Quote from: VeronicaLynn on April 27, 2014, 10:47:56 PM
it's more of an emotion than anything else though. As such, I don't want to be expected to always feel masculine, as I am usually expected since I have a male body. I wouldn't like always being expected to always feel feminine either. As such, I do think of it as a spectrum, not unlike happiness vs sadness, though it's not really correlated to those two, I can be happy and masculine and I can be happy and feminine.
You're correct in looking at the emotional values as being a spectrum, as many things can be.
You're also correct in that it's not really a correlation of the two.
The concept of a
gender spectrum is usually viewed from a binary perspective.
What's proposed is that such a spectrum for gender isn't necessarily true to non-binaries.
Quite simply because it implies that non-binaries are somewhere in between.
While this is true for binaries in transition, during different phases of transition, it's not the same as non-binary.
On the surface it may appear to be the same, but beneath that is a need to better define the two, binary and non-binary.
I wouldn't say that binaries during transition are simply non-binary during those times, they are still in transition and remain binary.
Proposed are differing views of an alternative to something that is more in line with the view of gender from a non-binary perspective.
A gender spectrum with male and female at it's ends implies a transition from one to the other, not necessarily to the very ends.
But the difficulty arises from the view that non-binaries aren't actually transitioning along this same path.
There are of course many different ways in which non-binaries do transition, but the path taken is different in nature and doesn't apply as easily.
I propose different views at times for non-binaries who are referred to this spectrum of male to female when transition is discussed.
It's a hard thing to just simply dismiss it as a whole.
There are somethings that are similar, but they are just that, similar.
A broader view would be that this spectrum is there, but is only a small part of general overall idea of gender.
Take gender as it is commonly viewed, and dismiss it entirely. Weird thing to think about.
But it is possible and the implications are beneficial in most cases.
It does fall in line with the viewpoint that for non-binaries, the issue isn't where you are on a line, but where you are as a gender in a broader view
The male to female transition is a spectrum for the sake of discussion.
It's proposed that non-binary as a gender, isn't a transitional phase.
It's a separate gender in it's own right.
As such, a spectrum doesn't work, at least not the transitional one.
Transition in the traditional sense that transsexuals use it as, and that's where it's meaning stems from, doesn't describe the transitional views of non-binaries.
Just as the transitional spectrum of non-binaries or lack of one doesn't apply to transsexuals.
It's all arguable, but to what point? To what end does that satisfy any trans person?
The idea and the things being proposed are simply a more refined approach to defining non-binary.
There aren't words in themselves that are in use that accurately describe the views of non-binaries.
We look to concepts instead to try and answer the questions we ask.
The questions and discussions have evolved into a more involved answer that lacks exact words to convey a simple answer.
Simply asking to do away with the idea of gender throws current thinking for everyone involved, all trans people, into disarray.
If there is no gender, then what? The answers become more complex than anyone is really ready for.
Who is ready to discuss ourselves while trying to also do away with gender? It's to ingrained in societies thinking.
That's a separate issue worth discussing, also. It's tossed into the discussion as a possibility.
To do away with gender would benefit in that it does away with the questions themselves.
So for the time being, we try to describe our views as they are able to fit within the current discussions we have.
There is an interest for binaries in who non-binaries are. and vice versa.
To exclude a tool that binaries use with a good deal of success in explaining their transitions, would confuse and complicate the discussions.
To introduce various other ways of describing the non-binary views with in the discussion calls for different approaches.
Not to do away with a tool used and recognized, but to expand on it from a non-binary view.
Nobody is excluded from these discussions, but rather are included as a way to tie the trans experiences together for the sake of discussion.
Its extraordinary what trans people are able to do with the notions of gender.
For society as a whole, trans people are unique in our abilities to view it from a distance that society lacks.
We're doing that right here, right now within our own community to better our discussions of acceptance with society at large.
The discussion is and will always go on. Because it's concepts that are ever evolving in the general direction that gender isn't about differences.
It's something we all have in common, and as such, it has it's place, but not to determine who is right or wrong.
There isn't such a thing in gender as an overall. It's usefulness is limited and should be looked on as what is the same, not what is different.
Doing away with the notion of gender itself would go long ways in simply bringing people together.
These discussions here are very telling of that.
We are not done discussing these things, not by any means.
We need to be able to know what it is we are talking about in order to bring the discussion further into society in a logical and useful manner.
But first we need to know and understand each of us in our own unique ways.
At this point, how we deal with society and it's political agendas both for and against Trans people is paramount to an acceptance.
It's these concepts of ourselves that we need to be able to present to gain such an acceptance.
It's far more important in a discussion like this one, than to say one is right or wrong.
Right or wrong isn't the issue, it's what do we have in common, both here and in society as a whole.
When society asks us a question, we can and should be able to give them the most informed answers we have.
Ativan.