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why transsexual...

Started by ravenx, October 14, 2007, 08:32:53 PM

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ravenx

i figure through most of my transition(not done yet) i never once used the word transsexual to describe myself. People say that tg is just a umbrella clause and that i dont really match that ...but i really haven got myself up to say that word. i guess with jerry springer and rocky horror... the word just seems so dirty and fetishy to me. i dont even think its something we started calling ourself...maybe just some doctor who wanted to be descriptively..."anatomically correct".   trans: change and sex:organs (not to be confuse with gender...which is how we precieve ourselves).
i was just wondering if anyone felt similar
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shanetastic

Quote from: ravenx on October 14, 2007, 08:32:53 PM
i figure through most of my transition(not done yet) i never once used the word transsexual to describe myself. People say that tg is just a umbrella clause and that i dont really match that ...but i really haven got myself up to say that word. i guess with jerry springer and rocky horror... the word just seems so dirty and fetishy to me. i dont even think its something we started calling ourself...maybe just some doctor who wanted to be descriptively..."anatomically correct".   trans: change and sex:organs (not to be confuse with gender...which is how we precieve ourselves).
i was just wondering if anyone felt similar

I have to say I don't like using the word either.  It's sort of in a sense like were different so were labeled other than just a "girl" or "guy"
trying to live life one day at a time
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Berliegh

Quote from: ravenx on October 14, 2007, 08:32:53 PM
i figure through most of my transition(not done yet) i never once used the word transsexual to describe myself. People say that tg is just a umbrella clause and that i dont really match that ...but i really haven got myself up to say that word. i guess with jerry springer and rocky horror... the word just seems so dirty and fetishy to me. i dont even think its something we started calling ourself...maybe just some doctor who wanted to be descriptively..."anatomically correct".   trans: change and sex:organs (not to be confuse with gender...which is how we precieve ourselves).
i was just wondering if anyone felt similar

I never use the term Transsexual either and no one's ever mentioned it or thought it in everyday situations , I also don't like 'Transwoman' which to me seems worse. I have an IS condition which I do tend to push to the fore if I speak to medical people who have been made aware about my medical history. I do think there is a stigma attatched to the transsexual terminology.
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ravenx

usually if i just stick to tg...its simple and to the point for likeminded individuals. otherwise..with doctors and such... it kind of confuses them beforehand and reduces the blow of a loaded word i could use. why cant we make up our own words? give it a new start.
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Kate

I avoid "trans" anything words like the plague. I'm just a girl. I'm not denying that I was born physically male, but that little tidbit has no bearing on who I *am*.  If I have to explain what I'm doing, I simply say "I'm Kate. I'm changing my sex."

~Kate~
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seldom

There is a stigma with transsexual, little question with that, but the stigma is societal.

I know it may sound strange, if you don't like the term transwoman, and you identify more with being an intersex female, why don't you just use that.

I know that may sound silly, but you are not the only person around this board that can do that.
I am intersex as well, and I have the scars from an infant surgery.

I personally do not have a problem with the term transwoman or trans, largely because its a descriptive term used in specific, but often necessary circumstances.  I think of trans in the way of transitional.  But thats just me. 

I also to do not like the concept of "changing ones sex".  I prefer transitioning too that.  Largely because it gets around the stigmata of "Sex change" as in surgery, and the societal focus on the surgery, and not the person. 
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Wing Walker

QuoteI never use the term Transsexual either and no one's ever mentioned it or thought it in everyday situations , I also don't like 'Transwoman' which to me seems worse. I have an IS condition which I do tend to push to the fore if I speak to medical people who have been made aware about my medical history. I do think there is a stigma attatched to the transsexual terminology.

Hi, Berliegh,

Right now in the U.S. there is a bill in the House of representatives called the Employment Non-discrimination Act (ENDA).  The bill in its present form includes being gay, bisexual, or lesbian as protected expressions or human conditions.  For some reason, transsexuality is not included.  I have no idea why save for the politics of homosexuality.

I use the term "transsexual" only with those who need to know it, like my doctors and psychiatrist.  I am just another one of the billions of women on this planet.

I do make a distinction between being transgendered and transsexual.  One can enter and leave being transgendered as needed, especially to save them from being "outed" or between Tri-Ess meetings and weekends home alone.  I can't do that with my transsexuality.

Thanks for hearing me out.

Wing Walker
Flying by the Seat of My Slacks
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Stormy

I did refer to myself as "transsexual" during my transition--mainly to explain my transition to others even though I've always
been female (the rest of the world just doesn't understand that yet). With full transition complete, I do not use the word nor
do I consider myself "transsexual".  After all, a transsexual in my mind is someone who desires to be the opposite gender. 
I am a woman and the idea of being a man repulses me. 

Stormy
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ravenx

<<<I know it may sound strange, if you don't like the term transwoman, and you identify more with being an intersex female, why don't you just use that.>>>>


come to think of it... i think we have more in common with ais than any other classification( and for the people who dont kno...thats androgen insensitive disorder: xy women).
and either way...i figure i must get used to it at some point(unless the world changed while i was sleeping) because its such a common word. just wondered why it needs to be so deragitory of a word.
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Wing Walker

QuoteAfter all, a transsexual in my mind is someone who desires to be the opposite gender.
I am a woman and the idea of being a man repulses me.

