sliding scale

[Emmalene]

I found an essay online discussing research on a couple of male to female "cross dressers" and it suggested that the distinction between "transsexual" and "cross dresser" is more of a sliding scale than a Hadrian's Wall separating the two. It makes sense to me because I've never felt like one extreme or the other. I do feel sexy like a cross dresser would when dressed like a girl but I don't understand why some of them feel the need to post pics of their penis in a pair of panties. Even the most sexually open women don't want to see photos like that. Some cross dressers say they identify as feminine on the outside when they cross dress but masculine on the inside. I don't quite fit that. At the other end of the scale, I don't understand transsexuals who send me video clips of very graphic sex change operations from those Faces of Death videos. I don't know why anyone would want to watch that. Nor do I understand when a TS with a male looking face talks about how complete they will feel when they get rid of their penis. I think there is more to a female body than whether there is a penis there or not.

I thought maybe "bigendered" described me but I don't know, that can still be misleading because I don't want to identify as both sexes. Because I was raised to be a male, have a male body, and live in society as a male allows me to understand men better than many women do, I would just rather be a female (and I think I would be a really cool one too).

It is very unlikely that I am one of the only people who is somewhere in the middle of the sliding scale. It is also why I think the transgendered community should junk the solid distinction between CD and TS. I've always been uncomfortable with it because it resembles a caste system.

[Shana A]

I agree that there isn't a clear line between categories. Some people pass through a few IDs on the way to an understanding of who they are. I know I tried a few on for size, so to speak. Ultimately they're all labels, they can give us clues to ourselves, but can also be restricting. I'm still figuring it all out  I personally don't identify as either gender, and there are other people here who also live somewhere in between our outside the binary.

y2g

[melissa90299]

I agree that there isn't a clear line between categories.

Apparently not according to the many conservative voices here.

Check out:

https://www.susans.org/forums/index.php/topic,22343.msg170955.html#new

[tinkerbell]

Hmmm... members of this site should adhere to these definitions:

https://www.susans.org/forums/index.php/topic,14714.0.html

Community Definitions:

Transgender: an inclusive umbrella term which covers anyone who transcends their birth gender for any reason. This includes but is not limited to Androgynes, Crossdressers, Drag kings, Drag queens, Intersexuals, Transsexuals, and ->-bleeped-<-s.

Androgyne: An androgynous person

Androgynous: Being neither distinguishably masculine nor feminine, as in dress, appearance, or behavior.

Crossdresser: a person wears the clothing of the opposite gender, and has no desire to permanently change their sex. There is generally no sexual motivation for the cross-dressing.

Drag kings: performers, usually gay women or transgendered men - who dress in "drag," clothing associated with the male gender, usually highly exaggerated versions thereof. Drag kings often do drag to perform, singing or lip-syncing and dancing, participating in events such as gay pride parades, cabarets, discotheques, and other celebrations and venues.

Drag queens: performers, usually gay men or transgendered women - who dress in "drag," clothing associated with the female gender, usually highly exaggerated versions thereof. Drag queens often do drag to perform, singing or lip-syncing and dancing, participating in events such as gay pride parades, cabarets, discotheques, and other celebrations and venues.

Intersexual: a person born with the full or partial sex organs of both sexes; with underdeveloped or ambiguous sex organs; a sex chromosome karyotype other than XX or XY; or sex hormone receptor problems which prevent normal absorption of Estrogen or Androgens. Intersexual persons may seek to make their body as congruent as possible with the preferred sex through surgery and hormone treatments.

Significant other: for the purpose of this site, someone close to a person who is transgender. This may be a mother, father, son, daughter, sister, brother, family member, husband, wife, girlfriend, boyfriend, or friend.

Transsexual: a person who is mentally one gender, but has the body of the other. They desire to live and be accepted as a member of the mental gender, this is generally accompanied by the strong desire to make their body as congruent as possible with the preferred sex through surgery and hormone treatments.

->-bleeped-<-: a person who wears the clothing of the opposite gender, and has no desire to permanently change their sex. There is generally a strong sexual motivation for the cross-dressing.

Other terms:

Post-Ops: Transsexuals who have had surgical procedures to make their body as congruent as possible with their preferred sex. For MTF transsexuals this is generally considered to be after Genital surgery (GRS, orchiectomy, and/or penectomy), for FTM transsexuals it is generally considered to be after top surgery.

Pre-ops: Transsexuals who desire to to make their body as congruent as possible with their preferred sex, but have not yet had the surgical procedures for whatever reason.

Also, as Susan stated on this link, I am, too, getting tired of people redefining other terms such as CD or TV as being "transsexual lite". 

tink