If you understand
I think the sentence “cis people shouldn’t be in charge of trans people’s healthcare” is just as true as “men shouldn’t be in charge of women’s healthcare”. If you understand why one is true, take some time to realise that it’s the same reasons that make the other true.
Well let’s slow down. Is the one true? Is it a general truth that “men shouldn’t be in charge of women’s healthcare”? In what sense of “in charge”? Setting policy, or administering policy that is already in place? Is it true that no men should be part of an administration that includes women’s health? My answer would be no. I think women should be involved, certainly, but I don’t think that has to mean no men should be involved. So I don’t think the one is true, let alone understand why it is. It’s too sloppy and general to be true, which is often a problem with Twitter – people hawk up clever-sounding aphorisms like this that turn out to be silly if you look at them for more than a second.
But even if I did “understand why” that one is true, that wouldn’t make the first one true. If a trans person gets the flu, is it bad or risky or unjust for a “cis” doctor to provide treatment? If so, why, exactly? Can the principle be extended to everything? If you’re a person who climbs mountains, does that mean you need a doctor who climbs mountains? Or a hospital administration that does?
If it became a principle that only trans people can be in charge of trans people’s health, where will they come from? Are there enough medically trained trans people for this to work?
I think further consideration is needed before we take this bold step.
* No non-A are properly in charge of H(A). Where A is the set of all people with a particular attribute, and H(S) is the healthcare of set S.
You are absolutely right, Ophelia. This is just dumb and clearly not a generalizable form. If we were to generalize it, we’d find that no one without cancer should be in charge of the healthcare of someone with cancer. Which seems totally in line with the nonsensical view that having a condition makes one an expert, or at least provides special, non-transferrable knowledge about that condition.
And to take that a step further, only schizophrenics should be in charge of the healthcare of schizophrenics. I think we might see a problem there. Or still better, no non-toddler should be in charge of health care for toddlers. Wow. This could lead to some interesting complications.
The problem with the health care issue is that there are implications of trans that go beyond just trans. You have males reporting to hospitals and clinics as females; it would be easy to make the mistake of missing the real problem if you don’t realize that this person has testicles, or if you’re not allowed to admit it, but said person has testicular cancer. Or if a trans man happens to be pregnant. If you are not allowed to treat them as a woman, you might miss their pregnancy (if they’re good at passing), or you might find yourself dealing with a load of garbage when you assume this pregnant person is, in fact, a female.
“Non-anorexics shouldn’t be in charge of anorexic people’s health care.”
Now that one looks suspicious.
Because it’s of the form “No non-A should be in charge of H(A),” we can have even more fun by noting that it’s equivalent to “No A should be in charge of H(non-A).” Example:
“No doctors should be in charge of non-doctors’ healthcare.”
Nullius, you are a genius. (And therefore, no non-genius should be in charge of your healthcare).
As a playwright, I say no non-playwright should be in charge of my healthcare. Oh, wait. No, I don’t want the playwrights I know to be in charge of my healthcare. Maybe I should go with as an Ecologist? No, I don’t want that either. How about an atheist? Well, my current doctor is a Christian, and he’s doing a good job, so…Oops.
Hey, wait, I am trained in health care (as a medical assistant), so I could just say no one not trained in health care should be in charge of my health care. I like that much better.
I guess wise aphorisms are just wasted on people like us. Sad.
“No non-criminal should be in charge of the healthcare of criminals.”
Weird, all those criminals declared not responsible for their actions by reason of insanity…
This is so incredibly silly. We may as well invent a category of people, flargons, declare ourselves flargons, and then declare that no non-flargon should be in charge of policy over us. Instant coup.
I’d hazard a guess that the thinking behind that ridiculous statement is that ‘cis’ healthworkers are less inclined to play along with the fantastical trans ideology. The delicate darlings need validation from everybody, and what use is a doctor who won’t refer to a transwoman’s hersticles (I think I just made that term up but wouldn’t be surprised if it’s extant)?
“cis people shouldn’t be in charge of trans people’s healthcare”
If true, doesn’t it logically follow that transpeople shouldn’t be in charge of the public discourse on women’s rights?
But if transwomen are women, and they are (we know, because they say it very loudly, very often) then it isn’t the same thing at all, because they are women, and it is putting women (probably the only true women, if we were willing to admit it, dintya know?) in charge of the discourse on women’s rights. Snatching it from those man-like feminists who refuse to wear pink and frills, and don’t put on high heels to mow the lawn or go shopping.
So trans people should have inferior access to healthcare due to the fact that they would by necessity have more restricted access to doctors?
Re #8
I saw a post a few months ago that was supposedly documenting the discriminatory care trans people were getting. In a number of cases, the problem was using the wrong pronouns. In some cases, it was refusing to provide medically unnecessary hormone therapy. There were some cases of mockery and refused treatment, mixed in with a lot of “validation”.
Here’s how it works:
http://imgbox.com/LLxojDA9
The trans woman experience contains all that the woman contains, plus its own exclusive domain. Trans women have experience with womanhood and being trans, women only know the former.