Friday, January 9, 2009

"I'll take, 'What are you' for $2000, Alex"

Of course it's going to be a daily double, and me being without money the house rules would apply. So I'd get to wager $2000 anyway.
"The answer is, ...'This is the category that Stephanie fits into'."
(cue the music)
...'What is_____?'
Yep, there goes the money, now I'm 2k in the hole, because there is no word to put into the blank. Doctors only have 'boy' or 'girl' to choose from and the middle ground is not recognized, yet. Someday tests may be made before the declaration is made, but not yet. That leaves me, and people like me, transsexuals, with only the two to choose from, and society dictates that we must choose. We have to be one or the other. But do we? Could we not have our own 'middle' category, and be proud of it, and work to make society accept us as that, as we are? By working to change societies view of us, we could reduce greatly the amount of importance that is put on the way we look, now a detouring factor for thousands of transgender people who do not live a fulfilled life. Those of us who have transitioned know how much better it feels to be our true selves, and this with us living with the stigma that society deals us. Imagine it gone, freedom for all of us to be ourselves. Bliss.
Society is changing, slowly. Acceptance is much better than just a few years ago, but it could be moved along much faster. I think if we, the transgender, didn't put so much importance in the final goal, SRS, and be proud to be a middle gender, a bi-gender, society would accept us sooner. We are finding out that there are millions of people considered transgender, but in the big world we are still just a small percentage, rare, and anything that is rare is special. We are special, we should be proud of that.

... just a dreamer,
Stephanie

2 comments:

Renee said...

No one goes to bed wishing they could be transsexual...they go to bed wishing they could be a girl, or a woman (or a boy, or a man, if you're FtM). The word "transsexual" was created to describe a condition, not a social role.

So I'm less interested in defining a middle ground than expanding society's definition of "woman". Some would it's the same thing, but I see it as being completely different.

Stephanie said...

Renee: Expanding society's definition of "woman" and "man" would mean that they would have to overlap somewhere in the middle. Giving that middle ground it's own name would make it easier for the people in the middle to accept themselves, and make that line the people on the extreme ends see so clearly now a bit more blurry, maybe even erasing it someday. ...But then, this entire post may have it's flaws. It was written by someone who thinks of herself as female and would rush to correct her physical deformaties if she had the financial means. ...sigh. Afterwards, I may have a different view entirely, as you know, post-op, some of us do. A girls perogative, I understand!