Neuroscience

I don't know about this. Treating people with respect ought not depend on identifying some anatomical feature. Situating that feature in the brain does not make it any better.

For those who question the slogan “Trans Women are Women,” the science provides a compelling answer. Gender identity is deeply rooted in brain development, and transgender women have been shown to possess brain structures that align more closely with cisgender women than cisgender men. The term “woman” is not just about chromosomes or reproductive capacity; it is a social and neurological identity shaped by a complex interplay of biology, psychology, and lived experience.

When TERFs or gender-critical individuals ask, “What is a woman?” the most accurate response is, “A woman is someone who identifies and experiences themselves as a woman, and this identity is supported by both social and biological science. Brain studies show that transgender women have neurological patterns that differ from cisgender men and align more closely with cisgender women. To reduce womanhood to mere reproductive function ignores the complexity of human identity and the science behind gender.”

Basically, far too many people have seen descriptors like “not fully developed” and taken that to mean it’s like a partially assembled Ikea bookshelf; a work in progress, something that will be able to do it’s job when it’s done, but not until then”.

That’s not how brains work, though. At every stage of development, they’re ‘functional’. Young brains allow us to walk, speak, perceive, connect, deduce, calculate, coordinate, decide, respond, focus, retain, and all the other stuff your standard human brain does all day every day to successfully navigate our increasingly complex world. 

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Why do people insist otherwise? Unclear. But it’s not based on any particular scientific study or claim. At best, it seems to be a corruption/misunderstanding of a few older studies into brain development, ones which mentioned, or only used subjects under the age of, 25. But didn’t make any grand claims about this being some developmental cut-off point, or the moment when your brain dings like a microwave, to let you know that it’s ‘done’.

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Let’s be clear; more often than not, anyone invoking the ‘people under 25 years old don’t have functional brains’ argument, is doing so to support their position or beliefs, whatever they may be.

That’s why someone can be deemed too young to understand the decision to, say, get an abortion, and simultaneously be declared mature enough to have and raise a baby.

Or young men under 25 can be ‘too young’ to be expected to stop themselves from committing crimes like sexual assault, but are definitely old enough to receive the full adult punishment for joining a terrorist organisation, or entering another country by non-legal means. And so on.