Ray Briggs
Revisiting Plato's Symposium after embarking on my gender transition, I was struck by the speech of Eryximachus. So many of the ideas -- that medicine is about enforcing standards of beauty and temperance, that desires can be easily classified as healthy or unhealthy, that bodies are best understood in terms of opposites and dualities -- survive to this day in trans medicine. Although the text doesn't take Eryximachus entirely seriously to begin with, I felt inspired to talk back to this doctor figure who places such deep confidence in his own expert knowledge.
"Reply to the psychologist, the endocrinologist, and other -ologists" uses selective cuts and omissions to draw loosely rhyming couplets and quatrains out of the Symposium and sets me up to reply in my own voice -- an echo of the polyvocal techniques that Carrie and Carla use throughout Uninvited.
"Philosophical thought experiments concerning the concept of gender" arises from my frustration with analytic philosophy and its attempts to theorize about trans issues through a cis lens. I want philosophical conversations about gender where multiple voices are heard and respected, where we challenge one another to become more careful thinkers, and where everyone feels free to exercise the weirdest parts of their imaginations. But those conversations won't be possible until we take each other's lived experiences seriously.
Reply to the psychologist, the endocrinologist, and other -ologists
“Consider […] the marked difference, the radical dissimilarity:
the love manifested in health […] the love manifested in disease.
I love my monster love, but how can the physician have his ease
unless it rhymes with disease? He wants constraint to set him free.
Which are those elements? […] those that are most opposed
as hot is to cold, bitter to sweet, wet to dry, cases like those.
Ah yes, the two genders. As cat is to crow, garlic to rose,
the chaos of breath and body to the book you slam closed.
For surely there can be no harmony so long as high and low are still discordant;
harmony, after all, is consonance, and consonance is a species of agreement.
When God composed the universe, we knew what harmony meant:
mute your jangling desires, however mordant.
the love felt by good people […] must be encouraged and protected […]
The other […] is common and vulgar. Extreme caution is indicated.
By his staff and white gown, his lack of pollution is vindicated.
He does not flinch, as anomalies are excised and corrected.
When the elements […] are animated by the proper species
of Love, they are in harmony […] Love that is crude […] spreads […] diseases
Domesticate your crops. A weed is a flower that grows as it pleases.
Buy stakes and chicken wire. Guard your gardens like speakeasies.
“Makes me wonder whether the ‘orderly sort of Love’ in the body
calls for the sounds and itchings that constitute a sneeze,
because the hiccups stopped immediately
when I applied the Sneeze Treatment.” You’re good, Aristophanes,
showing up to the doctor in heels and a silk chemise
and lipstick, flirting, bowing your head obediently
—very convincing. When you extend your dainty hand for the keys
to your own house, he almost believes you’re somebody.
Philosophical thought experiments concerning the concept of gender
1. You are in a public place, going about your business, when suddenly you need to use the bathroom. No matter which of the two available options you choose, someone’s going to think you're in the wrong place. Formulate a philosophical defense of your gendered existence before you pee your pants.
2. You visit a doctor for pelvic pain, which [content warning: spoilers] will turn out to be an ovarian cyst. You have a man's name, a beard, and a baritone voice. The doctor doesn't believe you should be at a gynecologist's office, even though he's supposed to take your insurance. The nurse asks intrusive questions about whether you plan to have cosmetic surgery on your genitals. Soothe the feelings of a cis woman who is concerned about the prospect of being called a menstruator.
3. Your boyfriend breaks dishes and threatens to beat you up. He hasn't hit you... yet. You seek help from the local women's shelter, but the receptionist laughs and tells you to leave. Prove from first principles that you are not a sexual predator, then figure out where you're going to sleep tonight.
4. While driving cross-country with your partner, you are stopped by police. Your ID says that your sex is M. Your body says that your sex is F. In the time allotted, develop a course on gender sensitivity suitable for a police academy; try not to get beaten.
5. Your insurance won't cover your medication until they know your gender. Different charts, documents, and computer database contain different entries, some invisible to you. You say your gender is F; there is a problem. You say your gender is M; there is a problem. You are in a maze of twisty little phone trees, all alike. Determine whether trans women are women.
6. Your parents are deeply concerned. They forbid that outfit, that haircut, that visit to the doctor’s office. They explain that your friends are a bad influence, then ground you, then take away your phone. You’ll understand when you’re older, although you’ve never met anyone like you. Embrace your freedom and love your body.
7. You’re qualified, maybe even over-qualified, but no one calls you back. Your old boss fired you when you metamorphosed from an assertive leader to a bossy, over-emotional nag. The rent is overdue, and the power company keeps threatening to turn the lights off. Reconcile feminism with sex work.
8. You are an infant. The physician notes your anomalous body and performs surgery to normalize your appearance and spare you a lifetime of shame. As you grow, he continues to study you, displaying your genitals to students and interns, and questioning your masturbatory habits. When you ask about your scars, lack of sensation, and growing feelings of unease, adults refuse to give any concrete details, though they do reassure you that you are normal and nothing is wrong. Is gender identity primarily a matter of nature or nurture? Justify your answer.