Gender Hypotheticals Compendium

There have been some thought experiments going around with regards to figuring out one’s gender identity. After all, transgender people are having a bit of a cultural moment, and now people who never would have considered it before have begun to wonder.

Wait, am I trans?

How would I know?

While “the button” has become somewhat famous, other thought experiments are less well-known. I have decided to list as many of them as I can, all in one post that people can reference and link.

SECTION A, THE BUTTONS:

1. Imagine you discover a magical button. Pressing it will change you into another sex, painlessly and with everyone else understanding and relating to you as the associated gender. The button will break after you press it. Do you press it?
2. Rather than the above, imagine you discover a different magical button. This button erases any and all doubts you have about your gender. From now on, you will never doubt your assigned gender again. You will have no memory of finding this button or pressing it. Do you press it?
3. Imagine you’re in a room with both buttons, which (if any) would you press?
4. Now imagine you see the buttons, but are instantly stopped by a guard, who says “you are obviously your birth-assigned gender, what are you trying to do?” how would you feel?
5. Imagine you wake up in your bed and your body has had a magical and unexpected sex change. Beside your bed is a button that can reverse this change and get you back to normal. Do you press it?
6. Imagine someone is willing to pay you money to press the first button. How much money would they have to pay you for you to press it?
7. Conversely, imagine someone is willing to pay you money to press the second button. How much money would they have to pay you for you to press it?
8. Imagine you find a magic machine that lets you design your ideal body, and then changes your body to match this design. You can mix and match or omit and include anything from any body you like. What features would that body have or deliberately lack? Remember, these changes are permanent and everyone will notice.
9. Imagine you find a magic machine that lets you design your ideal mind, and then changes your mind to match this design. You can give yourself a variety of different traits, including making yourself more comfortable with the gender you were assigned, or fitting that gender more stereotypically. What features would that mind have or deliberately lack? Remember, these changes are permanent and everyone will notice.
10. If you could press a button to make everyone believe you were a specific gender, but you didn’t have to change anything about your body, would you press it?
11. If you woke up, and everyone collectively believed you were a different gender than you are, even though your body didn’t change at all, and there was a button to press to go back to normal, would you press it?

SECTION B, CERTAIN KNOWLEDGE:

1. Imagine there’s a perfect test that can conclusively determine your gender. What gender would you hope for? Would you try and skew the answers? Which way?
2. Imagine you take the perfectly accurate test, and the results are “mild gender confusion, not trans, do not transition”. How would that make you feel?
3. Imagine you take the perfectly accurate test, and the results are “transgender, begin planning transition”. How would that make you feel?
4. Imagine some great spirit appears to you in the night, telling you that your whole life has been predestined and that your future will involve you living as the gender you were assigned at birth until you die of old age. How would that make you feel?
5. Imagine some great spirit appears to you in the night, telling you that your whole life has been predestined and that your future will involve you medically transitioning to make your body fit a different gender, after which you will live a long life until you die of old age. How would that make you feel?

SECTION C, THE DESERTED ISLAND:

1. Imagine you’re stranded on a deserted island by yourself with no hope of rescue. You find an abandoned town and enough supplies to live in comfort. What would you wear? Would you present masculinely? Femininely? Neither? A mix? Sometimes one and sometimes the other?
2. You later find a lifetime supply of hormones in the deserted island, with perfect instructions for use and dosage. Would you take them?
3. Later, as you are exploring this island, you stumble across the room containing the two buttons from question A3, which button (if any) would you press?
4. You continue to explore the island and you stumble across the magic machine that lets you design your ideal body. Would you use it? If so, what would you change?
5. You continue to explore the island and you stumble across the magic machine that lets you design your ideal mind. Would you use it? If so, what would you change?

SECTION D, SOCIETY:

1. What would your birth sex have to mean/imply for you to be comfortable with it?
2. If there was a society where all of the gender roles were flipped, so that everything you consider stereotypically feminine was considered masculine and vice versa, would you be more comfortable or less comfortable in that society?
3. If you came across a machine that allowed you to redesign gender roles from scratch, and when you were done with it everybody would just think that your version was “normal” and “just how things are” and never questioned it, what changes would you make? What things wouldn’t you change?
4. If there was some stereotype of people of the gender you were assigned that fit perfectly with all of the things you want out of life, would that bring you comfort or frustration?
5. What if instead, no stereotype fit you for any gender, but society was delighted and intrigued by gender-non-conforming people, and saw that as a good thing? How would that make you feel?
6. Imagine there was a very nice and attractive straight person who was very interested in you and saw no conflict between their sexuality and their attraction to you. What would that make you feel? What if that person is a man? What if that person is a woman?
7. Imagine there was a very nice and attractive gay person who was very interested in you and saw no conflict between their sexuality and their attraction to you. What would that make you feel? What if that person is a man? What if that person is a woman?
8. If there was a person attracted to you specifically because you fit that stereotype from question D4, how would that make you feel?
9. If your family was very proud that you want to transition, how would that make you feel?
10. If you lived in a matriarchy where women are the default, make all the laws and decisions, and are expected to be strong, would that change anything about how you want to present or what you want your body to look like?
11. If you lived in a society where men are expected to be soft and sensitive, and wear billowy and spinny clothing, wear makeup and be beautiful, would that change anything about how you want to present or what you want your body to look like?
12. If people believed you when you told them what your gender is, no matter your appearance, and they believed you wholeheartedly and without having to put effort into doing so or correct themselves, what would you tell them your gender is?

THIS LIST WILL BE UPDATED UPON RECEIVING SUGGESTIONS OF MORE HYPOTHETICALS TO ADD.