Gina, personally, I did not see anyone attack you. From my point of view, it just looked like they were disagreeing with you. Of course, what matters is your view on the subject and how you feel.
QuoteI hope you stay around because we need every point of view here ... This topic is interesting, how we all deal with our dysphoria. I've crossdressed very little in my life. When I did, I was looking for a girl--me--in the mirror but all I saw was a man in womens clothing.
That is precisely what my experience has been.
Strangely, I have read all the research, and I understand that gender identity is absolutely independent of biologically assigned sex. I know that difference is where I fall. However, I have a difficult time accepting that for myself. I know who I am inside, and I know what I look like on the outside, but I have an impossible time accepting that it is the case even though I know it's the case because that is exactly how I feel.
Maybe it is because I am ... as some texts suggest... not intelligent enough to truely accept and understand that gender identity and biological sex are independent of one another. I know it on an intellectual level, but as far as practice, in reality, I don't know if I can accept and believe it when it comes to myself. I can fully accept that for others. Regardless of who I am, how I feel or what I would like... I have to be an XY Male in this world because that is the reality of the situation and it doesn't matter how I feel inside.
How do I deal with my dysphoria? I spend a lot of time in my room alone. 12, sometimes 14 hours a day. Weekend before last I managed to sleep for 40 hours on Saturday and Sunday. Last weekend I had to rake the yard so it was less. I work, I go home, and I go to my bed and close my eyes and escape within myself where I really can be me, the rest of the world where I go to work, pay bills, and have to to be something I shouldn't be is pretend, it is just passing the time until I can get back to my world. It has worked for years and years and I am sure it will work until I'm gone.
Noone deals with this in exactly the same way. I know a professor who used to go to New Orleans, get dressed up, and go to Jazz Clubs and have a blast and for him, that was the way he dealt with his Dysphoria.
(I use male pronouns because he presented as male every day except one weekend a month).
Just as there are an infinite number of points on a line, I think there are infinte points on the gender spectrum, we are all individuals and deal with our dysphoria in our own unique way. To try and lump different people into groups is the job of psychologists who apparently do not understand that, although we share some common traits, everyone is different, unique, and an individual with their own perspectives, beliefs, and feelings. Therefore it's different for all of us, regardless what some big psycho-analysis book says.
Jessica