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I have been to a gender therapist and their professional definition of transgender is that it is a spectrum which includes any actions, thoughts or desires which are of the opposite of a persons birth gender. With exception to someone doing those for reasons other than personal satisfaction, gratification or relaxation.
So, transgender (which is a noun) fits me as the description given by a professional gender therapist. I have no problem with it, as far as a description anyway.
I crossdress, but why? because I am feminine. I have thoughts, desires and emotions along with actions such as dressing which are of the opposite sex. That makes me transgender according to the professional. I do not identify as a transexual however. There are times, sometimes more than others I desire to look as a woman, perhaps even be a woman. But I do not identify as a woman, and my desires I have do not become so strong that I have chosen to make any permanent changes which align my femininity to my male body. I am somewhere within the middle between a man and woman, or perhaps I am both internally a man and a woman, or just a feminine man who likes t wear women's clothing and other likes that are more typical of women then men.
I do see that the media especially has taken on transgender to be only those who identify as the opposite sex and are transitioning or planning to. They too are also transgender, according to the professional, as transgender is a wide spectrum. But I personally feel that transgender covers just about any cross gender internal feeling or action taken because of it.
Many who CD "chose" to not CD for sometimes decades. The same goes for many who are TS, who fought not being so for sometimes decades. They chose not to express themselves as they wanted to, or who they felt they really were, it was a choice, and now CDers and TS who are dressing or transitioning are choosing to do that to be happier, or free etc etc. The only thing that is truly not a choice is the desires feelings and emotions that are that of the opposite sex. Whatever we do or don't do about it is ultimately a choice.
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Much of this has to do with how one identifies oneself. I have been told many times that being transgender means identifying with the sex not of your birth. I was born male, I identify myself as male. I am not transgender.
But RD you cross-dress that is transgender.
So wearing women's clothing from time to time changes my gender identity? How? Who says? Yes I do it for fun, I do it to fill a need deep inside. But how does it change who I am, my identity? I dress in chainmail and period clothes when I go to the renaissance festival for enjoyment. Does that make me transtemporal? In my movie quality Starfleet uniform at Trek Cons. Do I become transrealities?
from Wikipedia:
Of, relating to, or designating a person whose identity does not conform unambiguously to conventional notions of male or female gender roles, but combines or moves between these."[2]
-I feel like myself in a dress or in a suit my identity does not change.
"People who were assigned a sex, usually at birth and based on their genitals, but who feel that this is a false or incomplete description of themselves."[3]
-I was born male and I am quite ok with that description
"Non-identification with, or non-presentation as, the sex (and assumed gender) one was assigned at birth."[4]
-So only when I dress en femme I am transgender? I become cisgender again when I take off the female clothing? Sounds confusing. Sounds too temporary a state to have any real meaning.
P.S.
I think CDing is under the TG umbrella simply because no one knows were to put it. I get that. I just don't see it as being very accurate which is why these sort of grumbling come up.
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I liked TinaZ's quote: avoid putting "ed" at the end of "transgender." You are male, or female, or transgender. You haven't been "maled" or "femaled," so you can't be "transgendered." It will help to remember not to do that. I don't talk to any CDs except on this forum, but it is hard to remember how to speak properly or correctly sometimes.
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Actually, this point has come up before and I haven't chipped in - so forgive me Barbara, Lexi and GM, but you've reminded me that others have also previously communicated this perspective on 'transgender' (and as we're talking definitions here..)
The OED (Oxford English Dictionary) has transgender as both a noun and an adjective - therefore it is perfectly valid to describe someone as transgendered if you wish... at least this side of the pond.. (actually Webster's has it as an adjective too) :)
The OED also features the additional noun 'transgenderist', which sounds way too close to someone that stuffs dead animals to my liking, so I sincerely hope that doesn't catch on... :eek:
Katey x
