The Straight Dope - The Transgender Question

[MadelineB]

The transgender question
By Cecil Adams
THE STRAIGHT DOPE
AUGUST 16, 2012

http://www.connectsavannah.com/news/article/107045/

Fact is, most transsexuals agree there's something wrong with them. The difference is they think it's with their bodies, while unsympathetic outsiders say it's with their heads.

The professional view of transsexuality is evolving. DSM-V, currently under development, proposes replacing gender identity disorder with "gender dysphoria." But others think the whole notion of transsexuality as a disorder should be abandoned.

Not to get all peace-and-love about it, but the core issue really is unhappiness. DSM-III dropped the old classification of homosexuality as a disorder because of the dawning realization that whatever gays and lesbians might be unhappy about, it wasn't about being gay or lesbian as such-the main issue was social disapproval. In contrast, even with all the social acceptance in the world, transsexuals are still going to think they're the wrong sex.

Some researchers think a percentage of transsexuals have an underlying physiological condition, essentially a wrong-gendered brain. Regardless, few in the field believe transsexual impulses can be eradicated or cured.

The surgery part is what makes some people recoil. Another way to look at it is that sex reassignment surgery or hormone treatment is more like a full-body tattoo. Would I do it? No, but I don't much care if other people do.

[AbraCadabra]

All fine by me - unless I'm missing something.

This whole transition issue is actually (in my current thinking) VERY much related towards: "WHAT YOU ARE SEEN FOR TO BE, YOU ARE TREATED AS"

If you are female at heart and soul, but not in body and get treated male it eventually just GETS TOO MUCH for our system. And so transition points the way out of the dilemma - not for everyone but quite some of us.

As soon as one is addressed in ones right (brain) gender, the issue is pretty well solved, and that is also my experience. I.e. the 'GD thing' moves into the past and we can attempt to live a normal, far less repressed live - compared to pre-transition.

If 'everyone and his uncle' would be able to treat us (in the case of MtF) like we were actually female/cis-female, IF... then would we be OK without transition???

Hard to say, as I think it is so ingrained in our upbringing and current society values that this, at least for me, is quite unthinkable.

Would we be OK with a male body, IF all this was one day to be (being accepted female in male body)?
If asked right now --- again I cannot see it, though bearing in mind; I am also a product of all this conditioning.

Lastly, can one be made cis- from being trans- ?!?

All I have learned and taken note of, it is as little REALLY possible as making a cis-male feel and become a female, and a cis-female become a male at heart and soul.

There were quite a lot of rather unthinkable "therapies" in SA during the Apartheid era - this was quite a lot easier than in a more open society. ALL these therapies came to NOTHING, and an initially quite hopeful Chief-Psychiatrist came to acknowledge just that. THIS... was not easy to admit I understand but all therapies, masturbations, aversion, and what else were discontinued.
Now there are some more smart-asses that think they will do better?
Go figure.

So far my thoughts on all the "Straight Dope"

Take care,
Axélle