Transexualism / Transgenderism

Victor

From a different thread:

What happened in that place has made me want to leave altogether, if young people nowadays are really such stupid assheads who genuinely don't WANT to understand.

I wonder if someone could explain (here, briefly, not by posting random links) in simple terms things like transexualism / transgenderism. Lots of "trans-" words get lumped together, unexplained and get subjected to all sort of conjecture and misunderstanding.... leading to fear and anger (Yoda: "Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering. I sense much fear in you.")

Some ideas in the wild are thatb (a) transgendered people have "misdiagnosed" gender, (b) transsexuals feel insecure in their assigned gender and want to change (c) transsexuals are deviant / thrill seekers / out to conuse / trap people.

Annasopra

I know you don't want random links but theres good info here

http://193.178.1.9/index.asp?locID=105&docID=254

Endocrinology: Endocrinology is the diagnosis and treatment of disorders of internal (endocrine) glands and diseases such as diabetes, metabolic and nutritional disorders, or pituitary, menstrual and sexual problems.

Gender: Gender refers to the person’s own self-identity as a male, female or something else. The overwhelming majority of the population have a gender that accords with their anatomical sex. Gender is less clearly defined than anatomical sex. Gender consists of two related aspects: Gender Identity, which is the person’s internal perception and experience of their gender, and Gender Role, which is the way that the person lives in society and interacts with others, based on their gender identity.

Gender Dysphoria: Gender dysphoria is an umbrella term covering a feeling of unhappiness and incongruity concerning one’s physical sex assigned at birth and/or gender role. This covers a range of feelings, from a general sense of discontentment with the socially expected role, through certain forms of gender-motivated transvestism (dressing as the ‘opposite’ sex to alleviate this dysphoria), through to full-scale transsexualism (with an overwhelming desire to change one’s body and genitals, and to actually become, as far as medically possible, the other sex) (The Looking Glass Society, 1998). The term gender dysphoria is most applicable to individuals in the beginning stages of transition. Once an individual has self-identified transition goals or has established a self-defined transgender identity, she or he is no longer considered to be gender dysphoric (Israel and Tarver, 1997).

Gender Identity: Gender identity refers to an individual’s innate sense of maleness (masculinity) or femaleness (feminity), or both, as well as how those feelings and needs are internalised and how they are presented to others (Israel & Tarver, 1997). It refers to those characteristics that are linked to an individual’s intrinsic sense of self that is based on attributes reflected in the person’s psychological, behavioural and/or cognitive state. (Ontario Human Right Commission, 1999).

Intersex: Intersex or Hermaphroditism is a very rare condition in which the persons genitals are neither clearly male nor clearly female.

MTF and FTM: MTF and FTM refer to ‘male-to-female’ or ‘female-to-male’ transition. These acronyms identify the direction of transition, or which established identity a person has chosen.

Psychotherapy: A form of therapy in which a trained professional uses methods based on psychological theories to help a person with psychological problems.

Real Life Experience (or Real Life Test): Real life experience or test is the term used to describe the period from the time a transsexual individual begins living in the role of the opposite gender to the time he or she has been doing so long enough to be considered an appropriate candidate for genital reassignment surgery. This experience is required under the Harry Benjamin Internal Gender Dysphoria Association Standards of Care (2001).

Sex: Sex refers to someone’s anatomical sex as determined at birth by their genitalia.

Transvestism: Very commonly confused with transsexuals, transvestites lack the overwhelming need to change their physical sex characteristics that characterises transsexuals. Transvestites feel a need to dress as the opposite sex from time to time, but have no wish to change sex.

Transgender: Transgender is an umbrella term which includes people of various gender identities and presentations including Intersex people, those who cross dress without any desire for permanent or significant gender change, ‘drag queens’ and ‘drag kings’. While some transsexual people have self-identified as transgender in this respect, others have emphasised the very distinctive aspect of transsexual identity and the specific goal of living permanently in a new gender role (Ontario Human Right Commission, 1999).

Transsexual: Transsexual people have a desire to live and be accepted as members of the opposite gender, usually accompanied by a sense of discomfort with, or inappropriateness of, their anatomic gender and a wish to have hormonal treatment and surgery to make their body’s as congruent as possible with the preferred gender (World Health Organisation, 1992). Put simply, a transsexual is a person whose gender (psychological sex) is opposite to their physiological sex (Looking Glass, 1992).

Victor

Thank you. By "random links" I meant only the link - the "here go look at this" attitude.

PhantomBeaker

Here's where it gets fun. Ask 20 trannies for a definition, get 21 answers.

Actually johnnymcg's stuff is quite accurate, but I figure I may give slightly more human. Plus some of the slang that trans-people tend to use.

