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sissymaidlola -> RE: opinions on definitions (3/10/2005 6:25:02 PM)
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quote:
generally the term "hermaphrodite" isn't used as a self-identification of gender. Most people I know with the physiological, biological or choromosomal elements of more than one gender either identify as intersexed or as the gender they feel most drawn toward.
Hi perverseangelic,
The term "hermaphrodite" is the correct clinical term for certain intersexed persons with a physical mix of both male and female genitalia (but that does not include ALL intersexed folks) yet, as you say, such persons will probably all prefer to self-identify as simply "intersexed" rather than "hermaphrodite". However, a hermaphrodite self-identifying as "intersexed" is really no different than a transvestite (TV), transgenderist (TG) or transsexual (TS) self-identifying as a "crossdresser" (CD) ... it is preferred self-identifying terminology simply because it sounds less clinical than the more accurate DSM-IV or ICD pathological nomenclature used by psychologists - with its implied connotation of aberrant behavior and/or physique.
Actually, most TS would prefer to self-identify as TS rather than CD - especially M2F post-op TS. They are now legally female so they are technically NOT crossdressing any more but dressing according to their true mental, physical, legal and social gender. Ditto pre-op TS, except not all of them are legally female as well as not being fully physically female (i.e., pre or only partial SRS). Most TGs would seem to be divided (in exactly what ratio sissy couldn't tell you) on whether they prefer CD to TG ... some do, some don't. The terms "transgendered male" or "transgenderist" are relatively new (post sixties) and don't carry anywhere near the historical negative baggage that the term "transvestite" does (which dates back to close to the turn of the century), which may account for some of the TG ambivalence.
It is the TV, much more than the TG or TS, that is most likely to be vehement about self-identifying as CD rather than the alternate, but semantically equivalent, Latin designation. What is most confusing about this alphabet soup of two-letter acronyms such as CD, TS, TG, TV is that three of the four terms can be used to include all of the other three. All of the three T-girl terms - TS, TG, TV - are correctly subsumed under the term "crossdresser" ... sissy's argument above WRT a post-op TS dressing according to his true new gender notwithstanding. Similarly, it is correct to refer to anyone that is TV, TG , or TS as being "transgendered".
Finally, until the more PC English term "crossdresser" came into effect (somewhere in the seventies, perhaps even as late as the eighties ?), such that it could be used as an all-embracing term for all of the others, the only term that existed for a man that wears women's clothing was "transvestite", so by that definition all of the T-girl types are also transvestites. And that is not so incorrect a broad brush designation either, when one thinks about it, because every TG or TS, before they start taking female hormones, growing breasts, and finally having SRS, has to first start off as a common-or-garden TV. Plus TVs are by far the most common type of CD ... post-op TS are relatively rare, and many that identify as pre-op TS are really only TG. What exactly is the difference between a permanently pre-op TS and a TG ?
All of the terms introduced in the OP (viz. "androgyne", "hermaphrodite", "intersexed", and "bisexual") and the term "asexual" introduced by yourself, are really not in the same category as the four incestuously interconnected terms TV, TG, TS and CD. They are all clear and distinct terms for specific gender or sexual orientation abnormalities, and none of them is self-referential of the other. The terms "asexual" and "bisexual" simply supplement the terms "heterosexual" and "homosexual" to round out all of the four possibilities for human sexual orientation - viz. respectively, no attraction to either gender, attraction to both genders, attraction to only the opposite gender, and attraction to only the same gender. The other three terms appear at first look to be synonyms, but they are actually somewhat distinct. When applied to animals they probably still are all synonyms. Someone with XYY chromosomes, or a mixture of XX and XY chromosomes, is intersexed but not necessarily hermaphrodite, while ALL hermaphrodites are intersexed.
"Androgyne" is the most interesting term, because it really straddles the transgendered and intersexed lexicons. Someone is androgynous if they simultaneously exhibit both male and female traits. Technically one could also be androgynous if one exhibited neither male nor female traits. Whereas the transgendered person is trying to transform from his true biological gender / assigned birth gender to the opposite gender, either permanently (TG/TS) or just on weekends (TV), but still as only one gender, the androgyne wants to simultaneously embrace both (or neither?) genders. The "Boy George look" is an androgynous look, as is the appearance of the character "Pat" on SNL (his/her indeterminant gender is the source of all the humor in the sketches related to this character). But a "failed TV" look, where the TV simultaneously gives both male and female gender clues in equal proportion such that the observer cannot immediately place his gender, but is instead confused, is not normally considered to be an androgynous look, although one can easily argue that it is.
If you want to have fun with transgendered and intersexed terminology, how about "epicene" or "gynandromorph" ? Personally, as a "fetishistic TV" - or to use the DSM-IV terminology, a "transvestic fetishist" - sissy considers himself to be a "gender-bender" and he self-identifies as 'bi-gendered". So there's four more terms for you to struggle with. He also identifies as a "sissy' or "pansy" or "nancy boy" as part of his "self-emasculation via sartorial means" kink !! Off the top of his head, sissy can think of about thirty or more other synonyms - such as "puffda", "patapouf", "pantywaist", "mujerado", "milquetoast", etc. - for these types of terms.
Gender semantics and taxonomy aside, the reason why sissy originally started writing this post, was to point out that although transgendered and intersexed cover somewhat different areas of "gender confusion" - the former dealing mostly with the non-alignment of the mental aspects of gender, the latter dealing mostly with the non-alignment of the physical and/or biological aspects of gender - the intersexed person is frequently thrown into the transgendered camp due to arbitrary gender assignment decisions made at birth. Since the intersexed baby's biological gender is indeterminate because of non-standard chromosome mixes and/or dual genitalia, the doctors have to make a somewhat arbitrary gender assignment for legal purposes ... the baby has to be declared male or female within so many days of it being born. If the assigned gender does not align with the child's mental gender, which cannot be truly determined until a number of years afterwards, then this person could also have transgender issues to compound his/her intersexed issues.
Which leads sissy to one final thought. If ours was as caring a society as we really like to think it is, we would have a third legal gender designation by now for perhaps ALL of the above transgendered and intersexed types, but certainly for the 24/7 full time TS and TG males (F2M) and females (M2F), androgynes, and intersexed folks ... many of whom could be more themselves within this new designation instead of being forced fit into one extreme or another of an artificial gender dichotomy. We don't insist that all bees are either male or female, but instead we examine what really shows up un Nature, and classify the three resultant bee genders (queen, drone and worker) accordingly. Similarly, we don't insist that stick insects must come in two, and only two, genders; instead we acknowledge the self-replicating hermaphrodite that actually exists in Nature. Why can't we treat humans with the same respect that we show insects ?
Human gender is clearly a total continuum or spectrum, and although it would be too cumbersome and unnecessary to have a corresponding total continuum of legal and social genders, or even a seven-state spectrum of legal and social genders (analogous to the color spectrum for light), a simple three-state system of males, females, and those inbetweenies, would make for a much more sensible designation of how Mother Nature actually engineers human gender. We currently acknowledge that human sexual orientation comes in four flavors - heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual and asexual - so why not handle human gender diversity more appropriately too ? When it comes to human sexuality and gender, the rules of Fuzzy Logic apply, not the Boolean Logic "Law of the Excluded Middle."
sissy maid lola
[image]local://upfiles/21203/7550AAD373274EA8911F0BC3852D002C.jpg[/image]
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