http://crashchaoscats.wordpress.com/2013/08/09/socialized-trans/
My latest post, in response to 'gendertherapist'. And I'll cite the articles in just a moment. -M.A.
"As gender specialists, we need to be working to make the world safe
for everyone’s gender. If a person doesn’t feel they fit into the box
that women are permitted to live in, in the binary, it is wrong to
assume they must be male. They might be but not necessarily. This is why
the binary is problematic. As we know, most gender non conforming kids
grow up to be cisgender."-gendertherapist
I no longer buy the
'gender line'. One is born male or female (with the very rare exception
of interssex), it is a biological FACT, then raised according to their
genitals in systems that crush females, and limit ANY Female expression
outside of patriarchal Sex Role Stereotyping. It also limits bio male
children from expressing more tender feelings and wanting to play with
what have been designated 'girl only toys/clothes'. It crushes little
boys too that don't want to play in competitive sports, fight, and have
more artistic and tender sensitivities. Both are mercilessly teased by
peers and admonished by parents for not 'fitting in'. I posit it is the
SYSTEM that is the problem for being so intolerant, not the kids that
need to be changed.
Instead of letting kids play expansive
dress up, toy playing games, and all kinds of expansive roles and
opportunities, they are labeled as gender dysfunctional or a 'trans kid'
or some such thing...believe me, I KNOW, having never fit into
heterosexual female roles almost my entire life!
I'm just glad no
therapist I EVER went to recommended to my parents that I be on hormone
blockers, then set for opposite sex hormones in my teenage years.
Sexism is RAMPANT. It is deep, it is pervasive. Without addressing deep
sexism on EVERY level, and along with that Lesbo/Homophobia and fear of
the kid growing up homosexual(like a hardcore tomboy kid like myself
refusing straitjacketed female roles and much preferring boys' toys and
clothes), more and more parents will succumb to the siren song of
hormone blockers and hormones for their kids and teens.
There
are more than ever young teen, 20 and 30 somethings and some older females now transitioning or genderqueering who
feel they don't fit into the box girls/women are expected to 'fit into';
marriage, babymaking, certain professions and displaying themselves in a
feminine revealing and sexualized manner. That is EXACTLY how I felt,
and instead of being accepted by parents, schools, peers, I was thrown
into the-rapy, and shamed by the above for desiring boys' toys,
rejecting dolls, dresses, skirts, high heels, makeup, and playing girly
games. I did NOT want a penis..I wanted to be treated equal. I told them
all I 'wanted to be a boy' because I wanted to play all the boys'
games, tag, exploring, riding my bike, being included in the boys' clubs
and all the fun adventures, baseball, ice hockey and eventually getting
into the martial arts. Even there, I wanted to do full contact karate in tournaments
and because I was female I was NOT permitted to do so.
It had
NOTHING to do with wanting a penis. It had to do with being treated as a
societal EQUAL and allowed to do the activities I found fun and
interesting and I wanted NOTHING to do with domestic training which girls are
EXPECTED to do and most of their games and activities are centered around.
By seeing barriers everywhere as a bio
Female, and especially if one has resisted femininity and
feminization(tomboy, Butch, nonfeminine) so many will respond with
wanting to 'pass' as more male to get a sense of power in this world
that femaleness does not give, unless it's the reflected mirrored power
of sexualized female like movie stars, fashion divas and singers, no real power in the end, because sexualized ends
up often being EXPLOITED Female, and the better jobs, pay, esteem that
men get without being sexualized. Men are taken far
more seriously in ANY profession than women are and most often in the supervisory roles. This is even more true the higher up to the top of an organization one goes. Boy children get way more
attention than girl children do.
Until ALL these causes are addressed
and the patriarchal system of male powerover changed at its roots, it
never questions the underlying assumptions of the system, and transition
is then mostly a coping mechanism for sheer survival for NOT conforming
to proscribed sex roles. I want to see the NEED for transition
ELIMINATED.
When we had STRONG Lesbian communities that
Questioned all these things, Butches had REAL PRIDE in their POWERFUL
FEMALE BEINGS. We saw ourselves as the fierce Amazon Warriors that were
going to make some real change, and create our own alternative
societies, institutions, spaces, and make inroads into male trades as in
the Tradeswomen movement, largely founded by Butch Dykes...but as
Feminism and Lesbian Feminism as IT'S OWN movement faded, and blended
into the queerified LGBT movement, Butches began questioning their
femaleness, more and more and more began to transition and we lost all
those strong Lesbian and Female networks and PRIDE.
