Culture: Third Factor of Transgender Causation

06/11/18 • 14 min

Culture is the third factor in transgender causation. In earlier podcasts I described how genetic gender predisposition was formed based on two factors: genetics and epigenetics. In this podcast I describe why culture is the third factor in being transgender. It appears that being transgender only occurs in Western culture. Western culture is peculiar among those cultures that have been studied. It has the peculiar characteristics of being binary, cisgender and inflexible. When genetic gender predisposition and culture collide, the result is transgender people. Examples of other cultures that have up to 5 gender behavior categories, that are not cisgender and are not inflexible. Transgender people cannot change their genetic gender predisposition but they can change Western culture to be more accomodating to diversity.

Previous Episode

Epigenetics: The Prenatal Testosterone Theory of Transgender Causation

Prenatal Testosterone Theory of Transgender (PTTT) Causation: Origins and Evidence. Do low prenatal testosterone levels in males and do high prenatal testosterone levels in females cause being transgender? The origins of this theory in eugenics and the evidence refuting the theory. The PTTT is rooted in eugenics theory developed in the US during the first half of the 20th Century. With support from private foundations, eugenics developed and spread to Germany and Europe. After World War II, East Germant eugenic endocrinologists developed the PTTT as the way to get rid of transgender people in society by adminstering drugs to pregnant mothers. If a mother was carrying a male baby, testosterone booster shots were recommended; if a mother was carrying a female baby, testosterone blockers were advised. The scientific evidence refutes the PTTT.

Next Episode

Transgender Causation Factor 4: Childhood Learning and Transgender Recognition

This episode provides information on the fourth factor in transgender causation--that o early childhood learning and transgender recognition. Most all children know the basics of the Western gender system including the two gender behavior categories by age 2-3. They come to recognize which one fits with their genetic gender predisposition. In the case of transgender children, the category which fits them is not the same as the one they were assigned at birth on the basis of sex assignment. This is not a conscious lifestyle choice. Like most choices, it involves subconscious processes of which we are not aware. We become consciously aware only after the choice has been made. As for lifestyle, the alternative gender behavior categories are determined by culture, not by biology.