School

[amberctm]

Ok, I'm sitting in my class the other day (I'm in college), and what become the topic of discussion...Gender. We had just read a story (the title just slipped my mind) about a Chinese soldier, who was taken by this community of women. The pierced his ears, fed him "woman food", and broke the bones in his feet then bound them. That the story in super short form.

Anyway, the discussion was whether or not this made him a woman. You should have heard the discussion. They must have gone on for 10 min. At the end, someone said "if walks and talks like a duck, then it's a duck." Someone else then ask the question of what defines gender. That's when I piped up and said gender is between your ears and sex is between your legs. Because no one can change your identify in your mind then it is relatively safe to say oneself defines gender.

We also have to do a research paper and mine is on transexualism. I need to come up with question for my thesis. Some ideas are
"Who are Transsexuals?"
"What is transexualism?"
I rally want to focus on transsexuals rather than transgender as a whole.

If anyone has any ideas let me know.

Anyway I'm ending my ramblings.

Amber

[Leigh]

"Who are Transsexuals?"

This is copied from a speech by Dallas Denny.

  We are your sons and daughters, your fathers and mothers, your cousins, your aunts and uncles, your grandparents, your grandchildren.  We are your stepfathers and stepsons, your stepmothers, your stepdaughters.  We are your adopted children and your adoptive parents, and we are the parents who have given you up for adoption.

We are your neighbors and friends.  We were your dorm-mate in college, your fraternity brother, your sorority sister.  We were in the Cub Scouts with you, in Brownies, in the Air Force, the Marines.  We are your bosses, your employees.  We work next to you on the assembly line.  We drive your cabs, your buses, your taxis.  We fly your planes, we sail your ships, we drive your locomotives.  We deliver your paper, stock the shelves in your groceries, ring up your purchases.

  We style your hair.  We press your suits.  We design your suits.  We cook your food in restaurants and we bring it to your table. We build your cars in Detroit.  We have stood on the moon.  We were at Shiloh and Gettysburg.  In the Great War we fought in the trenches and flew against the Red Baron, and now we live in our old age in Veterans Hospitals.  We were at Iwo Jima, and were in Korea and Viet Nam and Kuwait.

   We remember riding with Genghis Khan.  We saw Jesus Christ.
We fill your schools.  We are your principles, your teachers, your students, your librarians, the ones who sweep the halls.  We write your textbooks. We are your politicians, your farmers, your physicians, your priests, your nuns, your generals.  And we are the privates in your armies, your prostitutes.  We languish in your prisons.  And we are the guards and wardens of your prisons, too.  We are the little boy with red hair who mows your yard every summer.  We are the cop who gave you a ticket last night.  We are the little old lady in the next pew at church.

   We stand on your left side, and on your right, before you, and behind you.  We came before you, and we will come after you.  We are black, we are white.  We are young, we are old.  We are fat, we are thin.  We are poor, we are rich.  We are healthy, we are ill.  We are straight, we are gay.  We are male, we are female. 

[Shelley]

Leigh's submission is very good and the Wiki willprobbaly add some more.

Shelley

[stephanie_craxford]

Hey there Amber,

This what the Wiki has to offer on Transsexuals

Steph