So most of these phrases probably aren't correct by dictionary standards - or by (gender)queer definitions - but it's how they tend to be used.

sex - The sex one appears to be. (i.e. what's between the legs)

gender - The sex/gender one perceives themselves to be. (i.e. what's between the ears)... or brain-sex - what the brain thinks it is.

Transsexual (TS for short) - This is the classic "Man trapped in a Woman's body" and vice versa. Basically, there's a conflict between the sex of their body, and their gender. (i.e. what's between the ears does not match what's between the legs) In transsexuals, they believe that their gender is totally opposite from their sex (this is sometimes called Gender Dysphoria), and would like there to be no mismatch at all. Thing is, at the moment it's easier to butcher the body (mainly the genitals) so as to have an appearance more like the desired sex. However, in the case of genital surgery, just because it walks like a duck and tastes good in plum sauce does not mean it's a duck. (more on this later)

transition - a nicer euphamism for "changing sex" or whatever the tabloids are calling it. I.e. "transitioning from male to female"

MtF - Male to Female, a person born male but transitioning to female.

FtM - Female to Male, a person born female but transitioning to male

Transvestite (TV for short) - Typically someone who dresses as the opposite sex, but doesn't desire a sex change. Sometimes done for fetishistic reasons, sometimes done... well, to be perfectly honest, I don't know. Ask a transvestite and get the answer there

Transgender (TG for short) - Now, this doesn't have a clear-cut definition. One camp reckons it means the whole spectrum of trans people under one nice umbrella term. (i.e. the Transgender community).

THE OTHER camp are exactly that, other. While TS people are the people are ticking (for example) male on application forms and want to tick female, TG people are the people who are ticking male or female and want to have an other box on the form that they can tick. Or they're people who feel that their gender isn't entirely polarised as male or female to whatever degree - or at least not enough to warrant some operations.

The OP, also known as: SRS (Sex Reassignment Surgery), GRS (Genital/Gender Reassignment Surgery): Surgery to superficially alter the genitalia to mimic the genitalia of biological men or women. In the case of mtf procedures, the current technique in practice is the PIT technique. Generally, this involves inverting the penis to make a vaginal shaft, while keeping some of the tip of the penis to make the neo-clitoris, while the scrotal tissue is rearranged to for the labia. This is all known as vaginoplasty. The result is called the neo-vagina (and no, it does not wear a long black coat trying to look like Keanu Reeves. And if you have an image of him with a vagina, you probably want that image out of your head :rolleyes: ) It works pretty well, but no reproductive use (it ain't a duck). It works well enough for sex, assuming you don't mind the 1/3 nerve damage/loss (that's the rate for good surgeons last I checked). Depending on who you go with, prices range from £4000ukp to about £13-14k This isn't reversible.

For ftms, um, the options ain't good. Ysee, first of all they have to be on testosterone for a while so as to elongate the clitoris into a mini penis. Once enough penile tissue is gathered, a phallus can be made. There are many techniques to this, and none of them really are satisfactory. One result can be something that looks nothing like a penis and acts like a hard-on 24 hours a day, but with little/no sensation, or you can manage something that looks like a real penis and scrotum, that you can possibly urinate with, but can't have sex with. Worst part, these tend to cost roughly the same as a porshe. So the question is: phalloplasty (the ftm op) or a phallic symbol that gets you from A to B?

Chest/Top Surgery (Mastectomy) - This is the removal of breast tissue. This is mainly for the FtM community. It's better than binding.

Binding - using bandages or other restraints to bind the breasts to the body so as to give the impression of a male chest

Tucking - An MtF practice where the genitals are tucked between the legs, and held between the buttocks (if you're so endowed) and kept in place by STRONG underwear. Painful if you get it wrong (see http://venusenvy.keenspace.com/d/20011203.html ), but pretty painless if you get it right.

Packing - An FtM practice (mainly) where you put something down your pants so as to look like you're endowed. Think spinal tap in the airport.

Meh, I haven't even covered half of it, but that should be enough to start off with.

Take care,
Phantom Beaker

Annasopra

Thanks PB

I don't fully inderstand the term gender-queer I have been told that it is for people who do not identify as TG or TS, don't believe in the binary definitions of only 2 genders and don't identify as either - is this correct?

PhantomBeaker

Yeah, genderqueer is a very odd little bunny.

It's really hard to define, but generally I can see when someone identifies as TG as opposed to Genderqueer. It's like there's very little difference - but that little difference makes a big difference.

If I was to put it down to one thing, I'd say genderqueer has more political motivation to it. With most genderqueer people I find there's an element of them being in your face. TG tends to be more "This is who I am, but I don't have to shout about it".

For the record, most TG people (as in not the community definition of TG) don't necessarily believe in only 2 genders either. Like I said, it's realyl difficult to define.

Take care,
Phantom Beaker.