Danmarks Radio (DR) published a multimedia presentation on their website this weekend. The teaser text on their homepage was “Carl was a top executive—and changed sex. As Caroline, she now knows that women have it much harder in the workplace.”
Preach, Caroline!
Or rather: mansplain!
This guy literally went home from work as a man one Friday evening and returned to the office as a woman the following Monday morning (with plans in place for a judicial sex change and hormone therapy, DR explains—as well as a stylish skirt, a new hairdo, and lacquered nails).
So he’s not a woman at all. This is a man—a biological male in his 50s—who had just always wanted to live as a woman.
“For all his life, Carl Farberger suppressed a desire to live as a woman,” we’re told.
And now that he’s finally living as a woman, he understands everything about being a woman in the workplace.
Because taking hormones, and wearing a skirt, make-up, nylons, and jewelry have made him a woman.
It’s that easy.
Now he’s speaking up on behalf of women everywhere—even those with vaginas—because he finally understands how hard it is for them in the workplace.
It’s totally hard for women to work alongside men, you guys!
But if sex is a total fiction, why don’t women just come to work dressed and coiffed like men? No makeup, and binders instead of bras for the chesty. Bada bing—they’re men, and there won’t be any more problems in the workplace!
This is all so stupid.
I’m tired of having to say that gender dysphoria is a real thing and that the people who have it deserve our compassion, even though that’s what I believe. But I resent having to say it every time I suggest that thinking you’re something you’re not isn’t healthy, lest I be accused of wrongthink and find myself swarmed by the ruthless enforcers of orthodoxy.
We’ve reached the point where it’s wicked and cruel to suggest that there might be something wrong with people who sincerely believe they’re something that they very obviously are not. (Consider the case last week of the “woman” traumatized at the airport by a security guard hitting “her” in the testicles.)
This logic only seems to apply to sex, however: to women who think they’re men and vice-versa.
Tell your doctor you think you’re a frog, and you’re not going to be prescribed hormones or given surgeries to help “transition” you into an amphibian. The media aren’t going to run fawning profiles of your bravery. Social media won’t ban people for disputing your froghood. You aren’t going to get your own stripe on the rainbow flag.
And yet go to the very same doctor as a middle-aged guy in your fifties, tell the doctor you feel like a woman, and the medical establishment will help you on your way to womanhood to the cheers of the idiots running all of our institutions.
The only way this isn’t cultural insanity is if in fact (a) male and female brains are different, and (b) it’s biologically possible to be born with a mismatched brain and body.
Are male and female brains different?
I asked GPT (v 4.0) that exact question:
The question of whether male and female brains are different is a topic of ongoing research and debate within the scientific community. While there are some differences between male and female brains on average, it is important to note that there is significant overlap and individual variation.
Some general differences that have been observed between male and female brains include:
Size: On average, male brains tend to be larger than female brains. However, this size difference has not been conclusively linked to differences in intelligence or cognitive abilities.
Proportions: Some studies have found that specific regions within the brain may differ in size between males and females. For example, the amygdala, which plays a role in emotion processing, tends to be larger in males, while the hippocampus, involved in memory and spatial processing, may be larger in females.
Connectivity: Research has suggested that there may be differences in the way male and female brains are connected. Some studies have reported that females tend to have stronger connections between the two hemispheres of the brain, while males may have stronger connections within each hemisphere.
Hormones: Hormonal differences between males and females can also influence brain development and function. For example, sex hormones such as testosterone and estrogen have been shown to impact brain structure and function in various ways.
It’s crucial to recognize that these differences are general trends and do not apply to every individual. There is significant overlap in the structure and function of male and female brains, and individual differences often outweigh sex-based differences. Furthermore, the extent to which these differences are shaped by genetic, hormonal, and environmental factors is still being investigated.
In summary, while there are some average differences between male and female brains, it is essential to consider the wide range of individual variation and the complex interplay of genetic and environmental factors that contribute to brain development and function.
Sounds like a no.
Follow up question: is there any medical evidence of women being born with male brains, or men being born with female brains?
The concept of being “born with a male brain” or “born with a female brain” is an oversimplification of the complex interplay of biology, genetics, and environment that shapes brain development and function. It is important to recognize that there is significant overlap and individual variation in the structure and function of male and female brains.
However, research has shown that transgender individuals, who have a gender identity that differs from their assigned sex at birth, may exhibit brain structure and function patterns that are more similar to their experienced gender than their assigned sex. Some studies have suggested that certain brain regions in transgender individuals may resemble those typically found in cisgender individuals of their experienced gender. This observation supports the idea that gender identity is rooted in biological factors and not solely a product of social or environmental influences.
