Transgender Definition - True Or False

[Catherine]

False:

Gender is not a binary.  It is a spectrum.

-Sandy

No you have it completely backwards. Gender is Binary. Sexuality is a spectrum.

[pixiegirl]

No you have it completely backwards. Gender is Binary. Sexuality is a spectrum.

Err.. no. You've got it wrong too, gender is more of a spectrum than a binary.

Also 'Gender is Binary' could be seen as a pretty shockingly rude and dismissive statement by anyone genderqueer/andro/etc I would have thought.

[Sandy]

And just how many angels can dance on the head of a pin?

-Sandy

[Stephe]

I'm sure this won't be popular but....

Sorry but I don't see being TG as something to be ashamed of or try to put it off saying 'I have a birth defect'.  No one is born a woman, not even a female. You become a woman, that is a social construct.

If you are born male and you want to become a woman, that's being transgendered. You can try to deny or hide that fact but that's all you are doing.

I see NOTHING wrong with surgery, hormones etc either. (I plan on both) But I do see something wrong with using them as a means to NOT accept you are transgendered. Why would someone be insulted at being seen as transgendered? Why do we try SOOOO hard to hide this from everyone?

How can we expect anyone to respect us or ever be accepting of TG/TS's when many of us can't even accept ourselves. We force ourselves to fit into a binary gender role that we then claim at the same time doesn't exist? If gender is so fluid, why do some of us try so hard to fit at the polar ends of it?

I was born this way and am proud of it. I'm a unique person that has a life perspective few people have. I find it sad so many people in this community can't also accept themselves for what they are.

Don't hide yourself in regret
Just love yourself and you're set
I'm on the right track, baby
I was born this way, born this way

[Juliet]

Err.. no. You've got it wrong too, gender is more of a spectrum than a binary.

Also 'Gender is Binary' could be seen as a pretty shockingly rude and dismissive statement by anyone genderqueer/andro/etc I would have thought.

Shockingly rude?
Yeah, it can easily be seen like that if a person is bored and looking for something to be insulted by. 

[Juliet]

I'm sure this won't be popular but....

LOL
I'm tempted to start all my posts with that same sentence

[Alex37]

tl;dr:  don't let anyone tell you who you are or aren't.  let go and be yourself!

Don't hide yourself in regret
Just love yourself and you're set
I'm on the right track, baby
I was born this way, born this way

I tend to agree with Stephe, though I am definitely open to any other interpretations of gender identity, expression, etc.  I'll never have a cis-male body,  and i'll always have the early socialization of a girl, but i'll also always have the childhood of a human with the mind of a boy, and the socialization and body of a girl.  In part because of my feminine childhood, i doubt i'll ever fit into a binary gender, and i wouldn't want to since i don't.  on the other hand, i want to be accepted as a man- but what does that really mean?  i fit some definitions of "man" while those same definitions exclude me from other definitions of "man."  but really, i only want to be known as a just, compassionate person, without regard to gender.  in my opinion, labels are divisive, and since one that accurately describes hasn't crossed my path yet, i haven't settled on one.  however, i would never want to prevent someone else from identifying as something that i don't understand! be yourself and ->-bleeped-<- anyone who doesn't accept you! 

i hope that's not offensive to anyone.  i really don't mean it to be- just my 2 cents.

[Catherine]

Err.. no. You've got it wrong too, gender is more of a spectrum than a binary.

Also 'Gender is Binary' could be seen as a pretty shockingly rude and dismissive statement by anyone genderqueer/andro/etc I would have thought.

Well according to the shrinks over here in the UK there are two Genders. Male and Female.

[Catherine]

I'm sure this won't be popular but....

Sorry but I don't see being TG as something to be ashamed of or try to put it off saying 'I have a birth defect'.  No one is born a woman, not even a female. You become a woman, that is a social construct.

If you are born male and you want to become a woman, that's being transgendered. You can try to deny or hide that fact but that's all you are doing.

I see NOTHING wrong with surgery, hormones etc either. (I plan on both) But I do see something wrong with using them as a means to NOT accept you are transgendered. Why would someone be insulted at being seen as transgendered? Why do we try SOOOO hard to hide this from everyone?

How can we expect anyone to respect us or ever be accepting of TG/TS's when many of us can't even accept ourselves. We force ourselves to fit into a binary gender role that we then claim at the same time doesn't exist? If gender is so fluid, why do some of us try so hard to fit at the polar ends of it?

I was born this way and am proud of it. I'm a unique person that has a life perspective few people have. I find it sad so many people in this community can't also accept themselves for what they are.

Don't hide yourself in regret
Just love yourself and you're set
I'm on the right track, baby
I was born this way, born this way

Wow is all i can say there.

**Sorry but I don't see being TG as something to be ashamed of or try to put it off saying 'I have a birth defect'.  No one is born a woman, not even a female. You become a woman, that is a social construct.**

You have a Male or Female brain. That is not a social construct. It is what you are.


** If you are born male and you want to become a woman, that's being transgendered. You can try to deny or hide that fact but that's all you are doing. **

I dont want to become a woman.. I am a Woman. I have some issues with my body but I am a woman. I dont think I want to become one.

[Dana Lane]

Wow, no wonder the U.S. can't get ENDA passed. Nobody in the TS/TG community knows what the hell transgender means how the hell is the general public ever going to understand it! 

[MillieB]

And just how many angels can dance on the head of a pin?

-Sandy

Four, five if they are very tiny angels and only do that shuffley little angel dance.

Next question.

