Quote from: maya on July 23, 2016, 05:39:25 PM
I think of myself as trans. I am not cis female but have self-identified as female from a very young age. I am living as a woman today but will never have the experience of childbirth or many other typical female experiences. I feel female with male history so trans fits best for myself. Besides I transitioned beginning in my 50s so T has made its lasting imprint.
Is childbirth essential? A quarter to a third of women don't do it, and considerably more than that don't enjoy any part of it, and would use a lab if they could. I love those who are secure enough in their femininity to just admit it.
As to the question, I see myself as me, for better or worse. And the 'typical female experiences' - let's say the male gaze to the point of severe irritation, being sexually exposed, and discussed on those terms in my presence (by some women too I might add), followed (to the point that elderly Arabic women in full niqab have joined me so I'm not alone), having guys in cars kerb crawl to ask me how much I charge (from the age of 12), being spoken over in meetings or ignored in bar chats when 'serious' subjects are being discussed, by men with less to contribute than I do, being told I'm emotionally a 'loose cannon' for simply saying how I feel, and in less enlightened countries and circles, actually left with 'the girls' while the men do their thing, not that it bothers me at all, the conversation is better with women - that's been my life anyway.
On that conversation, I find it far more amusing, witty, nuanced, and wide ranging - with honourable exceptions for a good few men. There are one or two people online I've come across who are far more explicit than nearly all women, except when drunk and with a good friend, and is more akin to stuff I've heard in gay bars. It's not 'typical girl talk' at all, and it's pretty uncomfortable, like some kind of sad hyper parody, almost threatening in its sexual assumption, entitlement, and forcefulness, and insulting to women generally.
I have enough 'typical' experiences to be going on with, more than some women, and differently to most men. Many women and the majority of men have been genuinely shocked and horrified at kerb crawlers being so explicit - the women less so, but still (apart from some who had the same thing in their own teens) consider that worse and more in your face than they've had.
I'd certainly physically have a child if I could, and if they ever find a way to transplant a uterus, I'll do it. But I don't see it as an essential female experience, and some of my oldest and best friends are childfree (either through choice or biology) and are utterly female.
