Monday 20 October 2008

Today's Battle

Over at Syracuse.com.
My comment hasn't been published yet, and may, like the last one, be consigned to the bit bucket, as comments require approval. Well here it is - you'll notice that as all good software engineers should do, I re-use things where I can.

If you wanted to go into the whys and wherefores, a TV show isn't the most appropriate place to look. Videos show the human face, what it feels like, rather than the dry, dusty science.

Some reading - not exactly light entertainment:

Berglund- "Male-to-female transsexuals show sex-atypical hypothalamus activation when smelling odorous steroids"

Bentz - "A common polymorphism of the SRD5A2 gene and transsexualism."

Kerlin - "Prenatal Exposure to Diethylstilbestrol (DES) in Males and Gender-Related Disorders: Results from a 5-Year Study " and "The Presence of Gender Dysphoria, Transsexualism, and Disorders of Sexual Differentiation in Males Prenatally Exposed to Diethylstilbestrol: Initial Evidence from a 5-Year Study"

Krause - "Geschlechtsspezifische Differenzen der Hirnaktivitaet in der fMRT bei Normalprobanden im Vergleich mit transsexuellen Probanden".

For the teutonically challenged, that's "Gender differences in brain activity between normal volunteers compared with transsexual subjects in functional magneto-resonance imaging".

Kruiver - Male-to-Female Transsexuals Have Female Neuron Numbers in a Limbic Nucleus

Zhang - A Sex Difference in the Human Brain and its Relation to Transsexuality

Henningsson - Sex steroid-related genes and male-to-female transsexualism

We're not sure what the exact mechanism is or mechanisms are that cause transsexuality. It appears to be the combination of an atypical hormonal environment in the womb, combined with a genetic pre-disposition. We're now confident though that we know what transsexuality is. A (partly, mostly or completely) male brain in a (partly, mostly, or completely) female body, or the reverse.

What I find interesting is the attitude of this "reviewer". A Review of a program should at least tell us what it's about, without snide remarks such as "a distorted version of Sophia Loren" (snicker snicker). For some people (myself included, of course) it's challenging for them to distinguish between the lunacy of a man who smashes a transsexual woman's head in with a fire extinguisher and then does it again to finish "it" off (real people, look it up), and the desire of a "reviewer" to denigrate a heroic transsexual women soldier for giggles.

The video clip included with the review shows Jan reacting to the utter rejection she has from her parents. The last scene shows her curled up on the bed, sobbing at her loss.

It's not the first time Jan Hamilton has been given a raw deal, or outrageously calumnied, as I've blogged about before. Still, at least the assault was written, rather than physical this time. Sticks and stones really do break our bones - the X-rays show that - but words can be even more painful - if we let them be. Like the words uttered by parents whose love is conditional.

The words of malicious little TV "reviewers", not so much. They just deserve a smackdown.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

They never posted my third letter where I was explaining WHY Mr Kiefer's notes were offensive.