I’m so glad you are here on Substack now. On the Gessen piece, I can only say I am so grateful to you for reading and parsing this addled nonsense so that I can avoid reading it. (I started to skim it, but had to stop part way though, it was so unbearable.) About the last quote, in the past few days, I’ve had a couple people point to the ad as the reason why Harris lost the election, and also pointed to Harris not raising the issue in her campaign, as if this somehow suggested she wasn’t on board with the overall Democratic position on this. Both people who conveyed this to me truly are good and decent, and have listened to and taken in things I have said to them about this, but the news ecosystem in which they live does nothing to reinforce what I tell them. So, while they have some sense there is a problem, they really don’t grasp how serious a problem this is for the Ds. I will not give up trying to break through the sound barrier on this, but it is definitely very, very difficult to do. (I am a lifelong Democrat, and, despite my fury with the party, I voted for Harris, because I was well aware how horrific the alternative would be not only here, but worldwide.)
When I read the NYT piece I was reminded of the Soviet propagandist literature of the 60s and 70s. Such a shame. From a once able Boston Bay Windows writer who enjoyed her new found freedom, she seems to have regressed as a side effect of testosterone.
I’ve become interested in the work of Helen Fisher lately, who has studied the neuroscience of love, sex, attachment, attraction. She is clear that Testosterone plays an important role in the sex drive for both men and women. So, let’s think about Gessen in this light. She started T as a 50 yo gender non-conforming woman with probably a decreased sex drive, married to a younger woman. She says she is having “fun”, as a result. That’s the most honest part of her entire op-ed. She could have stopped there and I might have found my respect for her.
I mostly skimmed her op-ed and went through the comments section. I guess she falls into the category of people who are into the ideology way too deep to turn back. I feel for her kids.
The only thing surprising is she didn’t write something about how great Hamas is. You know, add a bit of Hamas rape denialism. She’s an awful human being.
"Gessen then goes on to say something so mind-bogglingly stupid that I reeled – and immediately recalled her throwaway remark in an interview about the “fun” she was having on testosterone, having “transitioned” at age fifty. "
I will probably post at greater length here, but for now I'm speaking to Gessen's assertion that being on testosterone is "fun." I have been aware of the mood elevating effects of testosterone on women since a long-ago episode of "Gender: A Wider Lens." The guest was a lesbian who transitioned not in response to gender distress but because it was the done thing in her set. She. too, remarked how "T," as it is known colloquially, stopped her ruminations and left her feeling on top of the world. (That's my best recollection after several years. I can't recall which episode it was, so I would need to listen to be sure I got it right.) The guest said that T's mood-enhancing effects were known among pre-transitioners. In hindsight, she said, other side effects such as vaginal atrophy outweighed the initial kick she got from the hormone.
Testosterone is not a recreational substance. There is a need for field work or some other form of research to understand the role of testosterone and its effects on mood in motivating women to transition.
Yes, that and in the WPATH-Files recording in which endos discuss the malignant liver tumors in two female patients with an air of common understanding that such tumors are to be expected.
"So I looked up – forgive me – the impact of testosterone on cognitive function." To be fair, Masha Gessen was always a pompous, pseudointellectual, insufferable idiot. While I agree that testosterone is a very harmful drug to women, it probably didn't damage her cognitive function because there wasn't any to start with.
I agree … Gessen is intelligent, her writing on post-Soviet Russia is v valuable; on USA, Israel, Gaza, Germany etc. it’s at least worth a read—as much now as when the author was Masha.
Which makes me all the more furious that she chose to deliberately mislead readers by speaking from the point of view of “a trans person who has had children myself.”
Those who identify as liberal and sympathize with transgender rights, but know very little about concrete issues, will no doubt think: Well, some trans folks can’t have kids but obviously some can—look at M! Who’s to say this Chloe person won’t be able to do likewise? They won’t know that M’s transition began at age 50, after she had already had kids, and passed the age of fertility.
If Masha at 50 chooses to become M, take testosterone shots and get her breasts cut off, that’s her right. Even if she regrets it someday, she understood her choices. To pretend that Chloe Cole, Keira Bell or the next troubled teen is in the same position is breathtakingly dishonest. And lots of well meaning Times readers will fall for the trap M. has laid for them.
