I actually prefer terms that describe the action (ie: I sometimes cross-dress or dress in drag or crossplay), not the feelings (ie: feel like a woman, In the wrong body... ) but you could go either way. The problem with any word, is they mean different things to different people so you will always have a debate. Personally, I think people worry too much about what category they fit in and they should talk more about what they actually enjoy doing.
Chickie
You know, I really don't get why anyone objects to the use of an umbrella term. It's essentially the same as saying that carrots, beans, peas, lettuce and cauliflower are all vegetables, vegetable being an umbrella term to cover all those food items and more. It doesn't imply that a carrot is a bean, or anything other than a carrot.
Same thing with "transgender", it's just a term to include a rich spectrum of people who have one thing in common, a gender presentation of one kind or another that is in opposition to their birth sex. It doesn't in the least pigeonhole or stereotype anyone as far as I can see.
The term has value when trying to discuss issues that affect all or most of us under the umbrella.
Carol
My name is Carol.
What she said!Originally Posted by Karren Hutton
Hugs,
Teddie
Awww....trans this, trans that, whatever. You want to know what I like to be called? I like to be called Krystal, thank you very much!
[SIZE="3"][/SIZE]Life is what happens while you're making other plans
My opinion for what it is worth, I am thinking that Transgender is an umbrella term for all people male of female that don't fit in the standard gender rules,
I have been called every name in the book. So no matter what you call me, I will not be offended. But I really much prefer that you call me either "A Friend" "Ray" or "Raychel"
my sister's reply when I told her how I prefer to dress
"Everyone has there thing, all that matters is that you are happy, love what you do and who you do it with"
I vote we stop trying to apply terms to ourselves and leave that to others who are concerned with labeling people.
As Karren said, it creates a class structure that alienates people who technically are all the same. We all enjoy expressing our feminine side, but in varying degrees and styles. We should all be united to further our cause and gain acceptance in the world and not let these labels create separation and dissention within our community. There are too many already that do that for us.
P.S. - I think of myself as Transgendered. I feel that is also a much more polite term than many that we are called.
I don't wear women's clothes, I wear MY clothes !
A rose by any other name would still be a rose, that is all!!!
I want to be this girl!
I want to thank you all for your opinions.
A little more background - I writing a book that I hope will help educate the general public about us all, as well as serve as a guidebook for those of us new to expressing our feelings, a opposed to suppressing them.
I had already written the chapter explaining about all of our wonderful variations when this subject came up at my party. I want to be as fair as possible and include as much information as I can.
This thread has taught me that I need to make sure that both sides of this word are included and also to add the very positive side of no labels to it.
The book in general has a tone of 'You can't label anyone as any one thing' running through it, but now I will put empahsis on it as it pertains to the word Transgender.
Please keep the comments coming.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
As a crossdresser I have little problem with accepting "transgendered" as an umbrella term, although IMHO someone has to be attempting to present as the opposite gender for it to apply. Thus transvestites (using the current "sleazy" terminology, not the original meaning) and drag queens (probably) aren't transgendered.
The problem comes for TS people. As far as they are concerned, once they have committed themselves to correcting their gender they aren't transgendered at all, just using their correct gender. They don't want the labels of "transgendered" or "crossdresser" applied to them. I have a lot of sympathy with that view and don't blame them at all. I know that, ideally, they want to be recognised fully as their correct gender, but whether that will ever happen I don't know. In a world full of computer records and paperwork it would be an almost impossible task for the systems to accept the sudden disappearance of an adult person and the instant creation of another adult person without death or birth being involved!
I can't think of any way to keep both sides happy here. The current labels have become corrupted too much over the years. IMHO the TSs are in a category of their own. Almost everyone else comes under the TG umbrella, with sub categories where necessary.
**-* Kath *-**
Let them see that their words can cut you and you’ll never be free of the mockery. If they want to give you a name, take it, make it your own. Then they can’t hurt you with it anymore.
― George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones
As always I am always late with my post. But I just think that the word Trans=T, should be the overall term. Not transgendered. We all are saying that we follow/like the other gender and wish in some way to change to it. To do so some trans dress, and could be known as Tdressers they are straight or bi-curious. I have used the word curious because as long as you don't act on a fantasy you would not be gay. Tdressers use makep and hair(wig) similar to that of the gender they are trying to master A sissy is only a boy and tomboy is only a girl. Partial dressing with changing their facial features. Sissies and or Tomboy may or may not be gay. Tvestites may be gay and dress for sexual pleasure. A man in a dress or skirt who still has a mustache or beard and wears no makeup or wig is a crossdresser. If I or you are trying to present as a woman then you are no longer crossing over you are already over and passing is your only concern. Unless you are closeted(afraid or embarrassed) to go out. Tsexual is person who wants to change completely to the opposite sex. These people can't be in the wrong body as we don't throw that body away and use a new one. His or her body is altered to fit what the mind is telling them there identity should be. Tgendered is the Tsexual who has completed his or her transition and has finished surgery and now lives as the opposite sex from birth.