For many
of us 'Cis' is a hate word. As a Bio Female Butch DykeAmazon, I have
ALWAYS resisted hetero sex roles or 'female gender roles', ALWAYS and in
ALL WAYS...but I am not male, NOR DO I WANT TO BE or to transition. I
am NOT cis, I am bio female and a womon born womon. Cis is a term the
trans have invented, it is NOT a term many of us Female Proud Butches,
Dykes, or born females have chosen for ourselves. We NAME ourselves, and
for many of us, no matter what the trans, gender, genderqueer movements
think, we are Women born women, bio female from birth, raised as girls
in a society oppressive to girls and women, and we go through puberty as
girls (whether sex role conforming or not)facing menstruation and our
bodies naturally changing, the possibility and fear of impregnation, and
all the sexism inherent in that and in our lives as continuous Females.
There is a huge difference between us and those who claim womanhood
after being born and living as male for any period of time. Even with the heartache some of not 'fitting in' they still have had male privileges NO born female has EVER had.
So while you understand the sexist
society we live in 'gendertherapist', you firmly have your foot already in the 'gender
camp' and are making a living at it!
Continue to question is
what I say, in a society that limits our choices severely, through
policies, religion, convention, books, magazines, movies, media,
schools, medicine including psychology and psychiatry, everything at
it's base is in the heart and milieu of the patriarchy. NOTHING is separate
from it. Those who don't conform are punished, sometimes even WITHIN
their own communities and the immense pressure now for any tomboyish
girl or butchy young womon to transition to male, genderqueer, take
hormones, wear breast flattening vests to hide their breasts, and the
expose you did on female athletes, and the PEER PRESSURE by others once
she has come into the community to go down those roads. It is rampant in
San Francisco now, which is why I hardly go over there anymore..as a
Butch, it hurts me to my CORE to know strong Butches I used to know, and
even young ones, SUCCUMBING to the immense pressure by peers to go down
the road of breast flattening, being called by male pronouns, take
hormones, and then eventually schedule themselves for breast removal
surgeries.....
I know they are often lost, when it starts in
the brain: the whole, 'you look and act like a man, so you must BE ONE.'
that Butches have been told ad infinitum for DECADES if not centuries
and millenia, because the world CANNOT Handle fully empowered
nonfeminine conforming, Butch, Amazon, independent masculine appearing
women who stand their ground, and effeminate men who differ from the macho norm. Question THE SYSTEM.
-FeistyAmazon
http://crashchaoscats.wordpress.com/2013/08/09/socialized-trans/#more-188
My latest post, in response to 'gendertherapist'. And I'll cite the articles in just a moment. -M.A.
I no longer buy the 'gender line'. One is born male or female (with the very rare exception of interssex), it is a biological FACT, then raised according to their genitals in systems that crush females, and limit ANY Female expression outside of patriarchal Sex Role Stereotyping. It also limits bio male children from expressing more tender feelings and wanting to play with what have been designated 'girl only toys/clothes'. It crushes little boys too that don't want to play in competitive sports, fight, and have more artistic and tender sensitivities. Both are mercilessly teased by peers and admonished by parents for not 'fitting in'. I posit it is the SYSTEM that is the problem for being so intolerant, not the kids that need to be changed.
Instead of letting kids play expansive dress up, toy playing games, and all kinds of expansive roles and opportunities, they are labeled as gender dysfunctional or a 'trans kid' or some such thing...believe me, I KNOW, having never fit into heterosexual female roles almost my entire life!
I'm just glad no therapist I EVER went to recommended to my parents that I be on hormone blockers, then set for opposite sex hormones in my teenage years.
Sexism is RAMPANT. It is deep, it is pervasive. Without addressing deep sexism on EVERY level, and along with that Lesbo/Homophobia and fear of the kid growing up homosexual(like a hardcore tomboy kid like myself refusing straitjacketed female roles and much preferring boys' toys and clothes), more and more parents will succumb to the siren song of hormone blockers and hormones for their kids and teens.