[Nygeel]

Wow, no wonder the U.S. can't get ENDA passed. Nobody in the TS/TG community knows what the hell transgender means how the hell is the general public ever going to understand it! 

ENDA tends to just use the phrase "gender identity" and possibly "gender expression" which is a bit easier to understand.

[Juliet]

Wow, no wonder the U.S. can't get ENDA passed. Nobody in the TS/TG community knows what the hell transgender means how the hell is the general public ever going to understand it! 

Yup.  Thank you for seeing this and admitting to it. 

[Juliet]

The term cannot be openly discussed without being devisive or violating the TOS. If we cannot discuss it, or have input on the definition, then how do we expect the public to do so in a loving, empathetic way?

So, just who are they when it comes to who has input into the definition? I dont think we can even discuss that...

YEESSSS thank you

[Juliet]

While the definitions of the terms are not THAT unclear, there is obviously a lot of dispute over how people identify. This isn't really very extraordinary. The same thing happens in the gay community as well. There is endless dispute over the word "lesbian" for example.

I like what you're saying but theres practically no dispute over the word lesbian in comparison to the trans disputes.

[zakfar]

Transgender can include people who are intersex, transsexual, androgyne, agender, bigender, genderqueer, drag kings, drag queens, genderfluid, gender ->-bleeped-<-, two spirit, queer sex, pangender, two-spirit, third gender, hijra, trigender...and that's all I can think of.

Sorry dude. Most of the words you have mentioned here as actually 'Synonyms' or titles in other language/culture. Hence, I agree with what you're saying.

[From_Ariel]

False..

I would say a better Definition would be...

A Transgender Individual is a person whom does not fit on the gender spectrum within the common socially accepted boundaries of Male and Female. A Transgender individual has traits either physical, mental or both that do not neatly fit into the social construct of a Binary Gender System.

Also as a side note for those not in the know.. from wikipedia
Virginia Prince (November 23, 1913 - May 2, 2009)
Prince seems to have been the first to use the term transgender, which she used to mean a person who lives full time in a gender other than the one identified at birth but without surgical body modification, even though she herself underwent surgical body modification, took female hormones, changed her legal name to Virginia and lived full-time as a woman. This is substantially different than what the word would come to mean later, there currently being sometimes very distinct meanings assigned to the expression. She also made many claims about non-fetishistic nature of most crossdressing, asserting instead that it was a display of identity. In discussions with Robert Stoller of UCLA, however, she affirmed that cross-dressing had erotic aspects.

Some people say we should not use transgender becuase of where it originated form but tbh IMHO I just see it as an evolution of a word.

Language words and gender change and evolve just look at gay going from... happy and joyful...

^am I the only one that thinks Gay johnny doesn't look to happy? The brand was used to sell vegetables beans soap and other products way way back...
and


To it's use today...

[Juliet]

It just sucks that we are going to have a very hard time gaining acceptance when our definitions are all wishywashy.  People dislike what they don't understand.  If the public can't get a grasp on what being transgender means, in a simple straight-forward fashion, they will not understand it and will not take it seriously.  We need to put our egos aside and settle on a damn definition of the word, even if it means having the definition not reflect 100% of everyone's individual feelings perfectly to a tee. 

[babykittenful]

It just sucks that we are going to have a very hard time gaining acceptance when our definitions are all wishywashy.  People dislike what they don't understand.  If the public can't get a grasp on what being transgender means, in a simple straight-forward fashion, they will not understand it and will not take it seriously.  We need to put our egos aside and settle on a damn definition of the word, even if it means having the definition not reflect 100% of everyone's individual feelings perfectly to a tee.

I agree with that. While most people here seem to think that labels are reductive and limits our freedom to be who we wish to be, the fact remains that people rely heavily on labels in their everyday lives. Unless all of us want to enter a fight that we cannot win (teaching everyone that they are wrong for putting labels on stuff around them), we should be able to agree on what our label means, and then try to get people around us to acknowledge it. It's way easier to change the label then actually trying to remove it.

[Juliet]

I agree with that. While most people here seem to think that labels are reductive and limits our freedom to be who we wish to be, the fact remains that people rely heavily on labels in their everyday lives. Unless all of us want to enter a fight that we cannot win (teaching everyone that they are wrong for putting labels on stuff around them), we should be able to agree on what our label means, and then try to get people around us to acknowledge it. It's way easier to change the label then actually trying to remove it.

     Yes! Like here's an example-- I have Attention Deficit Disorder.  Now I personally don't have the hyperactivity which many people with A.D.D. do,  yet I still have A.D.D.  Notice I'm not going around telling people "No, I don't have A.D.D., I have...uh... M.A.D.D.B.W.L.P.S, which stands for Mental Attention Deficit Disorder But With Little Physical Symptoms."  No.  Its still A.D.D., even though the commonly accepted meaning differs from my situation.  If there's a reason for it, I'll elaborate a little and explain that I'm not hyperactive.  If not, I won't.  Its A.D.D. and thats it.  It works well enough.
     Or maybe I should drop the A.D.D. label, saying "Actually I identify as having MindChaos" or some other name that sounds cooler.  "I'm not suffering from A.D.D., I'm just Cognichaotic."  Cognichaotic that has a nice ring to it.  I'm gonna identify as that instead, in order to not be lumped in with the hyperactive ADDers.  At least until other people start using it too, then I'll start identifying as a new word.  And if all you neuro-normal folks can't keep up, you will feel my wrath. Yeah!

p.s.  If anyone accuses me of comparing A.D.D. to being transgender.... lol