Are we seeing evolution

I was thinking about the apparent increase in gender disphoria and people wanting to change thier gender, usually it seems from male to female, although I could be wrong there, I know there are female to male changes. But I wondered if the increase is really that sudden and widespread, is evolutionary rather than cultural? Some would suggest that evolutionary changes can happen quite quickly, not at the almost glacial speed that we've been led to believe.

Discuss

With the exceptions of extreme cases in nature, I believe, that this gender thing has become fads, fashion. In addition to that it has been bashed up by the media and people who want to be in the foreground. I have to same problem with homosexuality. Why do we have to have gay marches/parades/festivals? We don’t have any straight ones! What happens in one’s privacy is nobody else’s business.

I would think that the increase is due to there now being a means surgically and also that a lot of the stigma has been lifted. In medieval times, nasty things could have happened with hot pokers, so it paid to keep your mouth shut. There may have been just as many men back then that thought they were in the wrong body, but they did their best to confirm for their own safety and survival.
Though even in these slightly more enlightened times in secular countries, the pressure on men to be manly and to constantly prove their manliness to each other must be colossal. I have always maintained that men inhabit a much more competitive world than women do, for the most part. I suppose that if your brain is telling you that it doesn't want to conform with all the gender expectations and pressure associated with so-called maleness, I can see why people might consider themselves more female. Maybe in some more enlightened time in the future, when expectations of maleness and femaleness becomes less stereotypical, the need to declare that you are one or the other will become less?
From what I have read though, I think that some transgender male to female individuals have had a bit of a shock when living as a female and discovered the different pressures associated with being female. There is a brilliant TED talk on youtube of a woman who was designated male at birth, where she talks about experiencing men from a female standpoint. It is presented with such warmth and humour. I wish I could remember her name so that I could find it.

Her name is Paula Stone Williams.

Here are a couple of her talks about her experiences.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrYx7HaUlMY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edLQdf4o0cg

Sam, the answer to your question is privilege. Paula says it better than i can in those two links.

From what I can make out, a lot of people regret changing,
They also tend to be young, maybe too early to fully understand what they are doing.
Many years ago a Prison Officer told me a man was rushed to hospital.
He was not allowed to change, so he did the first bit himself.
He chopped his own tackle off!
When asked why ,his reply was.
I make a fortune with these in here (boobs),imagine how much I could make if I had a fanny.

I would think that the increase is due to there now being a means surgically and also that a lot of the stigma has been lifted. In medieval times, nasty things could have happened with hot pokers, so it paid to keep your mouth shut. There may have been just as many men back then that thought they were in the wrong body, but they did their best to confirm for their own safety and survival.
Though even in these slightly more enlightened times in secular countries, the pressure on men to be manly and to constantly prove their manliness to each other must be colossal. I have always maintained that men inhabit a much more competitive world than women do, for the most part. I suppose that if your brain is telling you that it doesn't want to conform with all the gender expectations and pressure associated with so-called maleness, I can see why people might consider themselves more female. Maybe in some more enlightened time in the future, when expectations of maleness and femaleness becomes less stereotypical, the need to declare that you are one or the other will become less?
From what I have read though, I think that some transgender male to female individuals have had a bit of a shock when living as a female and discovered the different pressures associated with being female. There is a brilliant TED talk on youtube of a woman who was designated male at birth, where she talks about experiencing men from a female standpoint. It is presented with such warmth and humour. I wish I could remember her name so that I could find it.

Excellent.

It could be that societies changing and taking more notice, there certainly were people who were what we would recognise as LGBQT in the past and different societies dealt with it in different ways, it could be that the number are the same. But I wonder if a new single gender is starting to emerge? Could we be seeing the beginings of a different sort of human?

How would taking gender out of the equation change our lives and society in general?
Would we become kinder?
How would interpersonal power be distributed and how would it change?
Would we become more hostile?

I'm not saying this because I believe its happening, although I wonder if it is, but I think its an interesting thing to discuss and relevant to some other threads.

I think that it is generally accepted that in the developed world there has been a gradual drifting away from stereotypical male and female behaviours ongoing for some time; not necessarily just people who have gender dysphoria, but also among the more mainstream population. Men going into caring professions, for example, and the rise in aggression and violence among girls. There are probably better examples.

Is the female to male operation called a Sticadictomy ?

;-)

no its a strapadicktome :)

I think the traditional gender stereotypes, do no one any favours and I'm glad that they're gradually fading away for most of us, but not all, you do of course have various groups mostly on the Far Right who want to enforce gender stereotypes. I think they must feel very threatened to thier core to hold such views, personally I don't understand it, certainly not on an emotional level and not really on an intellectual one either.

I'm sure many unenlightened people do feel threatened by gender freedoms.

Is there a rise in female aggression and violence or are we just hearing about it more? I think women being violent to others has been hidden in the past because it was a class issue, the treatment of servants by thier female employers often left a lot to be desired, I think women have policed the behaviour of other women quite effectively, brothel madams have used violence to keep order, there have been female pirates. Historically there have been women on battlefields, from Boudicca, to shield maidens to resistance fighters in occupied France, often they've not been noticed because they've not been "found out", but they are documented at all times in history, nobody really knows how many women have fought as soldiers because its never really been documented. There have always been exceptions such as Jean D'Arc who everyone got to hear about, but how many others like her have there been? On a personal level, I can't see a hockey stick without memories of seriously bruised ankles, girls at my school and other schools were frequently getting in fights, my Mum remembers the same at her school.

It always seems to me like the ultra religious fundamentalist types are the people who are most keen on reinforcing the gender stereotypes and in promoting both homophobia and misogyny, favouring ideals that were dreamt up and recorded by superstitious peoples hundreds/thousands of years ago. Probably the main reason that I prefer to look after my own spiritual well being and have no truck with organised religion. I've always had trouble in conforming and prefer to make my own mind up about things. I daresay that I would have been destined for the village ducking stool in bygone centuries.

Me too Minnie or worse, I agree about fundamentalist religious types, but they tend to be quite or very right wing in thier politics too.

I haven't found fundamentalist religious types particularly left or right wing but in a world of their own.

I think a lot of them are very politically right wing, particulalry in America and many here too, they may be less visable here because of the differences in our political systems and that we're generally less "God Fearing" than the USA, saying you're god fearing tends to raise eyebrows more than funds and support here.