Where to begin? Who wants to take a look in my underpants? Anyone? No takers? That’s fair. It’s grim I’ll tell you. A forest, with a small tree stump and a couple of dried up button mushrooms. Anyway enough about my genitalia, let’s talk about yours! Whatcha got? Go on, show me. No? No takers again? No? I have a badge, I’m the Underpants Police. Spread ’em! I’ve held off writing about the ‘trans issue’ mainly because well I’m not transgender and from my point of view there seemed to be a lot of vitriol flying around and I have been trying to get past that to form some cogent thoughts, but I’ve had enough now. The phrase that I’ve just used – ‘trans issue’ is a problem for me because there isn’t an issue. Trans people, as a section of society are not an ‘issue.’ They are human beings.
The psychological distress a person may experience if their sex assignment at birth does not align with their gender identity.
GENDER DYSPHORIA – the psychological process of identity
I’m going to make one thing very clear. I don’t give a fuck what you’re packing. And again, let me take a moment to flag up the privilege of being me. I don’t think anyone is in doubt of who and what I am, least of all me. But… how do you actually know? It’s a select few (cough, cough) who actually get to see me naked. How do you know I’m not something that I don’t outwardly seem? I’m not. I feel so lucky that I’ve always known who and what I am. I know that I am a forty year old white, straight bloke who likes the theatre, rugby, reading, video games, chocolate and whatever is on a screen, whether it be film or tv. O and Lego, I like Lego. I am afforded the ability to never having to question what I am, never having to consider I might be something else. It just doesn’t factor into my thinking at all. These concerns around gender don’t exist for me. I get to worry about other stuff, but my fundamental, elemental self is not under question.
But there are some people who do. From an early age, their overwhelming concern is that they are not who they outwardly project. I don’t know enough about transgender people. I don’t study it, I don’t believe I have any close friends who are trans, but I do know one thing. They are human beings who are, at one stage in their life, in distress and need to be considered as such. I’m going to try not to condescend to one community or another. But fuck me, leave them the fuck alone, they’ve got enough going on without the rest of us wondering what’s going on in their underpants. Transgender people make up about 0.5% of the population of the UK. There seems to be a lot of news coverage considering, 1. I imagine they just want to be left alone to live their lives without fear of persecution and 2. there’s not a lot of them. They’re hardly going about marauding everywhere. Trans people are just trying to live their lives. Like you, like me.
There seems to be a big issue about female only spaces. And I agree that the female side of the species is the one that has been persecuted by the male side of the species for too long now. If you study the stats and speak in generalities, men are the predators. Men are the issue, not trans people. How are men kept out of female only spaces? Essentially if you look like a bloke it’s frowned upon if you walk into the women’s changing room. Ok. What if you are born a female and still are female and have always been female but are taller than the average, bulkier than the average, have a short hair cut, haven’t gotten round to whipping off the fuzz on your top lip? What then? Do you get stopped and asked what’s in your underpants before you’re allowed into the female changing room. The Underpants Police check your dingly dangly bits? The people you have a problem with are men, not the less than 1% of our country who are certain that they are in the wrong body. That when they were growing into their awareness of their own selves, they felt that they were not the sex that they were born into.
And here’s the thing that there doesn’t seem to be a lot of discussion about. What about trans men? If female only spaces are for those who are female at birth, that means that women who are transitioning to become a man are assigned to the female only changing room. Because it’s what in your underpants that matters right? These people who probably have more testosterone in their body than me, who probably look more manly than me will be in the female only changing room. Because they’re female right, regardless of how they look and feel within themselves. There seems to be this obsession with defining what a woman is. Who gives a fuck! We’re all human beings, we all need to do better.
Last thing I want you to consider. How many trans people do you know? How many men do you know? When have you ever felt afraid in the presence of a trans person? When have you ever felt afraid in the presence of a man? These questions are rhetorical. I know the answers. You know the answers.
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