I’m so glad you are here on Substack now. On the Gessen piece, I can only say I am so grateful to you for reading and parsing this addled nonsense so that I can avoid reading it. (I started to skim it, but had to stop part way though, it was so unbearable.) About the last quote, in the past few days, I’ve had a couple people point to the ad as the reason why Harris lost the election, and also pointed to Harris not raising the issue in her campaign, as if this somehow suggested she wasn’t on board with the overall Democratic position on this. Both people who conveyed this to me truly are good and decent, and have listened to and taken in things I have said to them about this, but the news ecosystem in which they live does nothing to reinforce what I tell them. So, while they have some sense there is a problem, they really don’t grasp how serious a problem this is for the Ds. I will not give up trying to break through the sound barrier on this, but it is definitely very, very difficult to do. (I am a lifelong Democrat, and, despite my fury with the party, I voted for Harris, because I was well aware how horrific the alternative would be not only here, but worldwide.)
Control of the 'means of (re)production' is a telling phrase. It's all ideology.
Another masculine lesbian I used to admire. Sadly badly written rambling transplaining.
When I read the NYT piece I was reminded of the Soviet propagandist literature of the 60s and 70s. Such a shame. From a once able Boston Bay Windows writer who enjoyed her new found freedom, she seems to have regressed as a side effect of testosterone.
It does look like it, doesn’t it?
I’ve become interested in the work of Helen Fisher lately, who has studied the neuroscience of love, sex, attachment, attraction. She is clear that Testosterone plays an important role in the sex drive for both men and women. So, let’s think about Gessen in this light. She started T as a 50 yo gender non-conforming woman with probably a decreased sex drive, married to a younger woman. She says she is having “fun”, as a result. That’s the most honest part of her entire op-ed. She could have stopped there and I might have found my respect for her.
I mostly skimmed her op-ed and went through the comments section. I guess she falls into the category of people who are into the ideology way too deep to turn back. I feel for her kids.
The only thing surprising is she didn’t write something about how great Hamas is. You know, add a bit of Hamas rape denialism. She’s an awful human being.
"Gessen then goes on to say something so mind-bogglingly stupid that I reeled – and immediately recalled her throwaway remark in an interview about the “fun” she was having on testosterone, having “transitioned” at age fifty. "
I will probably post at greater length here, but for now I'm speaking to Gessen's assertion that being on testosterone is "fun." I have been aware of the mood elevating effects of testosterone on women since a long-ago episode of "Gender: A Wider Lens." The guest was a lesbian who transitioned not in response to gender distress but because it was the done thing in her set. She. too, remarked how "T," as it is known colloquially, stopped her ruminations and left her feeling on top of the world. (That's my best recollection after several years. I can't recall which episode it was, so I would need to listen to be sure I got it right.) The guest said that T's mood-enhancing effects were known among pre-transitioners. In hindsight, she said, other side effects such as vaginal atrophy outweighed the initial kick she got from the hormone.
Testosterone is not a recreational substance. There is a need for field work or some other form of research to understand the role of testosterone and its effects on mood in motivating women to transition.
Yes, and attention to T's apparent link to liver tumors in women would also be useful.
One of the documented effects in East German women athletes in the 1980s I think?
Yes, that and in the WPATH-Files recording in which endos discuss the malignant liver tumors in two female patients with an air of common understanding that such tumors are to be expected.
Her?
"So I looked up – forgive me – the impact of testosterone on cognitive function." To be fair, Masha Gessen was always a pompous, pseudointellectual, insufferable idiot. While I agree that testosterone is a very harmful drug to women, it probably didn't damage her cognitive function because there wasn't any to start with.
That’s a bit harsh!
I agree … Gessen is intelligent, her writing on post-Soviet Russia is v valuable; on USA, Israel, Gaza, Germany etc. it’s at least worth a read—as much now as when the author was Masha.
Which makes me all the more furious that she chose to deliberately mislead readers by speaking from the point of view of “a trans person who has had children myself.”
Those who identify as liberal and sympathize with transgender rights, but know very little about concrete issues, will no doubt think: Well, some trans folks can’t have kids but obviously some can—look at M! Who’s to say this Chloe person won’t be able to do likewise? They won’t know that M’s transition began at age 50, after she had already had kids, and passed the age of fertility.
If Masha at 50 chooses to become M, take testosterone shots and get her breasts cut off, that’s her right. Even if she regrets it someday, she understood her choices. To pretend that Chloe Cole, Keira Bell or the next troubled teen is in the same position is breathtakingly dishonest. And lots of well meaning Times readers will fall for the trap M. has laid for them.