How you phrase something can change the meaning.
Consider the two phrases:
'I'm a Transsexual'
'I am Transsexual'
The former, to me, seems to imply a choice on my part, and a membership with a group -- "I'm a Kings fan" "I'm a Miata owner."
The latter seems to imply no choice, and group membership is not an issue -- "I'm caucasian" "I'm myopic."
I prefer to tell people "I'm transsexual".
What's your take on this?
Karen
Never thought about that before, but I like your take on it.
Karen,
I'm = I am
So we have the two statements
I am a transsexual
And
I am transsexual
The first one identifies you as one transsexual. The second identifies you as a member of the group of transsexuals.
That is how it reads to me.
Love always,
Elizabeth
Lovely Karen....Elizabeth made it very easy for me I-AM-BOTH-!
kisses
Ricki
I'm a human.
;)
Well, the first is using it as a noun form and the second is using it as an adjective. So the first says "this is something I am" and the second says "this is a characteristic of me". So yeah, I guess it kind of has some implication of choice, although to me it's more like "this is what I'm defined as/pigeonholed into" vs. "this is just something that happens to be true about me, therefore merely one aspect of me and not ultimately the whole of what I'm all about".
I hope that made sense.
Nope I am a woman. I didn't have a choice it was how I was born :P :)
Steph
I am the one and only fairy goddess, that is all! :P
Seriously, I am a woman although the world has made such a big drama about my being a woman all my life. Tough toenails!
tinkerbell :icon_chick:
Ummmmm.... Im not transexual... Im a girl... I just happen to suffer from an extreem genetic birthdefect... ;D
Right on, Lynn! :)
I think that saying, "a transsexual" objectifies it - makes it a noun - makes it something outside of myself that I've acquired. Saying "I'm transsexual" makes it an adjective, just another part of my gestalt. I prefer the latter.
I have been considering, though, to explaining it just as a major league, humongous, life long hormone imbalance that I've finally built the courage to confront and treat.
Or is that being too much of a victim?
hugs & smiles,
helen
I was both then I transitioned now I'm who I should have been, A female the woman type. I can't help it if the doctor and I think my parents had a 50/50 choice and blew it. What the heck it was in the 40's. I corrected their mistake and they didn't even have the nerve to tell me what they did. It's all about ignorance.
So I am a woman, I'm a woman, I have been a woman and I will forever be a woman.
Sheila
I prefer to tell people "I'm Debbie". "I'm a Debbie" doesn't sound right, even though there are a lot of "Debbies" out there.
I think the phrase a friend of mine used was "I was born a transsexual, but I had it corrected when I was XX"
I always liked that better then anything else.