize. I'm not sure what the prize will be - sketch, ficlet, something in the

Comments

[angel_06]

That so many more men want to be women than the reverse?

[draegonhawke]

In part,yes, but what about that specifically?

[tangyabominy]

I was going to say that it's that men don't feel like they have to inhabit male bodies as much as women feel like they have to inhabit female bodies: that women are socialised to care about their femininity more than men are to care about their masculinity. But that doesn't surprise me at all: society is constantly telling us that female is a marked category and that you have to do certain Special things to participate in it.

It's a lot easier to be a transman, not pass very well, and not feel like a freak than it is to be a transwoman and not pass very well.

I can see that someone might find it surprising because maleness in this society, too, is built on a very strong identification with the physical self as masculine, but there are slightly-built, femmy gay men and it's almost part of the spectrum of gay identity. Not really so much women with facial hair: that's not so much the butch identity, I don't think. So it doesn't really surprise me at all.

[draegonhawke]

That is a really cool comment, with a bunch of stuff I hadn't considered. I do wonder how expanded statistics of who among transpeople choose to transition, semi-transition, not transition, etc. pan out. I wonder if there's any data collected on that, among people who identify as trans or genderqueer? (Probably very little, sigh. Ah, well. One day, if we work for it.)

Thanks for giving me a bunch of stuff to think about!

[tangyabominy]

Y'welcome

[angel_06]

Goddamn deleted the wrong tab wiped answer argh.

Anyway.

I'm honestly not sure. I don't know why you find this to be surprising/significant in the first place, tbh, it was just obvious that that was what it was. Female is the default gender; we are changed to male in the womb. It doesn't surprise me that whatever gene controls gender is defaulted to female and more bio men feel the urge to return to the default state.

Being a man is a negative and hurtful thing, I've noticed. I don't blame men who want to become women, who are told to be open and expressive in ways men are not allowed. Women are, more or less, allowed to be whatever we want, if we're aggressive enough about it. Men are not. I can wear a dress or pants, and still be a woman. Men are not men if they wear a dress.

Why anyone would want to wear a dress is still beyond me though.

(Note: I've recently realized that I was raised in a matriarchal family, which is apparently unusual, so perhaps my views on gender should be taken with a grain of salt.)

[draegonhawke]

I think that, the way society is set up, being a man is a negative and hurtful thing, but no more so than being a woman is a negative and hurtful thing. Really, the way we construct and police gender sucks on both sides of the line; men tend to get a much narrower field when it comes to expressing gender and emotions, and women get incredibly short shrift when it comes to positioning themselves to be taken seriously.

While not quite what I was thinking of, you do raise really interesting points; I hadn't thought of things in quite those terms. So, thank you for that!