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Thoughts about body parts

Started by insideontheoutside, November 16, 2010, 12:11:05 AM

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insideontheoutside

So I happened to recently come across some opinions about how trans people speak of their various body parts. The opinion was that it is whack that FTMs call their "female" parts by male terminology. Example - boobs become moobs, etc.

So, the purpose of my post here is to discuss this and share opinions. My personal opinion is that it's your body - you can refer to any of its parts however you feel comfortable. Also, it would seem to me, knowing that many trans people are very uncomfortable with their bodies that they would refer to certain parts in a way that allows them to be more comfortable.

What I can't really tolerate lately is people that seem to feel the need to tell other people how they should feel about their bodies or what's going on in their minds - telling a whole cross section of people that how they refer to themselves or their parts is "wrong".

By this same token, is it wrong for a regular female to refer to her boobs as, "the girls" (or anything else), or a regular guy to refer to his dick as his "junk" (or anything else)? Why is it that these special rules apply to trans people? I've heard regular females use the phrase, "suck my dick" ... and regular guys tell one of their guy friends they had "sand in their vagina" ... are those all wrong too?

There are innumerable words and phrases for, "private parts" so why do trans people get dissed for referring to theirs a certain way?

Anyway, that's a little bit of rant, but I still wonder when people will get over their double standards and gender binary b.s.

Personally, I have a dick and I've never had any problem calling it that. It mostly looks like one and acts like one so it falls into the, "call a duck a duck" category for me. The tits are just that. I have occasionally referred to them as moobs .. or just simply, "my chest". I really don't have any other part references that I discuss - never really a need to.

So what do you use to refer to your "parts"?

"Let's conspire to ignite all the souls that would die just to feel alive."
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noeleena

Hi .

I have wondered along those lines ,

as im  a woman ,

i have like most women,   breasts .  & a virginia .as to any other details thats in side of me thats hidden & unless theres a reason to say any thing about that in the context of healh reasons ill only talk with women about that

now of cause there are other terms used by others & some are quite vulga & very demeaning . of cause many males use  those terms as a put down of girls,, females . /women..

if in a forum we are disscusing weight height & so on if its a help to some one or as we say stats then ill do that /
.
other wise i dont say much if at all.    as theres no need. im a woman & my friends are much like me its not a issue thats talked about ,& has nothing to do with trans people , well not where we are.

...noeleena...
Hi. from New Zealand, Im a woman of difference & intersex who is living life to the full.   we have 3 grown up kids and 11 grand kid's 6 boy's & 5 girl's,
Jos and i are still friends and  is very happy with her new life with someone.
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Bluetraveler

Quote from: insideontheoutside on November 16, 2010, 12:11:05 AM
So I happened to recently come across some opinions about how trans people speak of their various body parts. The opinion was that it is whack that FTMs call their "female" parts by male terminology. Example - boobs become moobs, etc.

So, the purpose of my post here is to discuss this and share opinions. My personal opinion is that it's your body - you can refer to any of its parts however you feel comfortable. Also, it would seem to me, knowing that many trans people are very uncomfortable with their bodies that they would refer to certain parts in a way that allows them to be more comfortable.

What I can't really tolerate lately is people that seem to feel the need to tell other people how they should feel about their bodies or what's going on in their minds - telling a whole cross section of people that how they refer to themselves or their parts is "wrong".

By this same token, is it wrong for a regular female to refer to her boobs as, "the girls" (or anything else), or a regular guy to refer to his dick as his "junk" (or anything else)? Why is it that these special rules apply to trans people? I've heard regular females use the phrase, "suck my dick" ... and regular guys tell one of their guy friends they had "sand in their vagina" ... are those all wrong too?

There are innumerable words and phrases for, "private parts" so why do trans people get dissed for referring to theirs a certain way?

Anyway, that's a little bit of rant, but I still wonder when people will get over their double standards and gender binary b.s.

Personally, I have a dick and I've never had any problem calling it that. It mostly looks like one and acts like one so it falls into the, "call a duck a duck" category for me. The tits are just that. I have occasionally referred to them as moobs .. or just simply, "my chest". I really don't have any other part references that I discuss - never really a need to.


I suppose you are referring to the last post in my blog, so I'll add some further comments to clarify myself. You can comment there too if you want, I'm totally open to it.

The thing is, referring to female parts with male terminology doesn't really bother me that much, and if you want to call your vagina a "smeerp" that is not my business either. What really bothers me is calling them things like "tumours" or "junk", which are per se offensive terms. This underlies some contempt to the body itself, which is a major reason for which trans people are depressed. I'm not saying you should accept your female body - the choice is necessarily yours only - but anyone should not discard it altogether as "junk". That "junk" is part of who you are even if you don't like it, just like a big, deep scar most people can see is. That was my main point really.   
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xAndrewx

BlueTraveler (sorry to derail your post for a second insideontheoutside) I refer to my lower regions as junk. I know many bio-guys who do the same. By doing this it is a way to reference it without thinking about it.

