Kaliko -> RE: Trump Deportation Plan and bringing safe toilets back (2/26/2017 3:57:26 AM)
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FR Not that it matters (because I know that one person's experience doesn't make the argument) but for the record, I was sexually assaulted as a young minor in a bathroom by a strange man who came in after me. I was much too young, paralyzed by what he was doing, frozen, and not able to react; not mature and confident enough to react. No one will ever convince me that this isn't a real risk. But that's not why it sits wrong with me. I suppose you could say that I feel....offended that someone who is clearly not a woman feels they can take some pills, get some plastic surgery, and put on a dress and call themselves a woman. I feel like that diminishes women to the point of objectification, and that someone who does these things is making a mockery of womanhood. I have no doubt that there are some people who are genuinely suffering in this way with their gender identity. I do not accept that they are the high numbers of people that we believe or accept them to be. I don't believe that nature has gone quite that amok. I posted this awhile back in a different transgender thread and got no real responses. I think it's worth re-posting here. Maybe someone can enlighten me. Original Post: I am a woman. However, my long hair, the size of my breasts, whether I've had children or not, wearing makeup, working in a certain field, looking pretty....these things don't define me as a woman. Correct? I mean, if I were to lose my breasts through mastectomy, I would still be a woman. And if I were to cut my hair short and wear flannel shirts and hiking boots, I am still a woman. While I may not be able to answer to anyone's satisfaction what does define me a woman, I'm going to go on the assumption that we can all agree that any one of these things does not define me as a woman. So, if I were a man but felt mismatched with that and felt like I more accurately identified as a woman, why is it that the outward changes I make in order to fit in as a woman in society are those very things that actually don't define someone as a woman? Maybe I'm wrong, here. (Could very well be. I can count on one finger the number of transgender persons I know - that I'm aware of, anyway.) Do transgender persons try to assimilate into society by changing their outward appearance? If I'm correct in assuming so, then what does that get them? Our society already allows us to sleep with whomever we like, so he doesn't have to dress as a woman to be with a man. What other internal motivation would there be that doesn't rely on stereotypes of outward appearance and behavior? And it often crosses my mind to wonder, if my assumptions are all correct: why is it okay to encourage using physical stereotypes as a way to express gender for our transgender folk, but it's frowned upon for those of us who aren't? An example of what I mean: It would be inappropriate for me to push my breasts up to an unnatural extent in order to, I don't know, go to a job interview. My breasts aren't who I am, and if I tried to make my appearance all about my breasts, then I would not be taken seriously. But if I'm a man who identifies as a woman, then somehow it's appropriate for me to...push my "breasts" up to an unnatural extent in order to go to a job interview. In that case, we'd be all "You go, girl!" but what's happening is that person is making their appearance all about their breasts - their physical femaleness* - but yet, they are taken seriously. Just some thoughts.... *not quite sure that's a word. :)
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