This is my attempt to be a little clearer, please bare with me:
The Gender Identity Disorders in DSM III ---Transsexualism
DSM III characterizes the Gender Identity Disorders first as a whole and a series of subgroups. As a group the Gender Identity Disorders are described as follows:
The essential feature of the disorders included in this subclass is an incongruence between anatomic sex and gender identity. Gender identity is the sense of knowing to which sex one belongs, that is, the awareness that 'I am male' or 'I am female'. Gender identity is the private experience of gender role and gender role is the public expression of gender identity. Gender role can be defined as everything that one says and does, including sexual arousal, to indicate to others or to oneself the degree to which one is male or female.
On the whole I think this is a good definition.
They go on to include the following description of individuals with this condition.
• They usually complain that they are uncomfortable wearing the cloths of their own anatomic sex.
Who Defines what "sex" person is, there is no absolute clarity in what male and female even are!•
They often choose to engage in activities that are generally associated with the other sex.
What "other" sex? I am the sex I have transitioned my status to and to do so to appease society I had to transition my body to be "more" fitting.
• They often find their genitals repugnant which may lead to persistent requests for sex reassignment by surgical or hormonal means.
Of course it was repugnant, after all was I not throughly conditioned by society to feel like I was "not" the male I knew I was, was the key not in changing my body so that I could be like other males? How deeply rooted socialization is, how deeply rooted this scared me, and I being human changed my body to "fit", because yes I could not relate to what was assigned "female" when I was indeed a male.
• To varying degrees, their behavior, dress and mannerisms are those of the other sex.
There's that word again "other" sex, I was never a member of the sex assigned me, therefore how could I be dressing in the mannerisms of a "other" sex, by dressing as the boy I really was??? when in fact when you forced me to dress as the "girl" I NEVER was, was forcing me to dress in the "other" sex?
• They have moderate to severe coexisting personality disturbances.
I have never had a personality disturbance that was not induced by those who kept forcing me to live in the Wrong sex that had been assigned me. I was being denied my very identity given to me by Nature. If a person were to raise a child "deliberately in the "opposite sex" they would be convicted of child abuse most likely. But when it has been done accidently as in the case of most TS and IS persons, it has gone ignored. The damage done to us emotionally causing some mental health issues, is reverted back and blamed as part of our "condition".
• They frequently experience considerable anxiety and depression.
What guy would not be depressed when forced to live as something they are not? What woman would not be depressed when forced to live as something they are not, all based on science that fails repeatedly at each turn, and has not found any solid evidence to what Male and Female is, other than what it wont' admit. It is not "Fixed" into place as two solid and non fluid categories.
• Without treatment, the course is chronic and unremitting.Pretty logical that this would work. We cannot change such a deep rooted set of beliefs , we cannot change society, so therefore we change ourselves.In 1994, with the release of the DSM IV, the section entitled Gender Identity Disorders was replaced with the singular term, Gender Identity Disorder (GID) and subdivided into three, rather then four areas: Gender Identity Disorder in Children, Gender Identity Disorder in Adolescence and Adults, and Gender Identity Disorder Not Otherwise Specified.
The term "Transsexualism" was eliminated. Most importantly, perhaps is that GID was reclassified as being a sexual disorder rather then a psychological one. It is listed directly after Voyeurism and Paraphilia in the Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders section. It is my hope that this clears up what I am referring to.
Please see the following website for where I got this from. The blue writing is in there, and I have written in Maroon. I bolded the last line in blue, it was not bold. I did not ever have a problem Knowing I was a male,, I had a problem with society allowing me to be. It is not I that was confused about my sex, it was society that was confused. I had to straiten it out for all involved. Yes I am human, and knowing what I know today I still have the need for my body to "fit" into the male I am. That is how deeply rooted this all is. One has to ascribe to the belief that a penis is only owned by "males", and then you have to believe that only a "woman" can have a vaginal opening. Based on this then yea, ok, you'd have a dysphoria, but if you reach further and realize that this is not true, does it not open up a whole new ball game so to speak? The evidence is out there that biological sex is not being determined accurately much less consistantly. Thanks for letting me share my opinion.
Website
http://www.avitale.com/hbigdatalkplus2005.htmPeace,
Taylor
