> why do you consider it to be a problem in the mind, rather than the body
One argument is that it's a category error to call gender wrong. Your ethnicity, gender and wealth of your parents etc. just is, it's the hand you are dealt with. You can be unhappy with it but it can't be "wrong" just like the country you are born in can't be "wrong".
If someone is distressed about the country they are born in to the point of suicide, we'd class it as a mental condition. Such a thought can be rational but it's the degree of distress that suggests disorder rather than a healthy preference/observation of one's situation. It does have a rather obvious "do what works" sticking plaster.
The concern with sticking plasters is if they end our curiosity about the underlying condition. If we normalise them such they are considered inviolable part of the culture, political sacred cows and the one true solution that cannot be questioned. I expect that hairdrier lady's OCD was not limited to just her hairdrier - the sticking plaster hopefully reduced acute disruption/distress that made more fundamental treatment tractable.
(FWIW, despite articulating this argument, I can argue against it. I don't hold any confident position in this culture war maelstrom of bigotry and questionable scientific/philosophical claims.)
One argument is that it's a category error to call gender wrong. Your ethnicity, gender and wealth of your parents etc. just is, it's the hand you are dealt with. You can be unhappy with it but it can't be "wrong" just like the country you are born in can't be "wrong".
If someone is distressed about the country they are born in to the point of suicide, we'd class it as a mental condition. Such a thought can be rational but it's the degree of distress that suggests disorder rather than a healthy preference/observation of one's situation. It does have a rather obvious "do what works" sticking plaster.
The concern with sticking plasters is if they end our curiosity about the underlying condition. If we normalise them such they are considered inviolable part of the culture, political sacred cows and the one true solution that cannot be questioned. I expect that hairdrier lady's OCD was not limited to just her hairdrier - the sticking plaster hopefully reduced acute disruption/distress that made more fundamental treatment tractable.
(FWIW, despite articulating this argument, I can argue against it. I don't hold any confident position in this culture war maelstrom of bigotry and questionable scientific/philosophical claims.)