A Book Review… So Much For Gender Being A Social Construct
By JEFF KOLOZE
Ryan T. Anderson’s When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment (Encounter Books, 2018). Available at Amazon.com.
Being transgender is a serious matter, and Ryan T. Anderson’s When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment demonstrates how ridiculous the aggressive transgender lobby has become in its efforts to force its ideology on the nation.
Anderson’s book could be extremely controversial because it offers facts, not irrational opinions by aggressive transgender activists. He offers common sense and scholarly thought, not unscientific claims by the same aggressive transgender movement. He often provides interesting tidbits of information which carry significant social implications.
Peppered throughout the work is Anderson’s profound respect for transgendered persons who either are anguished over their sexual confusion or those who have suffered at the hands of doctors, activists, and other gender ideologues who compelled them to undergo sex change surgery.
Anderson, the William E. Simon senior research fellow at The Heritage Foundation, does not hesitate to state facts which may make aggressive transgender activists not merely uncomfortable, but belligerent — facts which are obvious to the rest of us who know biology and live in reality. Perhaps the most controversial (for some) fact is Anderson’s statement of what everybody knows, or at least thought they knew before transgender ideologues hijacked higher education, the media, and the federal government under Obama: the definition of “sex” and “gender.”
“The best biology, psychology, and philosophy,” Anderson writes, “all support an understanding of sex as a bodily reality, and of gender as a social manifestation of bodily sex.”
An obvious linguistic fact should be remembered by everybody opposed to the aggressive transgender ideology. Sex is not “assigned,” as though the designation of “boy” or “girl” is forced on someone at his or her birth, but “recognized” for obvious reasons. Anderson discusses genuine cases of sexual ambiguity at birth thoroughly with scientific language, not in the mere opinions of transgender activists.
Another significantly controversial matter, for the aggressive transgender movement at least, is the claim based in scientific research that sex-change surgery is “fundamentally cooperating with a mental illness.” Anderson highlights the ridiculousness of the claim that “we should be alarmed (say the [transgender] activists) if a professional tries to help a boy who thinks he’s a girl come to understand that he is actually a boy, seeking to understand the reasons for his false belief and to help him identify with his body.”
Anderson admits that discussing transgender ideas may be perplexing to ordinary folk. “If the claims presented in this chapter strike you as confusing,” he writes, “you’re not alone. The claims of transgender activists are inherently confused and filled with internal contradictions. Activists never acknowledge those contractions but opportunistically rely on whichever claim is useful at any given moment.”
Similarly, the idea of a man being trapped in a woman’s body and vice-versa, Anderson says, “corresponds with the beliefs of many transsexual individuals, who consider it helpful in ‘gaining cultural legitimacy’ for their identity.”
Talk about not mincing words!
Anderson’s common sense and scholarly thought is evident throughout the work. He identifies five areas of concern regarding public policy and specifically comments on the effect of the “postmodern worldview” on medical care for transgender persons. He argues cogently “that medical practice is seriously compromised by an ideological agenda” and that this ideology leads to the coercion of those who disagree with transgender activists’ opinions.
Anderson’s discussion of how transgender activists have made their ideology a religion is compelling. For example, regarding the Gender Unicorn given to schoolchildren to indoctrinate them into gender ideology, he offers a concise sentence about the effect this character has on children: “These are the dogmas they are likely to be catechized to profess.”
What tidbits of information that carry significant social implications? I thought it was fascinating that research in newborn boys and girls proves sexual differences, where “boys tend to gravitate toward balls or toy cars [how our grandsons testify to this fact!], whereas girls more typically reach for a doll [how our granddaughters testify to this fact!].” These sex differences are evident even in monkeys.
So much for gender being a social construct.
Eminently Helpful
While one tidbit could be a joke on the order of “Smell this!” it was interesting to read that a father’s pheromones affects a daughter’s puberty: “a father’s presence affects his daughter, as the pheromones released from his body slow down her sexual development. That makes her less likely to experience early puberty and less likely to be sexually active before marriage. The rate of teenage pregnancy is far lower among girls who have had a father at home throughout their childhood and adolescence than among those whose father has left the home sometime before they turn eighteen, and this effect is greater the longer a father sticks around.”
Conclusion: Dads, smell away! We are helping our daughters to respect their sexuality by just being our hairy, smelly selves.
Joking aside, though, Anderson’s work is well-researched and would thus complement every student’s research paper on transgender issues and politics. Even the most severe leftist professor would have a difficult time challenging Anderson’s ideas (unless, of course, that leftist professor was tenured and thought he or she could punish a student with impunity for valid research which contradicts his or her idea of gender ideology).
For the rest of us who simply want to know more about the distortion of gender ideology forced on us by the transgender lobby, Anderson’s book is eminently helpful. The endnotes are filled with bibliographic information, and the index is comprehensive. Best of all, Anderson’s writing style is professional but not erudite.
For example, the paragraph on the contradictions of transgender thought should be used as an example of exemplary point-by-point contrast writing in every English class. Even if one finds himself or herself making marginal notes on almost every page, the entire work can be read in two days’ time — time well worth the investment.
