Quote from: Padma on June 27, 2014, 06:00:39 AM
I've come to the conclusion that transitioning isn't about "gender transition" anyway, it's about transitioning from someone with dysphoria to someone without dysphoria - and that may or may not involve crossing any perceived "gender boundaries".
Hey Padma!
Transitioning really isn't about a gender transition. (Gender changes are more of a transformation, if that makes sense.)
It's a physical transformation to adjust ones self that may or may not be apparent to others and really is none of others business.
Just what they do, to what degree, whether the results are or are not what they want is pretty damn personal.
Some talk about it, some don't. If they comment on theirs, it doesn't mean you should necessarily be focusing on it.
We should be able to keep a gender transformation or maybe a new awareness of our genders distinct from a physical transformation.
Your physical self and your gender self are two different things and they can overlap, that's true.
But they should never be confused or the thinking interchanged.
While it does come across that way in our comments at times, it's easily corrected and most often is in the next comment or few...
From what people have expressed, genders can drift into what could be called a different one, the dangers of labels.
Physical transitions have all kinds of labels, but they are personal. A label is hard to use while the process is ongoing.
Only if you put it out there as a question or some other reason to comment on, it's your business.
Someones presentation is the same way, it's usually an evolving thing, to box it up doesn't work.
Being descriptive works better than a label, it tells your truth, not a perceived one.
Nobody can define what is correct for someone else, but we can help when asked to.
Same thing for genders.
Trying to push labels isn't of much value if those labels have definitions that are all fuzzy around the edges or there isn't a consistent one.
Descriptive, not descriptions. The conversations are much more informative and fun that way.
No two people have the same makeup of hormones, no two people react the same.
It is why when you start, you get low dose, even if you have had all the blood work and more done.
Just how you react is always going to be different than someone else. Ask your Endo's, your Doctors.
Hormones are complicated and they have a lot to do with how you are going to physically change and how you perceive your gender.
Just what exactly will happen is confined into very general areas that have exceptions to them as well.
But the bottom line is that physical transformation and gender are two different things.
They can both be changing, but you can't quantify them together as if they are connected.
The are connected loosely by time, not much more. Changes to both happening at the same time.
Hormones play into both of them, but they are still two separate things that we see happening at the same time.
You can have a change in one but not the other. Either way. It is to a large degree, an unknown.
Something having somewhat predictable results but also having a large number of exceptions shouldn't be labeled.
What you are doing when you see your endo is giving a descriptive narrative of how it's going. They don't ask you for your label.
When you see your therapist, it's the same. They shouldn't be labeling you, but if you insist, they can both give you a best fit label or box.
That can change by the next time you see them. Especially the perception of your gender.
It is for the most part, your perception that defines yours.
Lots of studies about this and that, the wiring and where the wiring goes. It's still your perception.
Be descriptive. Use labels as a reference, not a box to sit in or put someone in.
Transdrogynous is a descriptive word, not a label to be used as a box.
This is a fun topic and has some very good viewpoints.
Just another tangential comment from my viewpoint.
Ativan
