On Sex

In this NYTimes article about "transmen" or "transmales" (women who decide to be men), we see this underlying idea that gender is chosen and that any person, including a child, can make a choice about his gender:

And some of these parents, under a doctor’s supervision, have even begun to administer hormone blockers to prevent the arrival of secondary sex characteristics until a “gender variant” child is old enough to make permanent choices. The Internet also offers greater access to information about transmale and gender-variant identities.

This reminds me of an Ursula LeGuin short story about a society in which peoples' sex can change from month to month. Not only is the enlightenment, individualistic aspect of this quotation distressing (in which the assumption is that we can transcend ourselves and make an informed decision about what we want to be), but possibly even more distressing is the fact that the Internet is the new community that informs our choices. This is like going to New York City to learn how to drive. And, once again, implicit here is the idea that information can be unbiased.