Susan's Place Transgender Resources

Community Conversation => Transgender talk => Topic started by: Alexagon on December 29, 2015, 07:46:01 PM

Title: What do you think when you think about yourself?
Post by: Alexagon on December 29, 2015, 07:46:01 PM
What I mean is, if imagine a scenario where someone refers to you, do you automatically default to the pronoun of your sex, or does the thought come out correctly? I ask because this happens to me. I'll picture someone talking about me and I default the pronouns to male ones. I don't know if this is something to be concerned about.

People around me haven't been using the pronouns as much as I want them too, just because they aren't used to it yet. I'm wondering if that has anything to do with the thoughts.

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Title: Re: What do you think when you think about yourself?
Post by: j.d79 on December 29, 2015, 07:59:51 PM
Going through it now. Like you said,they're getting used to it. They'll get there in the end,all takes times
Title: Re: What do you think when you think about yourself?
Post by: autumn08 on December 30, 2015, 02:55:24 AM
If imaging an individual referring to as male makes you unhappy, you do not view yourself as male. Also, the fact that you are imagining this, means you either believe that individual views you as male, or is callous. Depending on who the imaginary individual is based on, and what stage you are in your transition, will determine if this is a symptom of anxiety, or is a reflection of the struggles you deal with. You are probably correct in assuming though, that this imagined scenario is caused by being referred to as male more than you would like.
Title: Re: What do you think when you think about yourself?
Post by: Kylo on December 30, 2015, 08:52:07 AM
If I'm thinking about myself there are no pronouns. I don't need them because my brain automatically knows exactly what it is referring to when referring to itself... pronouns are for the clumsy world of human language and classification rather than instantaneous thought.

But if you're talking about training yourself in thinking of yourself as something other that what you've been referred to in the past, it's just a case of practice. The way people think about things and other people can be very flexible, even if we think it isn't... but the first impressions are more... impressive. For example imagine you're watching a movie and there's a reveal of a character you thought was one gender but it turns out that character is a different gender. Would that be hard to remember after you left the movie? I think it isn't, because I know a lot of people who saw movies like that and that's always the first thing they remember about it. It's not that it's hard to remember such things, it's that if they've had the reinforcement of you being a different gender for years, or their whole lives, that takes a lot more remembering than something they've known for two hours like in a movie. The same can be said for ourselves. Pronouns are like given names... they get ingrained in and sometimes have to be re-trained out.
Title: Re: What do you think when you think about yourself?
Post by: Mariah on December 30, 2015, 09:20:02 AM
It differs for everyone. For me on the most part there wee times in my mind it would default back but the longer I was full time has virtually stopped that from happening now. Hugs
Mariah