Gender in the Jungle: Why Trans & Non-Binary People Are as Natural + Magical as Anyone

 

One of the most damaging ideas that a child can interalize about themself is that they aren't "natural" - that they don't belong to this planet or are estranged from the world. 

 

I've wanted to write this exactly article for 15 years and still find it incredible difficult to write. I want to write this to support OTHERS, yet I feel as if I'm still being surrounded by anti-trans people who don't want to empathize with what it's like to be us, or who don't want to see how easy it could be to just accept our diversity. That's what transphobic trauma can do to a person.

 

Trans and non-binary people are as natural and magical as anyone.

 

What do I mean by this? And why does this point feel so important?

 

It's easier for people to agree that it's natural to be gay (or bi/pan). There are female gulls who are intimiate with each other and who raise chicks together after one of them had also been intimiate with a male. I read in the book A Little Queer Natural History that 8% of rams (male sheep) were found to be exclusively gay, despite animal farmers trying to "make" them mount ewes instead of each other. There are so many examples of non-heterosexuality in nature. There are also so many examples of animals who are intersex in various ways, just as humans can be. And animals can be asexual, or can have little to no interest in sex even if their species is generally sexual.

But the T in LGBTQIA+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning, intersex, asexual) has arguably been the hardest for people to understand and accept.

 

Yes, there are fishes who naturally change sex. There are hyenas where the females are dominant and the males are submissive. There are insects where the males have an opening and the females have a phallus. There are all kinds of "gender-surprising" things in nature that show us there is really no standard notion of what male and female even mean. But still, none of it is exactly the same as a human saying, "Please call me she/her pronouns, and I want to take hormones and get a gender-affirming surgery."

 

So, I'm going to give you some points to consider, that have helped me in proudly embracing who I am and wholeheartedly embracing others.

 

First, gender dysphoria is likely ancient. These feelings are perfectly normal. Just because modern technology gives more opportunities to modify your body's sex traits or appearance, does not mean that ancient peoples did not wish they could. And they did likely adjust themselves to suit their identities, just not to the same degree that we can do today.

 

Cultures throughout the world have had trans or "third gender" identities that are specific to their cultures. Overarching terms like Indigiqueer and two-spirit, as well as all of the specific cultural terms like hijra and Faʻafāfine, point to the fact that the globalized trans and non-binary concepts we talk about today are only one newer framing that can often overlook much older ones.

 

It seems highly unlikely that humans are the only animal who ever experience dysphoria related to their sex characteristics. The fact that we can see animals being homosexual, but can't hear them describe how they feel, puts transgender people at a disadvantage in terms of being "naturalized." Many animals show signs of self-awareness. Many animals exhibit behavior that is more typical of the opposite sex. How do we know that a deer has never thought, "I wish I could grow antlers."

 

Not only is it likely that some animals would theoretically be trans if they had the awareness and power to reshape their sex/gender, but also, animals may very well experience the world in a more "non-binary" way.

 

Non-binary people are those of us who neither identity as strictly female or male. This can go by many different names and be conceptualized in many different ways.

 

I think about how, since animals don’t have words, their intuitive concepts of the world may be less rigid. It’s plausible that many of them might perceive themselves and other members of their species in a more non-binary way. For example, a raven could detect and react to the diverse characteristics of other ravens without having to literally label or categorize individuals as "boys" and "girls" so much. But we really don't know how animals experience their sex.

 

Another argument I want to make is that transgender people may tend to have observable physical brain differences from those who are not trans (we call this cisgender). But I need to catch up with the latest research on that.

 

I myself have certain features of my body that have always been less typical of male, such as weak upper body strength, strong lower body strength, major flexibility, and I already was perceived as female a lot of the time because of my face and voice before I ever wore makeup or made efforts to "pass" as a woman. Many, not all, trans people experience such things. The distinction between trans and intersex is not always 100% clear, since some of our tendency towards trans identity may come from hidden biological differences...

 

Okay, but even if we can agree that it's not unnatural to crave a change to one's natal sex characteristics, what about "accepting one's body" and all that jazz?

 

Some people might want to believe in a neat and tidy picture of how humans were meant to be born. They might believe that if everyone was healthy and we had no pollution or whatnot, every child would grow up straight and cisgender because being straight and cisgender just seems the least distressing, the easiest, the most convenient.

