wait… What? This is a dude?

As if life and the universe aren’t diverse and complex enough as it is. As a species, we wont be happy until we’ve fucked and distorted everything within our influence. Just because we can, doesn’t mean we should.

@...Finn: It looks like a ‘girl’ because its taken great pains, and lengthy unnatural transitioning to become so. I can wear a pretty convincing Zombie costume, but i’m not gonna start eating brains.

You just referenced a completely unrelated topic.
This person was ‘born’ as a boy. A normal healthy boy, then began to use drugs and other drastic measures to obtain a completely different gender.
You can Wiki all you like, it isn’t going to justify that mentality.

I use the word “Normal” in context to the very distinct biological boundaries that human kind should NEVER cross. Its one thing to choose your sexuality, and something else entirely to think you can swap genders at your leisure. Humans are Unstable, greedy, immature,… the list goes on. This was NEVER meant to be a decision for the fragile human mind to undertake. We’ve become so damn obsessed with the question of whether or not we ‘could’ we never stopped to think if we ‘Should’.

If our messed up society didn’t offer the option, he would have lived a happy life as a homosexual or a cross dresser, god knows. People that are completely happy, and didn’t need to make dangerous and radical augmentations to their natural form. But when you start chopping off, and sewing on new parts, you cross the line from ‘life choice’ to ‘mad science’. The technology shouldn’t exist.

You trivialize a horrendous decision in the hands of a teenager. This kid is barely conscious enough to decide what to wear, or what to eat, but now we’re letting them choose their gender? The ramifications, both socially, and biologically are paramount, but no, this ‘Kid’ thinks he was given a bad deal, so he whines to ma and pa, and they sign on the dotted line, and BAM!!! Your a girl now.

Does the ease of this situation not Erk anyone else? Where do we draw the line? Soon people will be altering their childrens gender at infancy, just because they hoped for something different. China would have a field day with this. Mark my words, we will go too far, and nature will start to retaliate.

@...Caio: As always, missing the point entirely. Ethnological, Cultural, Social, each term completely out of place. I’m happy for all your immense knowledge regarding all these topics. The question at hand is Biological.
Should a teenager be faced with the immense decision of changing something as absolute as gender? I’m not talking about ‘gender roles’ within society, though i’m sure your rant may have been very impressive in the proper context.

@...Caio: I appreciate you deciding to actually join the discussion, and not continue hurling flippant remarks. Its slightly more becoming.

I believe that as a species, we should have some boundaries. I don’t presume to dictate these boundaries, but from my perspective, allowing a teenager of a species that is fundamentally childish from an outside perspective, should not be given the freedom or option to alter something so sacred.
Regardless our spotty history, i’m proud of humankind, and I feel that this particular action trivializes a big part of what makes us human.

@...Brevity Truta: Good article, and while it touches on the subject, it deals with infants that are somehow naturally born without a gender. Not exactly the current debate. Scary in itself however. The doctors abstaining from interference sort of coincides with my beliefs that things are the way they are for a reason. We start horsing around with important genetic and biological boundaries, then where will that thinking eventually lead us? Dr. moreaus indeed.

@...MrDooves: oh, i work out for many reasons. 1. you look better. 2. you feel better. 3. you live and stay healthy longer.
How is this relevant? Lay it on me smart guy.

@...bajizzle: That thread was a month ago. Hold a grudge much? For internet folk, you all get offended pretty easily.
I wasn’t bragging about being a yoga instructor, and I only bother bringing it up when its pertinent to the conversation, so stop acting like a jealous 10 year old. Only reason I have so many posts, is because I’m responding to the comments of several, each raising points to be replied to.

@...elzarcothepale:Due to the stubborn mentality of most internet folk, *myself included* there is no such thing as winning a debate here. Nobody would ever budge or concede to a point, no matter how well founded. I was here to express my opinion, and read and absorb what I can from the responses.
Some people however, are unable to take a mature standpoint on matters like this. They get emo angsty about the subject matter, and instead of discussing the issue, they throw insults.
When someone does that in a debate, it constitutes a fairly firm loss. Or to the layman *Fail*
The only way you could reason out loss for me, is because my perspective is vastly outnumbered on this thread. That doesn’t make me wrong. There were lots of Nazi’s too, but it doesn’t mean their cause was well founded.

All that aside, i was glad to discuss this topic with the few that took it seriously. And I consider myself a bit better off for the wisdom of those involved.

@...Phyreblade: Though I see your point, I find the comparison to be quite a stretch. Up until the last few hundred years, working out didn’t really exist. However, recently, we’ve developed so many technologies that negate the need for natural health and fitness. We’ve grown lazy, working out is just a structured way of obtaining that which should have naturally occurred. I emphasize the term ‘natural’. The process of improving our physical form should be obtained through natural means. Eating healthy foods, and building tone for the sake of full body efficiency in a gradual and structured regimen with your own health and standard of living in mind.

I don’t approve of body building for sheer aesthetics, and certainly not the use of steroids, or other influences that would exceed that of a natural course. This is however the low end of the spectrum, Gender swap is topping the charts for me currently.

Doing what our body and muscles were meant to do to achieve a healthier and more natural form. Do you see what I’m getting at. I don’t see fitness as “augmentation”. I see it as the process of perfecting and obtaining what was naturally intended. So I don’t find your comparison very pertinent.

Certainly, in regard to someone born with indeterminable gender, you’re in a different topic altogether. If you weren’t dealt a hand at all, then science has afforded us the option to give them another chance, and for that I applaud them. But for someone who was born with a healthy natural body and gender, then to reject your natural course and use drastic measures to alter it far beyond that of convention. Thats where I start to question the moral and biological validity of such a decision. Especially when being made by a teenager, who knows so little of the world already. There are children born everyday with birth defects, or gender problems, or mutations that would give anything to achieve what this kid so easily balked. Do you see my point?

Straight out, i wanna stress the fact that I would never talk down to someone who was making this decision themselves unless they asked for my honest opinion. I’m not a complete asshole, and I have a bit of tact, but this thread gives people the opportunity to put their perspective on the table for review. I feel I need a damn disclaimer because people are so anxious to attack me just for ‘having’ an opinion.

@...Phyreblade: All of your points were well made. we’ll have to agree to disagree at this point, but i think we can set this topic to rest happily.

Of course you are right, its nearly impossible to live within society and exist in a natural state. Natural conventions have been modified to suit our current reality. There really is a huge spectrum though.
Comparing preservatives in food, or hormones in the beef to gender manipulation is indeed difficult to correlate, but i understand your perspective.

I’ll mention again that I wasn’t really viewing this topic from an individual perspective, but on a much grander scale. It doesn’t worry me that a single person chose to switch their gender, it worries me what this means for our future. As a species, we aren’t happy until we’ve modified, and augmented and botched everything within our influence. Whats the next step I ask you, and where will we finally draw the line, when something as important as gender is no longer sacred?

Soon we’ll be cloning, genetically engineering our babies before birth, and ripping apart the very building blocks of life just to say we did. I love scientific progress, but there are reasons for certain things. Reasons that exceed our understanding. We’re slowly robbing the life stream of the mystique it once held.

Thank you, at long last, for a civilized discussion. I’ll take away some of your wisdom, and hopefully vise versa?