So my question is, forgive me for bluntly saying this as I cannot think of another way, why does anyone care how I refer to what resides in my pants if they do not see it or otherwise need to think/know about it? If something as simple as a word makes me feel slightly better about my dysphoria then why does it matter? You're entitled to your opinion, as am I, so I'm not trying to change it even if I disagree just trying to understand it.

Alessandro

So many people refer to their genitals as junk.  What the hell is the big deal with that   ???  You're going overboard now BlueTraveller, you've lost me   ???

I only call my bits my "dick" in sexual situations.  I don't really need to talk about it the rest of the time.  And my chest is just my chest. 
"You can't look where you're going if you don't know where you're going"
-Labyrinth
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Bluetraveler

I didn't know that junk was a commonly used slang term for genitalia (is it male only or not?). English is not my mother tongue after all. So you can strike out the part about "junk", but what about "tumours" and "inside junk" (uterus)?

EDIT: Thanks Urban Dictionary, what would I do without you!
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Alessandro

Quote from: Bluetraveler on November 16, 2010, 03:55:01 AM
I didn't know that junk was a commonly used slang term for genitalia (is it male only or not?). English is not my mother tongue after all. So you can strike out the part about "junk", but what about "tumours" and "inside junk" (uterus)?

EDIT: Thanks Urban Dictionary, what would I do without you!

Oh okay fair enough.  Yeah it's used all the time.  Inside junk kind of is as well.  I call it that because I am phobic of those body parts.  Not just dysphoric, actually phobic and have been since I was a kid.  So will devalue it as much as I like.

Tumours I have never heard stuff called   :-\   But think that is pretty offensive, considering pretty much everyone knows of a person who has died of/suffered with cancer
"You can't look where you're going if you don't know where you're going"
-Labyrinth
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Devyn

I've heard many FtMs call their boobs/moobs/chest "tumors". I've heard it a lot, so I guess it doesn't bother me.

Personally, I have always been very aware that I have a female body, so I call my boobs...well, boobs.

As for "junk", I live in a sort of ghetto area, and most of the guys here call their dick "junk". It's quite common in the US. I wouldn't consider it offensive. I call my genitalia my junk, even if I have a lack of something there. It's a habit. I hear it frequently, so I've gotten used to saying it, you know?
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kyril

"Inside junk" is sort of a logical extension of calling the entire assembly of reproductive organs our "junk." Which is in fact a very common slang term for men's reproductive organ assembly.

"Tumours" and "growths" and all that...yeah, I'm not into that. Don't like "moobs" either, not accurate. I mostly don't refer to my female-specific parts at all, and if I have to I'll either use medically correct terminology ("breast tissue," "vagina," "clitoris") or something extremely vague like "junk" or "chest." I don't like using derogatory terms - I don't hate those parts, I'm just uncomfortable with owning them.

But there are guys who are very emotionally affected by having female-specific organs and who really dislike or hate them. I don't think it's anyone's place to tell anyone how they should/shouldn't refer to their own bodies. "Tumours" might be going a little far, given that they're clearly not malignant cancerous growths...but I think there are ways to approach that sort of specific terminology without attacking all of the ways in which trans men verbally deal with our inappropriate anatomy.


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Lee

Not being extremely dysphoric, I think of my chest as just being my chest.  It's hard to think of it as breasts or boobs because I associate that with beautiful, feminine things on women, so I cannot really mentally apply it to myself.  However, I could see how people who view theirs more negatively could see it as tumors or moobs.  Tumors are technically abnormal growths of tissue and not necessarily related to cancer, so it does apply to this situation.  Moobs are male boobs, and we are men with boobs.  I don't quite see what the issue is with that.  Anyways, lecturing someone isn't going to change how they view or refer to their body, and I'm not quite sure why it matters anyways.
Oh I'm a lucky man to count on both hands the ones I love

A blah blog
http://www.susans.org/forums/index.php/board,365.0.html
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meh

It depends on who I'm talking to really. To people I'm close to I'll call them boobs and a vagina with a obvious hint of dislike in my voice. To people I don't know, it's my chesticles or moobs and junk, just to make it a bit funny and less medical (vagina...ew).

@ Bluetraveler, Obviously there is contempt for these body parts. We don't want them. Most of us don't want them anyway. There are guys who are okay with having a "pussy" and "owning" it.  And that's fine. I'm sure there are those who are offended by the word pussy too. So what. I don't get why what we refer to our parts as matters to anyone else.