 

But who ever said that the easiest path is the only way to be healthy?

 

Humans who menstruate and may go through childbirth, breastfeeding, and perimenopause are no less inherently healthy than those who have a more simplistic reproductive life devoid of these experiences. Both male and female reproductive lives can be equally “meant to be,” meaningful, and fulfilling.

 

Autistic people who have to work extra hard to understand social norms and communication skills are not inherently less healthy than those who are allistic (non-autistic) and who don’t have to overthink social norms as much. They’re different paths that are rich and enjoyable in different ways.

 

In a similar way, I would argue, developing as a transgender animal who feels inherently at odds with one’s biological sex is not actually some terrible tragedy that ought not to exist and needs a cure.

 

Being transgender is as meant to be as making sperm or egg. Nature likes diversity. Nature churns out all kinds of varying characteristics in animals who are born, and those traits often have persisted because of ways that they’ve benefited the survival of communities, even when some of them are challenging to live with in different ways.

 

But the fact that having a gender-dysphoric mind may very well be natural, doesn’t mean that we don’t want accommodations for it.

 

Just like people want tampons to help with menstruation, cups to protect testicles from impact, and sunscreen and hats to avoid sunburn.

 

Some transgender people do almost nothing to physically change themselves. They might only transition socially, not medically. They have their name that feels right. They like being treated in certain ways that are more befitting of the gender they feel aligned with. But they don’t really bother with trying to alter their looks much because it just feels taxing, and they don’t want to carry that extra labor that cis people don’t have to. They know that their internal sense of self is perfectly real, and that they don’t need to look a certain way to prove it, and that the ones who count will understand. (And maybe more trans people would feel like they even have the option to safely live this way if societies were less transphobic and were kinder.)

 

On the other end of the spectrum, some transgender people do a LOT to change their physical presentation. They take hormones, go through voice training, and have surgeries to change their jaws, chests, and genitals. They might spend a fair amount of time every day doing their makeup or other adjustments to their outfit that help them be visually read as the gender that feels like home to them.

 

These two opposite poles are not that different from everyone else. Some humans like to live very minimalistically out of comfort or principle, or they can’t afford to spend any money on their appearance even if they wanted to. Other humans get facials, manicures, regular haircuts, designer clothes, they take steroids, and so on - often with the intent of validating their gender, actually, even if they’re cisgender.

 

So yeah. Transgender people are kind of just like everybody else.

 

And considering the disadvantage that we’re naturally at, biologically + in terms of social power and acceptance, I think it’s perfectly reasonable for us to get an extra surgery in our life, when many people in urban areas have a surgery at some point in their life anyway. The vast overwhelming majority of surgeries, medications, custom clothing, and other resources that are spent on people’s bodies in the world are not towards transgender people… it’s not like we’re being excessive by being so uniquely “high-maintenace” or “unnatural” or “decadent,” as transphobic views mights sometimes try to portray us as.

 

I grew up feeling like I was looked down upon as unnatural, unwell, and Frankenstein’s monstrous for being transgender. I didn’t know how so not alone I was.

 

Now I know that I’m just as natural and magical as anybody else.

 

Being trans isn’t a social contagion. How it gets expressed might be culturally mediated by what options are available where one lives, but it’s more about social permission, to express what’s already lived inside of us.

 

Being trans isn’t about rejecting your body.

 

Instead, it can be about honoring both your body AND your mind, and realizing that they’re actually interconnected. My body isn’t the same as a cis male body. I might look the same at a glance, but it is highly likely that the transgender feelings and perceptions of myself that live in my head are reflected somehow in my physical tissues, quite like how sexuality can affect the smell of someone’s sweat.

 

Trans people are not “gender confused.” We’re often just as “gender clear” as anybody else. The difference is that we are often told throughout our life that it’s not okay to be how we want, so that creates a lot of inner conflict between social expectations vs. our natural expression.

 

We often know what we want. Actually, the way society treats us is the major source of confusion. But there is nothing wrong with taking a while to figure out what you want, or expressing yourself differently in different seasons.

 

I know this is extremely long and rambly and needs more research and reading to back it up, but...

 

If you're anywhere on the transgender spectrum like I am, I support you. You belong in this world. You are loved!

 

Reach Me Anytime!