It’s important to note that these findings are still preliminary and more research is needed to understand the neurological underpinnings of gender identity. The human brain is highly complex, and attributing gender identity to specific brain structures or patterns oversimplifies the matter. Moreover, the relationship between brain structure, function, and gender identity is not yet fully understood.
In summary, while there is some evidence suggesting that transgender individuals may have brain patterns more similar to their experienced gender than their assigned sex, it is important to consider the complexities of brain development and function and to avoid reducing gender identity to a simple matter of having a “male brain” or “female brain.”
So the answer seems to be “yes if we’re talking about transgender people, but no if we’re talking about anyone else.” In other words, the “science” says there are significant markers in the brain that tend to correlate with the sex transgenders identify as, but those markers are totally insignificant when looking at normal, well-adjusted men and women. A trangender person can have a male or female brain, but there’s no such thing as a male or female brain for normal people.
Got that?
It’s a logical contradiction to say that “transgender individuals may have brain patterns more similar to their experienced gender than their assigned sex,” on the one hand, and then turn right around and say that those brain patterns have no other relevance. Either the differences are real and they matter to everyone, or it’s all nonsense.
Which remindes me: Hey GPT, what are your sources for all this?
As an AI language model, my responses are based on the knowledge and patterns found in the vast amount of text data that I was trained on, which includes scientific articles, news articles, websites, and other sources of information. The information in my responses comes from a variety of sources and authors that were available up until my last training update in September 2021. For the topic of sex differences in the brain and the neurological basis of gender identity, some of the sources that contributed to my knowledge include:
Scientific journals, such as Nature, Science, and The Journal of Neuroscience, which publish peer-reviewed research articles on brain structure, function, and development.
Websites of reputable organizations like the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the World Health Organization (WHO), and the American Psychological Association (APA), which provide evidence-based information and guidelines related to neuroscience and psychology.
News articles and popular science publications that cover recent research findings and expert opinions on topics related to sex differences in the brain and gender identity, such as The Guardian, Scientific American, and Psychology Today.
It is essential to note that my responses are based on the patterns and knowledge found in these sources, but I do not provide direct citations. To verify specific claims or gather additional information, I encourage you to consult the primary literature and official websites of the organizations mentioned above.
Well alrighty then.
When I pushed GPT for an actual citation from The Journal of Neuroscience, the only source from GPT’s list that I don’t know from past experience to have been taken hostage by the far left, I’m not given an actual citation, but a reference to the 2015 article “Sex beyond the genitalia: The human brain mosaic.”
Here’s the authors’ abstract (my emphases):
Whereas a categorical difference in the genitals has always been acknowledged, the question of how far these categories extend into human biology is still not resolved. Documented sex/gender differences in the brain are often taken as support of a sexually dimorphic view of human brains (“female brain” or “male brain”). However, such a distinction would be possible only if sex/gender differences in brain features were highly dimorphic (i.e., little overlap between the forms of these features in males and females) and internally consistent (i.e., a brain has only “male” or only “female” features). Here, analysis of MRIs of more than 1,400 human brains from four datasets reveals extensive overlap between the distributions of females and males for all gray matter, white matter, and connections assessed. Moreover, analyses of internal consistency reveal that brains with features that are consistently at one end of the “maleness-femaleness” continuum are rare. Rather, most brains are comprised of unique “mosaics” of features, some more common in females compared with males, some more common in males compared with females, and some common in both females and males. Our findings are robust across sample, age, type of MRI, and method of analysis. These findings are corroborated by a similar analysis of personality traits, attitudes, interests, and behaviors of more than 5,500 individuals, which reveals that internal consistency is extremely rare. Our study demonstrates that, although there are sex/gender differences in the brain, human brains do not belong to one of two distinct categories: male brain/female brain.
If human brains aren’t either male or female, then while a man may “feel” like a woman, or a woman like man, such feelings are necessarily out of alignment with reality. Thoughts that are out of alignment with reality are dysfunctional.
I’ll go further: a man pretending to be a woman and being given a platform from which to explain the difficulties women face in the workplace is no different than a dog pretending to be a cat and explaining the difficulties cats face from dogs. (That’s assuming dogs and cats could speak, but we’re already in crazyland so wotthehell wotthehell.) The difficulties may be real, but the speaker has no particular authority to offer in discussing them—certainly none from personal experience.
I’m all ears if Carl/Caroline wants to tell me about the troubles men face in the workplace when pretending to be women, but I’m entirely uninterested in his perspective as a woman.
Because I’m sane.
If only the same could be said for taxpayer-funded state media monopoly DR…
Featured image: screenshot from Monthy Python’s historical and very lady-like re-enactments of great battles.