Post by Deleted on Feb 10, 2015 20:54:06 GMT 8
Hello, Folks!
I think I struck a blow for transgenderism this morning, and not for the first time. I believe I do that quite routinely, just as everybody else here does. Like this:
I think certain cispeople are anti-trans because they feel insecure. After all, if my gender is uncertain (in their eyes), then perhaps their own is as well. Consider, e.g., the woman who’s a committed trans-hater talking about her childhood, when she was an out-and-out tomboy. “Good thing nobody ever told me I was a boy,” she observed. There’s this fear that if some of us are allowed to become and be trans, then maybe lots of other people (who in the ordinary course of events wouldn’t question their gender) might become and want to be trans as well.
This morning I went into town to do this and that. Tuesday is my main day in town. I do my shopping for the week, take care of other little errands and always end up at the café for coffee. When I got back home, it occurred to me that rather than getting upset about seeing me, people should actually relax. And that’s what everybody I come in contact with seems to do.
Why should any man, on seeing me, feel insecure or uncertain about his gender? He should glimpse the truth: that never in a million years would he want to be or live like me. Rather than challenging his gender identity, I actually confirm it for him. And women by extension should feel confirmed in their own gender identity: they know their men, they know their men would never want to be like me. Their men are secure in their gender identity, and therefore they themselves are as well. Unless a woman knows a transman, in which case she’ll be confirmed in her gender identity in the same way a man will be confirmed in his on seeing a transwoman.
Secondly, people think we’re mentally ill, that we’re irrational. Yet people see me all the time, and let them say what I’m doing that’s irrational. I buy my groceries, I visit the library, I drink my coffee just like everybody else. If I’m irrational, why do I behave just as rationally as everybody else? If transgenderism makes somebody irrational, then why am I so bloody sane?
Neither do I cause any trouble. Supermarkets do have their trouble-makers—shoplifters, people who run up a lot of credit, etc. I don’t do that kind of thing. Libraries have their trouble-makers—people who steal books or chronically fail to return them on time or in good condition. That’s not me: a very good little bookworm I am. So if being transgender makes me a trouble-maker, why don’t I make any trouble?
In other words, by simply getting out in the world and being ourselves, we show people the truth about transgender people: we’re different, but not a problem. Being different doesn’t mean that you’re irrational or a trouble-maker or anything else. You’re just different—and people will have no problem living with that if they just care to learn it. They may believe one thing in theory, but when they see the reality, they have every reason to relax if they decide they want to. And lots of people these days are in fact deciding that they want to.
I think I struck a blow for transgenderism this morning, and not for the first time. I believe I do that quite routinely, just as everybody else here does. Like this:
I think certain cispeople are anti-trans because they feel insecure. After all, if my gender is uncertain (in their eyes), then perhaps their own is as well. Consider, e.g., the woman who’s a committed trans-hater talking about her childhood, when she was an out-and-out tomboy. “Good thing nobody ever told me I was a boy,” she observed. There’s this fear that if some of us are allowed to become and be trans, then maybe lots of other people (who in the ordinary course of events wouldn’t question their gender) might become and want to be trans as well.
This morning I went into town to do this and that. Tuesday is my main day in town. I do my shopping for the week, take care of other little errands and always end up at the café for coffee. When I got back home, it occurred to me that rather than getting upset about seeing me, people should actually relax. And that’s what everybody I come in contact with seems to do.
Why should any man, on seeing me, feel insecure or uncertain about his gender? He should glimpse the truth: that never in a million years would he want to be or live like me. Rather than challenging his gender identity, I actually confirm it for him. And women by extension should feel confirmed in their own gender identity: they know their men, they know their men would never want to be like me. Their men are secure in their gender identity, and therefore they themselves are as well. Unless a woman knows a transman, in which case she’ll be confirmed in her gender identity in the same way a man will be confirmed in his on seeing a transwoman.
Secondly, people think we’re mentally ill, that we’re irrational. Yet people see me all the time, and let them say what I’m doing that’s irrational. I buy my groceries, I visit the library, I drink my coffee just like everybody else. If I’m irrational, why do I behave just as rationally as everybody else? If transgenderism makes somebody irrational, then why am I so bloody sane?
Neither do I cause any trouble. Supermarkets do have their trouble-makers—shoplifters, people who run up a lot of credit, etc. I don’t do that kind of thing. Libraries have their trouble-makers—people who steal books or chronically fail to return them on time or in good condition. That’s not me: a very good little bookworm I am. So if being transgender makes me a trouble-maker, why don’t I make any trouble?
In other words, by simply getting out in the world and being ourselves, we show people the truth about transgender people: we’re different, but not a problem. Being different doesn’t mean that you’re irrational or a trouble-maker or anything else. You’re just different—and people will have no problem living with that if they just care to learn it. They may believe one thing in theory, but when they see the reality, they have every reason to relax if they decide they want to. And lots of people these days are in fact deciding that they want to.
. 