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Alexmakenoise

I don't think it matters what anyone calls any part of their body.  It's common for people to make up interesting names or words for their genitals and breasts.  That's not a trans-specific thing.
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Squirrel698

Quote from: Alexmakenoise on November 16, 2010, 09:41:37 AM
I don't think it matters what anyone calls any part of their body.  It's common for people to make up interesting names or words for their genitals and breasts.  That's not a trans-specific thing.

Exactly.  When they start calling parts of other people's bodies terms that person might find offensive then we could have a problem.  Your own body you can call whatever you are comfortable with and gives you a bit of a naughty tingle.

For the record I say, cock, junk, breasts and ass or ->-bleeped-<-.   :angel:
"It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul"
Invictus - William Ernest Henley
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Carson

My chest is my chest but sometimes I say they are tumors because that is what they are to me. My mom had breast cancer. I don't know why me calling 2 essentially lumps of unwanted tissue growing on my chest that are not supposed to be there would offend anyone.

I call my dick a dick or junk or whatever else I feel like calling it. Its my dick, I can call it whatever I want. Just like guys who name their dick and refer to it as that in any sort of situation. Not my business or my problem.
Call me a cheat but I make my own fate.

http://www.formspring.me/carson1234
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Lee

Oh I'm a lucky man to count on both hands the ones I love

A blah blog
http://www.susans.org/forums/index.php/board,365.0.html
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Tad

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Miniar

Upper;
the chesticles, my chest, the.. ugh... tits...

Lower;
junk, cock, penis, crotch, etc..



"Everyone who has ever built anywhere a new heaven first found the power thereto in his own hell" - Nietzsche
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jmaxley

I call the chest appendages moobs or just chest.  The downstairs equipment I call junk or dick.  I don't see anything wrong with it and it eases the dysphoria.
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GnomeKid

Quote from: insideontheoutside on November 16, 2010, 12:11:05 AM

By this same token, is it wrong for a regular female to refer to her boobs as, "the girls" (or anything else), or a regular guy to refer to his dick as his "junk" (or anything else)? Why is it that these special rules apply to trans people? I've heard regular females use the phrase, "suck my dick" ... and regular guys tell one of their guy friends they had "sand in their vagina" ... are those all wrong too?

Before I state my opinion on trans people's body parts/titles for them I'd like to state my opinion on this section of your post, even though they are somewhat related, as so I don't get all muddled.
For the first part "junk" and "the girls" are at this point colloquialisms.  Someone says "My junk" or "His junk" you automatically jump to genitals.  The boobs one is more contextual but generally the same situation. 
For the second part I believe in both of those statements [especially in the sand in their vagina case] that the irony of the situation is half the point.  Saying someone has sand in their vagina is more a way of making fun of a guy friend for being a girl [because anyone with a "vagina" has to be a girl right? =p]  and for being whiney or in a mad mood.  "Suck my dick" is a way of saying I have the power here and don't care what discomfort it causes you.  Girls who say this are very rarely [if ever] actually referring to their own genitals as a dick.

That being said I don't generally at all refer to my genitals, and I never plan to.  Its not something I discuss or mention in any sort of company, and never plan to.  [being post-surgery, on T, and quite slim]  I do make joking reference to my "boobies" from time to time. 
If I hear[or see] other transmen refer to their down-below's as their junk or their dick that seems alright to me.  I'd probably go with "junk" if it was forced.  Its technically vague, and in a way very true.  Its stupid that it would be referred to as the same thing as a females genitals, and is quite rude for people to assume that they would be.  Why people do? I don't know I think it makes them more comfortable somehow, but that is clearly their problem.  Hell, I'm all for making "normal" people feel uncomfortable about such things.  Its about time they had a turn with it.
I solemnly swear I am up to no good.

"Oh what a cute little girl, or boy if you grow up and feel thats whats inside you" - Liz Lemon

Happy to be queer!    ;)
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Wolf Man

GnomeKid said just what I wanted to say about that little section he quoted.

Aside from that, I call my junk "junk" all the time. It's either that or crotch. Other male terms come into play with sexual situations. As for my "breasts", I see them as moobs and nothing else. That is a personal belief. Maybe I've grown into it, but it's how I feel. With all the other terms I hear, it just comes down to opinion/feeling/choice.

On a side note of previous comments... Though this might offend others, I think words should just be words in some situations. I don't think anyone should take it to heart when you shouldn't. An example would be being offended by someone calling their technical breasts "tumors". This is just how I feel and I know others feel different. I'm just hoping to make you think about it if you're not.
I'll be there someday, I can go the distance
I will find my way, If I can be strong
I know every mile, Will be worth my while

When I go the distance, I'll be right where I belong
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