Making A Woman A Woman: Beyond Anatomy
Science has long wanted to explain everything, and society wants to control it. The idea of gender being attached to an outward physical appearance and anatomy has been engrained in our society for centuries. And yet, what does anatomy actually have to do with gender?
Are there any real connections or simply roles that we have been taught to play since birth?
In ancient Indian philosophies, specifically Tantra, it is thought that every individual has both male and female energies present in the body. Much like the Chinese concept of yin and yang, both are needed in order to find balance. These two energies manifest at different times, according to what is needed in unique life experiences, transitioning fluidly for some people between the two, while others are more dominant with one or the other.
Less connected to the physical body and more related to the psyche, this tradition teaches that a feminine psyche is highly charged spiritually, making individuals that identify as female more emotionally awakened and sensitive.
Modern science, however, doesn’t like to teach what can’t be proven by tests or data, which is why for some the concept of a male body identifying as a female can seem confusing. In reality, though, there is nothing abnormal or out of the ordinary about this occurring. It is a natural state of being alive, the natural outcome of energy as it moves throughout the world.
Within the last few decades, many people in society have started to recognize the need to break free from gender stereotypes that are attached to human anatomy, and move into a world where individuals are free to flow and identify with something that is much more profound - and true.
Of course, modern science wants to keep up, conducting new studies that try to explain the brain of people who are transgender or that choose to fluidly identify with gender - or no gender at all.
According to a recent study published in Scientific American, “Trans people have brains that are different from males and females, a unique kind of brain.” Psychobiologist Antonio Guillamon, who has been studying transgender people at universities in Madrid and Barcelona says that, “it is simplistic to say that a female-to-male transgender person is a female trapped in a male body. It's not because they have a male brain but a transsexual brain.” In his initial studies, researchers found that it’s the brain, not the body, that dictates gender identity, noting that individuals with male anatomy who identified as female had brains that reacted like a female brain, not a male’s as one would expect.
It is time for society to transition, recognizing that gender roles of the past are not just confining and prohibitive, but also false.
To be a woman has nothing to do with anatomy.
Being a woman is a mindset, an energy, a different way of thinking. Being a woman is an art that everyone should be allowed to experience and express.