analysis of a fallacy
Jun. 15th, 2009 09:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pauraque_bkThere was a little wank on Twitter the other day, when someone made an inflammatory remark about Chaz Bono @BrentSpiner, who RT'd it to his 500,000 followers, with predictable results. (FWIW, I hardly think Brent was in the wrong -- she tweeted to him first, he often RT's, she should not have been surprised.)
Anyway, the original remark was that she thought Bono's gender transition was a "tragedy [...] for the God that made her" (sic). It is extremely troubling to me when people invoke God in such ways, but it is pretty difficult to successfully debate religious beliefs. However, there was something else she said later that can be refuted: "a closet issue is that many are disappointed by it [transitioning]".
This comment sounds relatively mild on the face of it, albeit extremely weasely (how many is "many", and what does "disappointed" mean, and in what way is the issue in the "closet" -- what a heftily ironic choice of word!). But at the heart of it I see a very alarming and insidious thought process.
Depression and suicide affect transgendered people at a higher rate than the general population, both before and after transition. As far as I know, this is not hidden at all, and this is not the first time I've seen the fact used to suggest that perhaps trans people are unhappy because being trans is inherently bad and makes one miserable. The solution, then, must be therapy to make one happy in one's birth gender. (The person on Twitter called it "stay as you are" therapy in another comment -- another funny choice of words.)
This seems superficially logical, but is incorrect. The pain of being genderqueer is visited upon us by people who tell us that who we are is bad. People are amazingly impressionable! If you treat them as though they are bad, they will begin to believe it, and even act accordingly. It is a Herculean effort to throw off that influence.
This exact fallacy has been used against gay people, and in some circles probably still is. Suicide is a terrible scourge on gay people, especially the young; are they killing themselves because they're gay and this proves being gay is bad, or because they can no longer bear the hatred that comes from others?
It's about on the same intellectual level as noticing how many black Americans are in prison, and concluding that black people must be inherently criminal. The "obvious" answer here is not correct, because it ignores the context, thus essentially reversing cause and effect. (This is also why I bristle every time I hear the words "Occam's Razor", but that's another rant.)
So, if this person thinks she can point to the many unhappy trans people and prove that being trans is, um, tragic... I would only ask her to seriously, honestly look at how much of that unhappiness is caused by people like her telling them that their lives are an ungodly tragedy.
Anyway, the original remark was that she thought Bono's gender transition was a "tragedy [...] for the God that made her" (sic). It is extremely troubling to me when people invoke God in such ways, but it is pretty difficult to successfully debate religious beliefs. However, there was something else she said later that can be refuted: "a closet issue is that many are disappointed by it [transitioning]".
This comment sounds relatively mild on the face of it, albeit extremely weasely (how many is "many", and what does "disappointed" mean, and in what way is the issue in the "closet" -- what a heftily ironic choice of word!). But at the heart of it I see a very alarming and insidious thought process.
Depression and suicide affect transgendered people at a higher rate than the general population, both before and after transition. As far as I know, this is not hidden at all, and this is not the first time I've seen the fact used to suggest that perhaps trans people are unhappy because being trans is inherently bad and makes one miserable. The solution, then, must be therapy to make one happy in one's birth gender. (The person on Twitter called it "stay as you are" therapy in another comment -- another funny choice of words.)
This seems superficially logical, but is incorrect. The pain of being genderqueer is visited upon us by people who tell us that who we are is bad. People are amazingly impressionable! If you treat them as though they are bad, they will begin to believe it, and even act accordingly. It is a Herculean effort to throw off that influence.
This exact fallacy has been used against gay people, and in some circles probably still is. Suicide is a terrible scourge on gay people, especially the young; are they killing themselves because they're gay and this proves being gay is bad, or because they can no longer bear the hatred that comes from others?
It's about on the same intellectual level as noticing how many black Americans are in prison, and concluding that black people must be inherently criminal. The "obvious" answer here is not correct, because it ignores the context, thus essentially reversing cause and effect. (This is also why I bristle every time I hear the words "Occam's Razor", but that's another rant.)
So, if this person thinks she can point to the many unhappy trans people and prove that being trans is, um, tragic... I would only ask her to seriously, honestly look at how much of that unhappiness is caused by people like her telling them that their lives are an ungodly tragedy.
