So What Do You Call Yourself?

[Guest Chrysee]

I got to thinking that if I could swing the facelift and the nose job and then eventually (after HRT) implants, then folks could call me a skinjob!

[Guest childofwinter]

I have no idea what I can call myself at this point, but I most strongly relate to the term Androgyne.

[Guest Roux]

I like "gender-fluid androgyne", seeing as how I, you know, identify as androgyne but tend to slide around the spectrum a bit. When I don't feel like explaining myself, I stick to "androgyne". On really gender-fluid days, I use "genderqueer".

. . . Maybe I should just choose something and stick to it; now that I see that all written out, I kinda feel sorry for the people who ask me and have to suffer through my multiple labels. Er.

[Guest mad_scientist]

Genderqueer, usually, because I don't really understand my identity enough to be more specific. Most of the time I'm certain I'm agendered, but then I'll go through these periods where I'm *definitely* neutrois, or a butch woman, or a femme man.

[Guest NicolaiAE]

I just got with what people call me now. I don't correct them or make a hint at a specific gender. It's easier that way for me.

[Guest DixiePixie]

"Genderqueer" is generally a good enough catch-all term for multiple sides of myself - I think of myself as a gay guy that happens to be in a female body I'm increasingly comfortable with, and androgynous / feminine appearing.

[Guest Micha]

"I like {girls}, in a gay way."

[Guest stranger]

I like androgyne, it kind of sounds like something that ought to require high-test fuel and go really fast.

"Got me an androgyne under the hood with a little Nitrous bleed..."

[Guest Micha]

[Guest Chrysee]

"I like {girls}, in a gay way."

I think it's true that our minds often know things that we just as soon not know. So, it (the mind) hides it from us. At a get together a number of years ago (long before I came out or even consciously knew that I had something to 'let out') I tired of listening to others present introduce themselves by way of their credentials. So when it came to me, I simply announced that I was 'a lesbian trapped in a man's body.'

Little did I then actually know. . .

[Guest abbxrdy]

What do I call myself? Defective. And that is what it really is.

[Guest stranger]

What do I call myself? Defective. And that is what it really is.

Says who??? Society? to heck with them! You're not hurting anybody by being yourself, and if you're not hurting anybody, they can just get over themselves!

(As I say...Those who are shocked and offended by gender nonconformity really need to get out more often )

[Guest Chrysee]

What do I call myself? Defective. And that is what it really is.

Stop, please! Before you become too attached to the whole 'defective' thing, consider this:

I have heard those born into male bodies who then grow into healthy, heterosexual men called 'normal.' I on the other hand deem them: 'average.'

One of the worst things that humans do as a species is balance. In some areas it may appeal or even be preferred or longed for. However, excess gives off a seductive scent that a great many people flock to.

Consider this: just as every battery, magnet, etc., contains both positive and negative. This grants them balance. And so does every human contain both masculine and feminine. Now I know and all my life have known many 'average men' (see above) who would not stand still for the very insinuation that they have an ounce of female in them. We (transgenders, genderqueers, whatever term, you wish to fill the blank in with) not only acknowledge the presence of what those around us call 'the opposite sex', but both boast of and show it! It is not the opposite sex as in something over there, it is the opposite polarity in each of us which makes us whole. As well, the way that we treat it--allowing it to occupy it's place in our presence--not only maintains balance, but elevates us above the 'average' (I think) and makes us, well, kinda special.

But whether special or not, I cannot abide 'defective.'

Thanks for letting me rant.

Chrysalis