recursiveparadox | Re: Two points (Reply)

From:

Thank you for the reasonable and concise response. I appreciate it.

As a bit of a "youngin'" (currently 25, started transition at 23) I can't speak for the old school groups of TS, TV and TG. There may very well have been very very bad beginnings to the TG movement, and in no way would I try to dispute that without more knowledge about the history of the TG movement and Virgina Prince.

What I can do is tell you what's going on now. Even if TG was built to let transvestites parasite themselves in its earlier days, right now TG is about general gender variance acceptance and achieving protections for anyone perceived as variant by the dominant kyriarchy.

That's the key reason why the protections and efforts of TG can be used to help us. Because the dominant kyriarchy does not consider our medical condition valid (no matter what may cause it, in fact, the dominant kyriarchy considers IS folk freaks and often delegitimizes them as well, so getting matched with IS people will not help us there) and the dominant kyriarchy does not consider us real women, we are labeled as gender variant, not by the liberals, not by social reformers and feminists, not by the TG community (who really considers us to be far more conformist more often), but by the conservative, social regulation forces of the kyriarchy that enforces strict gender roles, nasty retribution for any slight to those roles and considers a medical condition to not be adequate excuse for something as "extreme" (in their view) as "bodily mutilation" (which is entirely what they see it as)

The TG community as it stands now has no interest in conformity for themselves. TV's are proud to be transvestites and often correct people who wrongfully label them transsexuals. Crossdressers get offended by any implication that they might seek surgery when they're just in it for the clothing, the escape or the hobby or whatever. If anything, these days the TG community considers the TS community a fossil of gender conformity (sort of the exact opposite of what things presumably were back then, based on your memories of the movement) and many of them claim that it's us holding them back.

Obviously still a problem, especially since the TS community at large isn't defined by gender conformity, just a need to modify the body structure due to dysphoria. But this has been built off of current experiences with the TG community at large. Participating in TG activism for freeing up gender variance, working on a TG support site, dealing with the "fringe" directly.

I can tell you that we're considered the hangers on now, so I would say that the situation has changed from the past. I guess its up to you to figure out if its changed for the better. To be honest, I think it would be great if the groups could just work together without spitting on each other anymore.

On point 2: Thank you for that. It shows me that this isn't some kind of TG hate speech, that your views are based on exposure to things that would have given anyone a really bad impression. All I'm saying is that times have changed. Any attempts to blur the lines are no longer occurring at large. While the TG and GLB communities have some issues, like trying to apply self referential definitions to terms while still wanting them to retain meaning for identity purposes: (http://recursiveparadox.dreamwidth.org/3083.html) and acting as though we destroy feminism and enforce gender essentialism by existing (my personal rage inducer) the fact is, they aren't trying to eat us alive (even if they were before)

Those who need surgery and hormones to feel okay with our skins are seen as clearly separate from the clothing interested, the gender iconoclasts, the drag performers, the fetishists, the gender deconstructionalists, the binary deconstructionalists and the gender variant folks.

Really the only overlap is the nonbinary transsexual, who seeks out neutralization surgery or mixture surgery because being their birth sex (male or female) is painful but being the perceived opposite of that sex doesn't work either. And even that isn't a threat because well, the kyriarchy already considers us one of the biggest dangers. When you try to curry favor with the bigots, you will always fail. No matter what medical disorders you cite as a cause.

So to summarize, we actually are given that consideration and protection. No matter what the past was, the TG community at this point does not seek to co opt us or use us. We are safe.

Thank you for the good comment. I appreciate a reasonable, rational individual discussing this with me.

~RP