Transexual but not transcedental

Enjoyed Transamerica, a movie exploring the awkward experiences of a male-to-female transexual who eventually succeeded to have the life she wanted. Coincidentally, read the next day on WSJ about Dr. Ben Barres, a female-to-male transexual i met many years ago, before his "transformation".

In the WSJ interview, Barres held strongly that there is really no difference in intelligence between males and females, himself being the living proof. and he recounted how he was then discriminated as a she and now well respected as a he. Adding to the amazing personal experiences was his expert knowledge on the well-established plasticity of neurons.

What can be more convincing? ! Well, not to get into the debate of intelligence per se, i have to say i am rather disappointed by his arguments.

For one, any personal experience, no matter how extraorindary, is not necessarily a path to truth. therefore, all he had said needs to be qualified as "me thinks ...". Because, to prove what he believes, he still has to conduct scientific studies, to define intelligence and to compare large enough numbers of boys and girls. Secondly, as badly as he had portraited it, one can also argue that discrimination against Dr. Barres as a scientist and against him as a transexual was actually not powerful enough to have prevented him from obtaining the professorship in the former or changing his sex in the latter case, suggesting that something more fundamental was at work. To me, it is evident that there exists biological basis determining both human sexuality and gender differences in obtaining knowledge, both of which can be readily, albeit imprecisely, appreciated in daily life and can be studied seriouslly by scientists.

Thus, it is a benignly rational, if irratating to some, hypothesis that the innate difference could be ONE OF the contributing factors to a disproportional representation of the two sexes in scientific research, which does not really diminish discrimination against women being another key factor, as Dr. Barres so acutely experienced and recounted. And one should not ignore the slow but profound societal improvement/adjustment which has yet to reflect upon the current composition of the scientific minds. Knowing them all helps us learn how we have become us, as individuals and as human beings.