There are more than ever young teen, 20 and 30 somethings and some older females now transitioning or genderqueering who feel they don't fit into the box girls/women are expected to 'fit into'; marriage, babymaking, certain professions and displaying themselves in a feminine revealing and sexualized manner. That is EXACTLY how I felt, and instead of being accepted by parents, schools, peers, I was thrown into the-rapy, and shamed by the above for desiring boys' toys, rejecting dolls, dresses, skirts, high heels, makeup, and playing girly games. I did NOT want a penis..I wanted to be treated equal. I told them all I 'wanted to be a boy' because I wanted to play all the boys' games, tag, exploring, riding my bike, being included in the boys' clubs and all the fun adventures, baseball, ice hockey and eventually getting into the martial arts. Even there, I wanted to do full contact karate in tournaments and because I was female I was NOT permitted to do so.
It had NOTHING to do with wanting a penis. It had to do with being treated as a societal EQUAL and allowed to do the activities I found fun and interesting and I wanted NOTHING to do with domestic training which girls are EXPECTED to do and most of their games and activities are centered around.
By seeing barriers everywhere as a bio Female, and especially if one has resisted femininity and feminization(tomboy, Butch, nonfeminine) so many will respond with wanting to 'pass' as more male to get a sense of power in this world that femaleness does not give, unless it's the reflected mirrored power of sexualized female like movie stars, fashion divas and singers, no real power in the end, because sexualized ends up often being EXPLOITED Female, and the better jobs, pay, esteem that men get without being sexualized. Men are taken far more seriously in ANY profession than women are and most often in the supervisory roles. This is even more true the higher up to the top of an organization one goes. Boy children get way more attention than girl children do.
Until ALL these causes are addressed and the patriarchal system of male powerover changed at its roots, it never questions the underlying assumptions of the system, and transition is then mostly a coping mechanism for sheer survival for NOT conforming to proscribed sex roles. I want to see the NEED for transition ELIMINATED.
When we had STRONG Lesbian communities that Questioned all these things, Butches had REAL PRIDE in their POWERFUL FEMALE BEINGS. We saw ourselves as the fierce Amazon Warriors that were going to make some real change, and create our own alternative societies, institutions, spaces, and make inroads into male trades as in the Tradeswomen movement, largely founded by Butch Dykes...but as Feminism and Lesbian Feminism as IT'S OWN movement faded, and blended into the queerified LGBT movement, Butches began questioning their femaleness, more and more and more began to transition and we lost all those strong Lesbian and Female networks and PRIDE.
For many of us 'Cis' is a hate word. As a Bio Female Butch DykeAmazon, I have ALWAYS resisted hetero sex roles or 'female gender roles', ALWAYS and in ALL WAYS...but I am not male, NOR DO I WANT TO BE or to transition. I am NOT cis, I am bio female and a womon born womon. Cis is a term the trans have invented, it is NOT a term many of us Female Proud Butches, Dykes, or born females have chosen for ourselves. We NAME ourselves, and for many of us, no matter what the trans, gender, genderqueer movements think, we are Women born women, bio female from birth, raised as girls in a society oppressive to girls and women, and we go through puberty as girls (whether sex role conforming or not)facing menstruation and our bodies naturally changing, the possibility and fear of impregnation, and all the sexism inherent in that and in our lives as continuous Females. There is a huge difference between us and those who claim womanhood after being born and living as male for any period of time. Even with the heartache some of not 'fitting in' they still have had male privileges NO born female has EVER had.
So while you understand the sexist society we live in 'gendertherapist', you firmly have your foot already in the 'gender camp' and are making a living at it!
Continue to question is what I say, in a society that limits our choices severely, through policies, religion, convention, books, magazines, movies, media, schools, medicine including psychology and psychiatry, everything at it's base is in the heart and milieu of the patriarchy. NOTHING is separate from it. Those who don't conform are punished, sometimes even WITHIN their own communities and the immense pressure now for any tomboyish girl or butchy young womon to transition to male, genderqueer, take hormones, wear breast flattening vests to hide their breasts, and the expose you did on female athletes, and the PEER PRESSURE by others once she has come into the community to go down those roads. It is rampant in San Francisco now, which is why I hardly go over there anymore..as a Butch, it hurts me to my CORE to know strong Butches I used to know, and even young ones, SUCCUMBING to the immense pressure by peers to go down the road of breast flattening, being called by male pronouns, take hormones, and then eventually schedule themselves for breast removal surgeries.....
I know they are often lost, when it starts in the brain: the whole, 'you look and act like a man, so you must BE ONE.' that Butches have been told ad infinitum for DECADES if not centuries and millenia, because the world CANNOT Handle fully empowered nonfeminine conforming, Butch, Amazon, independent masculine appearing women who stand their ground, and effeminate men who differ from the macho norm. Question THE SYSTEM.
-FeistyAmazon
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