And now for something completely different, transgender humor. I wrote this a while ago for another site and thought it would be great to change the direction of my blog here.
"Ohhhh, those are cute shoes!" said by Straight Cisgender Men Never.
Onward on my transgender journey, laughing all the way
I know I spend a lot of time describing the incredible pain of gender dysphoria and the social pain of being transgender. There is more to the experience than all that.
There are moments when you simply have to laugh.
There are absurd moments in your transition when you ask yourself, "Is this real?" followed by, "Are you kidding me?" and finally, "You can't make this ->-bleeped-<- up!"
I am incredibly happy that I have a sense of humor.
It has kept me from blowing up.
The adult transgender journey is a strange one that is never, ever a straight line. If you can retain your sense of humor, it includes a lot of laughs.
Along the way, on my transgender journey, I have stopped and had many private laughs because few people in my life, in my universe would get the joke...
I get the joke all the time, like:
The first time a man was attracted to me. I was with a girlfriend for my first trip to a bar. She pointed the guy out to me as he smiled back. I almost swallowed the ice cubes in my drink. Since the beginning, I have focused on the acceptance of other women and totally forgot about men. Scared the hell out of me. We paid the bill quickly, and I ran out the door. My friend thought it was hysterical... I did too, much much later.
My "Marilyn Monroe" moment when I wore a dress and stepped on a subway grating just as the train passed underneath.
The first of many other times that I caught myself saying to myself "OOOH cute shoes!" or "cute dress" or "nice hair" or "pretty makeup" or "lovely blouse"....it now happens every day. I then laugh whenever I try to convince myself, after comments like that, that I am not transgender.
When my breasts developed to 40D, I was walking down the street and suddenly I started mentally bragging that mine were bigger than every woman I passed. The bragging made me feel good but I realized how childish and juvenile it was. I started laughing out loud.
The moments will continue and I will continue to laugh at them.
We all need to laugh more in our lives. The humor is there among all the piles of human debris that litter our lives, glistening in the sunlight like a bright diamond, waiting for you to find them.
An Irishman is struggling to find a parking space. "God," he prayed. "I can't stand this. If you open a space up for me, I swear I'll give up beer and go to mass every Sunday."
Suddenly, the clouds part, and the sun shines on an empty parking spot.
Without hesitation, the Irishman says: "Never mind, I found one!"
God helps those that help themselves, and she has a wonderful sense of humor.
When you are transgender, you have to get the joke and laugh all the time.
Emma Holiday
Writer note: I write to help cisgender people understand that all trans people want is to be simply understood, accepted, and treated as the normal person that we are.