Stormy

How's this for another way of looking at transsexuality:  I was born female inside and male outside.  I am seeking to make the outside match the inside, therefore, I am transsexual and transitioning Female to Female.

I never liked being stuck in a male body and I feel repulsed by it, too.  And I have no desire to be with a man, never did, never will.

Wing Walker
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J.T.

Yeah, i don't use it either.  For some reason it makes me feel a bit dirty... seems too clinical.
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katia

hi my name's katia & i'm a transsexual ::) does anybody introduce themselves like that?  i doubt it very much.  i'm not trans-anything either.  i'm only a woman, a girl, a female.  the rest is just details!

Quote from: Wing Walker on October 14, 2007, 08:58:50 PM
I use the term "transsexual" only with those who need to know it, like my doctors and psychiatrist.  I am just another one of the billions of women on this planet.

I do make a distinction between being transgendered and transsexual. 

thank you
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Berliegh

Quote from: Wing Walker on October 14, 2007, 08:58:50 PM
I use the term "transsexual" only with those who need to know it, like my doctors and psychiatrist.  I am just another one of the billions of women on this planet.

I do make a distinction between being transgendered and transsexual. 

Never! I never use the term..... I don't need to. so why should I.

Posted on: October 15, 2007, 02:58:09 AM
Quote from: Wing Walker on October 14, 2007, 08:58:50 PM
Hi, Berliegh,
Right now in the U.S. there is a bill in the House of representatives called the Employment Non-discrimination Act (ENDA).  The bill in its present form includes being gay, bisexual, or lesbian as protected expressions or human conditions.  For some reason, transsexuality is not included.  I have no idea why save for the politics of homosexuality.

Does it need to be? If I go for a job interview no one is going to ask me if I'm transsexual, why would they? We have the 'Gender Recognition bill' in the U.K but I wouldn't want to get involved in anything like that, I have no reason to ......it would only make my life hell if I outed myself. I know I'm very lucky in the fact that I don't get percieved as a transsexual.

Posted on: October 15, 2007, 03:03:30 AM
Quote from: Amy T. on October 14, 2007, 08:57:17 PM
I know it may sound strange, if you don't like the term transwoman, and you identify more with being an intersex female, why don't you just use that.

I know that may sound silly, but you are not the only person around this board that can do that.
I am intersex as well, and I have the scars from an infant surgery.


I do identify with being IS and I do mention that if I reallly have to. Why does it sound silly? I'm completely aware that some of the people on the board suffer with some form of IS condition as well. But it still doesn't make us any more or less important than anyone else...
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seldom

Well ENDA is needed for people with what I would like to call "gender issues" in the US for good reason, anybody who thinks otherwise is mistaken.  Generally speaking there is a paper trail in the US that follows you around, and as much as some people think they can go deep stealth in the US they really can't because of those documents.  In addition to that there is transitioning on the job and employment.  Many lose their jobs because of this.  And on top of that anybody who has not had SRS cannot change their birth certificate or gender tag at the SSA.  I could go on and on and on about why this is needed Berleigh. 

ENDA has two bills one for gender identity included and one that does not.  And as much as one will not ask it, or you not telling in the US it is a needed document because of how much documentation is out there and the lack of privacy.  Basically, they may not know, but they will still find out sort of thing.  If you don't think its needed, you are out of touch with the massive civil rights issues in the US, which is not surprising since you don't live here. 
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Lucy

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tinkerbell

The only persons that know that I'm a woman with a transsexual history (I love it, Dawn!  ;D) are, of course, my psychiatrist, my personal physician, and my  gynecologist.  If people want to call me some other label besides female or woman, I'd rather be called transsexual rather than transgender, why?

Because:

Quote from: Tink on August 27, 2006, 04:39:18 AM
I have to say that I'd rather use the word transsexual instead of transgender.  Although I am aware that transsexuality has nothing to do with sex, to me TRANSSEXUAL implies that I am TRANScending from one sex to the other (anatomically speaking), and this is, in fact, true.  I have never changed my gender, for my gender has always been female, what I am changing is my physical sex to be congruent with my female gender.


tink :icon_chick:
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gothique11

I don't usually use the word either, unless I'm with other people who know what it is. *sings the time warp*

Anyway, I call myself as a woman, and I refer to my trans stuff as my trans experience.
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Lucy

As i have not transitioned i feel a fraud calling myself transexual so if it comes up in conversation i prefer to use transgendered or explain that i am gender disforic. Not that it comes up that oftern
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ravenx

was also wondering if ->-bleeped-<- is bad... or just like N***** for black people?
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Wing Walker

Quotewas also wondering if ->-bleeped-<- is bad... or just like N***** for black people?

Hi, RavenX,

I find ->-bleeped-<- insulting to me, even when said to me by another transsexual person.  It is demeaning and trivializes what I perceive myself to be.  I also refuse to use the term "transgender" as it includes behaviours that serve to muddy the waters for us.  Other pejoratives are "->-bleeped-<-," "he/she."  These are solely my opinion.  I speak for no one else.

I wish that I could have always been true to myself since birth but I had to be born female in a male body.  What can I say?  I eventually broke out of that mess and now, since I am a female inside transitioning to female outside, I believe that it is accurate for me to say that I am F to F.

Wing Walker
Knows Where Her Compass Is Pointing
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