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Tuesday, March 28, 2017

A United Front

Transgender is an adjective.  As In transgender man, woman, person activist, author, etc. The definition: denoting or relating to a person whose sense of personal identity and gender does not correspond with their birth sex. Wikipedia goes a little further in stating that trangender (adjective) people are people who have a gender identity or gender expression that differs from their assigned sex, i.e. gender dysphoria. Again further defining the person. This could also be abbreviated as “trans” as in: “trans man, woman, person activist, author, etc.


Cross-dress is a verb or action and it's definition is, “wear clothing typical of the opposite sex.” I am not going to get into the definition of sex but it typically categories denoting someone reproductive function, as in female or male. 

So by proper word use, a transgender person can also cross dress; adjective adding clarity to the person denoting the action of cross dressing.  The action of cross dressing typically would be a male (person) dressed (verb) in designated female garments or the opposite.  

I just read the most disturbing Quora article “Have trans activists erased the existence of cross-dressers?” Jae Alex Lee in my opinion gave one of the most prejudicial answers I could imagine. In an effort to clarify that trans people aren’t cross dressers she basically said "trans" is what is all about and cross dressers are second class simply because they can put their “clothes back in a box”. Bull Shit! Sorry to be so un-ladylike.



It is thinking like this that will fracture progress and will be used against us. Any combatant knows that with a united front, much can be accomplished. If you do not believe we are under attack, you do not understand the republican conservative agenda. The bullies targeted gays and failed, now they are coming for us, the transgender. Denying humanity to some is to deny it to all. 

If we go off into factions, set against each other, then we give our enemies easy targets. "Cross dressers in the woman’s rest room" are not "men in the woman’s rest room". It is “gender dysphoria” plain and simple. To put forward this thinking, you provide license for discrimination, hate, bigotry and absurdity.  

Thankfully a little further down the Quora discussion, Lynn Oddy, stated this:
There is a tendency to try and split trans people into transsexuals and cross-dressers as if they are completely unrelated - they aren’t, gender dysphoria drives both. It’s a matter of how strong the dysphoria is and what obstructions the individual has to transitioning.
Let us be honest with ourselves.  Likley all that read this blog are either transgender males or females and if we do not recognize that, our enemies using intimidation, will drive all of us back to the closet, one by one.




9 comments:

  1. Thank you for showing how to diagram a sentence. I wonder if anyone under the age of 50 has even heard of the concept. In elementary school back in the 1960s the exercise was part of the daily classroom teachings.

    It is nice to see proper word usage. I cross dress. It is something that I do. I suppose that I do it because i am a transgender person.

    I am also rather conservative in my political thinking. My leanings are towards libertarian beliefs and a strong adherence to the Constitution. It is hurtful when people who should know about "lumping people together into groups" feel at liberty to call all people who may be Republican or Conservative or Libertarian, haters or bigots or to treat them as the enemy.

    I understand the nature of an Alinsky attack. It is an effective socio/political tool for usurping power. Create a false enemy, demonize that enemy, attack and neutralize the enemy. Both the Clintons and the Obamas were effective in using Alinsky tactics. It is an effective way to segregate and divide but it cares little to nothing about those who it hurts.

    All I am saying is that a belief in smaller government, less government control of people's lives, less taxes, less intrusion into person space or decisions does not make us the enemy. Live and let live.

    There are people of all political or non-political beliefs who have dislike of others. It does not make everyone who shares some opinions with others an ally in all their thoughts, words and deeds.
    Pat

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  2. As always - I really do appreciate your comments.

    Thanks Pat

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  3. Nicely expressed Rhonda and yes dysphoria is graded and a spectrum..

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  4. Nonetheless Jae had a point when she said that the big difference between transwomen and cross-dressers is that transwomen have no escape. I wish that I was a cross-dresser I really do because it would have meant that I could have avoided the painful, disruptive hell that is transition. The social ostracism is bad enough, but the surgeries hurt, having your beard and genital hair yanked out is no party and it costs a fortune in money as well as friends/family.

    I tried to make it work as a cross-dresser. For years and years I tried, I really did. I really, really did not want to transition. I did not want to tear my life apart but eventually I had to and it cost me a lot of pain. My fellow CDers, on the other hand, are still happily carrying on.

    The two have some things in common, but they are not the same.

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    1. you are absolutely correct in saying this and while it may form part of the same root system the branches are not entirely the same. On the other hand the argument of dismissing other transgender people because they don't need to transition has been used to often to minimize their struggles and problems in dealing with a hostile society. I think that Rhonda's point is that there is more that unites than divides..

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    2. I do know a few self-professed cross dressers who have gone to great lengths to be the "most convincing" woman they can be - when they want to present themselves as a woman. Although none of them have undergone GRS, they have been on HRT for years, have endured electrolysis, grown their hair out, and, in one case, even had breast implants. Yet, they still see themselves as men - and present as such - in their ordinary lives. To them, being a woman is a series of events, or a lifestyle they enjoy. None of them are effeminate; in fact, quite the contrary. I have to admit that I don't get it.

      Because of a medical condition I have, I cannot have HRT and no legitimate surgeon would do an elective operation for me. Nevertheless, I live each day as a woman, and I cringe at the thought of someone saying that it is my lifestyle choice. Putting my wardrobe in a box and presenting as a male might seem easier for me (easier than also having to bind my breasts, anyway), but I just can't see myself that way at all. So, every morning, I shave my face, insert breast forms into my bra, put my wig on over my bald head, tuck myself in, apply a little makeup, and dress for whatever the day's activities require. But that does not make me a cross dresser - not even a chronic or perpetual one.

      Life under the "Transgender Umbrella" is certainly not perfect for any of us. As Rhonda points out in the following blog post, we may be separated by our motivations, but that's true for just about anything in life. I don't really know, or care, where I fit under the umbrella. I'm certainly not in the middle, holding it up, but I can never walk out from under it completely. More often, I'm probably at its edge - half-in and half-out - seeking its protection, but still getting a little wet at the same time.

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