posted
Hello wonderful hatrackers! I know all of you are incredibly intelligent and full of information so I was hoping if you could dig inside your brains and tell me what you think of transexuals. Do you know exactly what the definition is? Anything you think of when you think of transexuals, stereotypes or not. I'm gathering some info, and I would like to hear some opinions. Thank you much,
posted
I'm under the impression that transexual includes anyone who changes gender or appearance of gender, including transgendered, crossdressing men and women, etc.
Posts: 6367 | Registered: Aug 2003
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posted
I was under the impression that a transvestite is someone who dresses as a member of the opposite sex, and a transexual is someone who thinks of themselves as the opposite gender than their physical sex.
So a transvestite might be a transexual, but not necessarily.
posted
PSI, according to what I have studied, you've got "transsexual" and "transgender" reversed. Transgender is the blanket term that includes almost any crossing of gender lines or non-conformity with gender roles. Transsexual is the most extreme form of transgenderism -- where an anatomically "normal" man or woman is convinced that he or she has the personality/mind/soul of the opposite gender and was born into a body of the wrong sex.
Posts: 9866 | Registered: Apr 2002
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posted
At Brown, "gender-neutral" housing is becoming a concern for the transgender and transsexual comunities. I don't think that a long-term solution has been found. For the next year, I think they're going to try a small segment of "gender neutral" dorm rooms to see how that goes. But it's a very difficult question. It would be much easier if our school already allowed male-female doubles, but currently we allow co-ed by rooms (each room has only male, or only female, but you can be next door to the opposite gender). In the last few years, there has been an increase in mixed-gender suites due to the strong interest of the students. This is just the next step in the dialogue.
Posts: 1892 | Registered: Mar 2002
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posted
Part of this depends on whether you are talking about psychological classifications, or practical usage of the language. In the GLBT community (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgendered), someone is transgendered if they identify themselves as the opposite sex from which they are, genetically. Transvestitism in this case isn't necessarily an indication of transgender expression. It can be a manefestation of heterosexual fetishism as well. That is, a man can wear women's clothes not because he feels womanly, but because the clothes themselves turn him on.
I do know that one does not have to have the operation to be considered transexual. Many transexuals only go as far as the hormone therapies, presumably because the surgery isn't anywhere near perfected, even today.
Posts: 6394 | Registered: Dec 1999
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posted
Just a related question... How do these surgeries work? I mean, can they give a man a uterus? Can they give a woman testes, etc.? What's involved? Just something I've always wondered.
Posts: 1947 | Registered: Aug 2002
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posted
Transgendered surgeries can create reasonable facsimiles, but none of them are reproductively functional. The male -> female process is much easier than the reverse, from what I've read. I believe the vernacular is "It's easier to dig a hole than build a pole."
posted
We actually looked at this topic in a college course I took. It's very interesting. According to some research, the brains of males who switched to females look more like a female brain than a typical male brain, which gives some scientific proof that these people just might have the wrong bodies. There is a wonderful movie dealing with this topic called "Normal." It stars Jessica Lange. PBS has also shown some documentaries, I believe.
Posts: 11 | Registered: Apr 2004
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posted
Surfing the Net gives you opportunities to reach very diverse folks, and the trangendered are no exception. All the ones I know are among my favorite posters. Their "online transsexual experience" ranges from giant multi-page threads answering questions about self-lubrication, to assuming deliberately ambiguous names, to confiding in me via email. It's hard to say what exactly I've learned from these interactions, except the obvious: there are no stereotypes.
Posts: 1839 | Registered: May 1999
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posted
Two of the writers I edit for are transgendered (physically female but see themselves as mentally male). They also happen to be identical twins. The only thing remotely female about the way they act is that the really, really like chocolate.
I met them in college, and was impressed by their writing talent. Most of the campus population talked about them and not *to* them, but it was their loss. They are a couple of great guys, very talented. I admire them a lot. They could not afford hormone therapy as of the last time they investigated it. They live in a rural area, and have essentially become homebound.
But their latest novel rocks! Posts: 1664 | Registered: Apr 2004
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posted
What is it you want us to say? The topic is a little ambigious....
Anyway, transgederism (is that a word?) is, imo, a particularly nasty mental disorder (or physical, define it how you want) and the people who have it deserve sympathy and empathy.
In the end, we are all people. If someone has a gender-body conflict, that doesn't change that person's inherent humanity.
Posts: 3060 | Registered: Nov 2003
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posted
Phanto- there is gender identity disorder, which is a psychological disorder. I wouldn't really consider that to be the same as transgender. In GID, the patient would be confused about which gender they are. In the case of transgender, I think they know what they were born and they have decided they want to be something different.
quote: According to some research, the brains of males who switched to females look more like a female brain than a typical male brain
It's amazing to me that when it comes to transgender, folks are willing to say "this is a female brain and this is a male brain" but in dicussing feminism we can't.
P.S. in the dreaded feminism thread, we also talked about the use of "men and women" instead of "persons" in the law. I think "men and women" could be construed as excluding those with sex chromosome abnormality as well as the transgendered.
posted
Thanks for your help everyone. But to correct Phanto again, there has been a diagnosis of Gender Identity Disorder but it isn't always the case. Most of the people who are transsexual do not believe they have a disease. I read somewhere that the transsexuals believe that the reason they feel this way is just because. The analogy I was told once was that you need to imagine your favorite color, food, or drink. Did you just wake up one day and say "I like blue!" or is it something that kind of progressed over time. That's the explanation I got.
Posts: 53 | Registered: Jan 2004
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posted
It's a disease in the sense that any mental disorder is. Currently the current theory is that it's caused by a failure of testoesterone in the masculization of the brain. Ergo, because GID is something that very few people have, and it's caused by a failure of the brain to develop, it's a disorder.
And, pooka, you make an interesting point about brains and how we can only accept the idea of gendered minds in certain situations.
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