Hence, the idea that all men share a set
of intrinsic heterosexual personality attributes that are different to all
women is a socially and politically-conservative fiction, designed to maintain
certain dominant institutional arrangements. After all, if gendered
behaviours, mannerisms and styles of dress were ‘natural’ then the need for
‘role models’ to teach children how to be ‘men’ and ‘women’ would
evaporate.Nevertheless,
stereotypes about gender and sex continue to be widely circulated by parents,
teachers, television, cinema, sport, literature, children’s toys, clothing,
hairstyles, the beauty industry, and religion. Exaggerating differences between
men and women far beyond reproductive biology, along with mystifying
the opposite sex and making unregulated sexual activity between men and women
taboo, only strengthens these stereotypes. As a result, we are unable or
unwilling to see the opposite sex primarily as a person like ourselves, with
similar needs and desires.But here’s the thing: in arguing that a
small number of people are born with a sense of gender that does not ‘match’
their genital sex, there’s a danger that the Trans movement might strengthen
the assumption that all of us possess an innate identity that’s inherently
‘masculine’ or ‘feminine’ prior to socialisation. This
might explain why many ultra-conservative religious bodies from the Iranian Parliament and Pakistan’s Ministry of the Interior to the Church of England are throwing their weight behind
transgender rights while remaining steadfastly homophobic.Because conservative religions and conversion therapy go hand in glove
Iran saw one of the most rapid conservative regresses in modern history and then became second only to Thailand in “sex reassignment surgery”.
And yet people will still deny there’s something inherently conservative in the idea that people’s personalities can be wrong for their sex and homosexuality can be eradicated by surgically altering gay people to resemble straight people.
Why are religious conservatives embracing transgender rights?
Big Mean Sweaty Dyke 