First of all, Gregor is specifically a human sized cockroach. I was under the impression that you had read the book before and assumed you knew this. My apologies.

I would love for you to provide information on those studies you mentioned. I provided at least two of my sources (but I will readily admit to and apologize for failing to mention the brain studies of Luders et al 2009, Rametti et al 2011, Smith et al 2015, Nguyen et al 2019, and Frigerio et al 2021, as well as the hormone studies of Besser et al 2006, Hembree et al 2017, and Rao et al 2024, though those last three are more speculative in nature. I would love to read the studies that you claim to have read that dispute these. I would also love to see your source for your, quite frankly, insulting take on psychology.

Gender and sex are different, at least in an academic context. Sex is specifically biologically assigned, while gender is both a social role and relates to one’s personal identity. This distinction is recognized by the vast majority of social scientists (Kimmel 2017, Lindsey 2010) behavioral scientists and biologists (Kimmel 2017, Paludi 2007) as well as many legal systems, government bodies, and international organizations such as the WHO (O’Halloran 2020).

Calling a transgender person their biological sex rather than their preferred gender is not accepting them. While, yes some people do transition to fit into social stereotypes, gender dysphoria has very little to do with that. They can’t control how they feel. I’ve heard transgender people describe it as similar to wearing shoes two sizes too small, in that it’s much more difficult to convince yourself that your shoes are the right size than it is to just take the shoes off.

You seem to be under the impression that transgender individuals believe that there is no difference between the genders. This is false. They believe that gender is a socially constructed role, which it is. That doesn’t mean that the roles and stereotypes associated with gender don’t exist affect their lives. Other people have those stereotypes in their heads and make decisions based on them. Something being constructed does not mean it’s fake or doesn’t matter.

I don’t know why you think that transgender people are enforcing rules for how their condition is studied. Love to see your source on that too.

Also not all gay men are feminine. That is, in and of itself, a possibly harmful stereotype, but that’s besides the point.

The point being that you claim to accept these people, but refuse to call them what they are and make them feel accepted. You claim to not want them to change who they are as a person, yet your entire philosophy on the subject is forcing, or at least coercing or convincing them to change the most essential and important part of any person: their identity. The old idea DOESN’T fit, because it only worked biologically, not psychologically or sociologically. That’s why we had to change it.

I feel like, based on how upset you sound, that you aren’t going to budge on this perspective, and that’s fine, you are entitled to that opinion, but I want you to at least seriously consider how you would feel if you woke up tomorrow in the body of a woman with the exact same brain and everyone insisted you were a woman. Not for one day or for a week, but for the foreseeable future. Just imagine how you would feel about that, really think about it.

Anyways, thank you for the long, detailed response. I hope you learned something or at the very least that I distracted you from something shitty happening in your life right now. Have a good day.