As a man I love women. When I am dressed as a Tdresser I say I am not gay I still love women. But that is just not the truth so I say that there is a fantasy that I could be loved as a woman. But I could not say by another woman, so it would be as a curiosity by a man if I had a vagina. Or I would be Tsexual. I am not saying this is correct I just want to give everyone a choice to clarify things in their minds.
Contessa Marie
[COLOR="blue"]Contessa Marie D
I'm TG. A fem-male so I look male sometimes.
Dressing is necessary, the type of clothes you wear not so much.
This above all to thy own self be true!
Surely there must be some transexuals out there who aren't bothered about wearing dresses, but just want to be female.
Rachel,
As a crossdresser my personality has several facets. Therefore, I suppose I can be forgiven for being facetious.
it is all just words that over time mean different things to different people. You are who you feel and accept your self to be. Let no one else define you but yourself.
TO OVER WEIGHT TO POST A PHOTO, MY wife tells me I look like I am pregnant
I second Karren's statement. It may be true that we crossdressers fall under the transgender category, but it leaves us open for many hurtful statements and situations. To paraphrase Shakespeare,"A crossdresser by any other name is still a crossdresser." We just have different degrees of what and how we wear the feminine clothes. IMHO, arguing the transgender definition is like trying to determine which came first; the chicken or the egg. I believe the proteins that form DNA came from the primordial soup came first and thus we are who we choose to think we are. Forget about the politically correct, all inclusive name. I am me, and that is a person who enjoys feminine attire and if I choose to call myself crossdresser or even transgender, it is my opinion of myself and that is all that is important. Sorry if I torqued off anyone. That was not my intention. I will now go back into my closet and continue to peer out through the cracks in the louvers and keep my mouth and fingers shut.
Last edited by Phylis Nicole Schuyler; 02-11-2012 at 01:09 PM. Reason: missing word.
Phylis, how do you figure that? What specific sorts of statements and situations are you referring to? Just curious.
Carol
I myself do not like labels .But i do appreciate why they are there to me it is to seperate how people feel or for medical reasons (such as trans cder what or ever you think you might be ).My opin is no one is lower on the scale than another one.We should all respect each others feelings or thoughts or opins whether they be right or wrong .Remember we all have opins and 90% of the time we feel we are right about them ! just my opin lol
I have a hubcap diamond star halo
I've never considered myself tansgendered. I am a crossdresser, yes, but I am a man, I identify with being a man and I want to be a man. I just happen to enjoy putting on the persona of a woman from time to time. I never identify with being a woman.
I was born gender enhanced, I grew up gender enhanced, and I will die gender enhanced. My gender description is fluid and can change at any given moment without my verbal or written consent and therefore, does not require I change 'labels' at different stages of my life.
I have a suspicion for all the dislike of labels, Karren would rather be paid as an ENGINEER than as a coal miner--so labels do matter. The other problem is that these terms I think are beginning to get to be "jargon" and leave the pubic out entirely.
The public is used to seeing these pretty much as synonimous as on applications where some use
SEX==M F
GENDER==M F
So to them sex and gender are the same e.g. a male, or a female. While TS may be transgenedered, wouldn't it best to keep them as transexual non-op or op, and then the rest of can fit under TG if we wish to do so, but then what to do with all the "pleasure seekers" and fetishists? who may NOT want to be TG? That's the problem with umbrella terms--they are useless and confusing. I'm a crossdresser and however I feel about it doesn't change that fact. Someone who has snipped off their parts is NO LONGER a crossdresser. calling a spade a spade used to work very nicely but in trying to be all-encompassing, we're creating a mess.
just an opinion "cause me jammies aren't flame proof."
I second it or fourth it or want ever its up to now. But I don't think it matters what what you call us we are who we feel we are inside. And that's a little differente for every one. We don't fit into a mold we are who we are!
"And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom" Anais Nin.
Live, Laugh, and Love Yourself!
That's it in a NUTSHELL--if I can use that term. I don't want vegetables--I don't like beans or cauliflower, so I want to told that I will get lettuce, carrots and peas--not vegetables. Most people think of peanuts as nuts--but they are actually in the vegetable family as they grow under ground. I want to be a crossdresser, thank you very much. If I have any transgendered feelings, they don't change the fact that I primarily exhibit those feelings via crossdressing.
im with Karen on this one
I am a beautiful, young victorian style lady. Demure, gentle, kind and giving. I love to be feminine in lace and intricate delicate patterns flowing skirts, the kind of sexy that makes you desperate to know what I'm hiding underneath!
Transgender, as an umbrella term, its current definition, doesn't imply anything at all about anyone's gender identity.
Under its current definition, you, as a CD who identifies as and wants to be a man, are indeed under the transgender umbrella. So are transsexuals, drag kings, gender queer people, fetishistic CD's and a zillion other variations, the only common denominator being that everyone under the umbrella is doing something regarding clothes or presentation that is typical of the sex opposite their birth sex.
There is absolutely no hierarchy involved either.
Carol
Last edited by Julogden; 02-13-2012 at 01:49 AM.
I so agree. I consider myself transgendered, we all fit in the wide spectrum of being transgendered.
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