Trasgender meaning?

[Devi SM]

I've been thinking a lot last months because I can't do face hair removal yet (now just waiting on insurer approval] and my face is not as femenine I'd like but I cc'deel I'm a woman.
I'm going go use an analogy. I grew up in a south American country. Spanish is the language, the mindset is different. Since a teenager I knew that wasn't my country. I had an uncle living on the states and he told me, one day you will leave this third world country and learn a new life, a real life here. That was true. I can't deny my origin, my accent delates me, my taste for food us different but I've learn to live a new life. No everybody accepts me but there's no return for me.
The same apply to trasgender, I can't deny I grew up as a man, my voice delates me, my face, my wheels body, it I know I'm a woman, but I'm not one, I'm not a man, so I'm a trasgender woman. It's a new reality that the world needs to learn as well we strive to show the world who we are.
I saw this interview on instagram and I think that I identify myself with it.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BtyJM2KF...d=t1lh8eim99f0

[Teresa]

Vanessa,
You've been around for some time and understand a great deal from other members , perhaps you could look at it from a differnt angle and say I dress and appear as Vanessa . Do the labels really matter in the RW where you are now full time . I just accept that now , no one is perfect but I'm finding as long as you are yourself and treat people with honesty and a smile on your face they will respond in the same way .

I don't wish to see the male side of me anymore but I'm not a woman and never will be , at my age the next steps will not change my life enough to make me any happier in fact I could end up destroying what I have now . I'm just content now to be Teresa whatever label is attached to that but I know the public aren't bothered they accept me for what I am and what they see and they don't appear to have a problem with that .

[AllieSF]

I understand what you are saying. I would only offer one correction. You definitely are a woman. You also are a trans woman. what does that mean to me. If you identify at your inner self that you are a woman, you are. Period. You do not have to do anything else about it if you do not want to or can't. You are also a trans woman because you were identified male at birth and at that time no one, not even you knew what was in your being. Do not hesitate to say to someone that you are a woman. As most of us do not pass 100% all the time, they will also know you must have transitioned.

Teresa your approach and suggestion works well for all of us. However, for those of us that transition a first name such as Teresa, Vanessa or Allie are not an identity. That first name is a way of addressing us verbally or in writing. The "F" on an identity document is very significant and important for us. It is not a label anymore, it is an identity, which is much more important to us.

[DanaM64]

I love your analogy Vanessa, I can personally relate to having a "manly" body and a voice that is much deeper than average... When I came out to one of my friends he started laughing, not evil but I did ask him why. His response was something in the line of; Of all the guys in our group, God played an evil card on you... Between your physique, voice, and body hair I really feel bad for you... Naturally there was a lot more, but I have been dealt with what I have.

All I can say is keep the course and stay strong!

[Teresa]

Allie,
I realise that distinction, in the UK it's not too difficult to correct those boxes as most official documents now have the various options . If I do choose to change them my post won't look that differnt , my initials and surname will remain the same all that will change is the gender handle .

[Jeri Ann]

The recent trend of referring to certain words as "labels", and disdaining their use, is not fair. They inhibit the dialog. There is nothing wrong with using words like transgender, transwoman or transsexual. After all, this is the transsexual forum. The issue here has been, and always will be, gender identity. There are people who come here looking for truth, searching for who and what they are. It is impossible to do that with out using the standard vocabulary.

Allie is on point here. She gets the gender identity thing. In order to have an intelligent discussion the words are necessary. My name is Jeri Ann but that is not my identity. I am transgender, in particular a transsexual. It is a medical condition that causes an individual to have the mind and identity of one gender while being identified at birth as the other. Because I have transitioned I have moved from one identity and life to another. I have completely transitioned to a life and identity of a woman. Day to day I live life as a woman. Occasionally I come out as a transwoman, an activist fighting on the front of justice. However, none of these words "label" me.

Vanessa is at the very beginning of her transition. I have kept an eye on her from the very beginning. We have communicated a lot in the past. And, she knows that I am here for her if she needs anything. Those that transition face unique challenges that are hard to understand by those that have not transitioned. It is way more than than just dressing like a woman and occasionally going someplace that way. There is a frustration, an angst and a discomfort because you are having to deal with a physical body that is not compatible with your gender identity. Also, there are so many constraints to making the necessary changes to get your mental and physical self aligned.

Vanessa's journey is unique to her. She has her own pace and she will face her own obstacles and limitations. All she is trying to say here is that, despite some characteristics that she can't do anything about because of some constraints and limitations, she still identifies as female. The words that she uses to express that are entirely appropriate and should not be disdained.

[Lana Mae]

Transgender is being used as a blanket term for all of us here! You and I are on the road to woman/transwoman! I can not afford permanent hair removal! I can not afford to take off work long enough to recover from SRS! BA is cosmetic surgery and I can not afford that either let alone FFS! But...there are women out there that are somewhat hairy, have small breasts, and are not really attractive! I can shave the hair, use breast forms, and there is always make up! I told my counselor in one session when I was overjoyed with all this that I was a "transgirl" and she was happy that I felt that way! Be the woman you were meant to be! Hugs Lana Mae

[Aunt Kelly]

Vanessa

I don't wish to see the male side of me anymore but I'm not a woman and never will be , at my age the next steps will not change my life enough to make me any happier in fact I could end up destroying what I have

This is why labels do matter. Theresa is a crossdresser, a man who doesn't want to see his male self; "not a woman and never will be."
Vanessa, on the other hand, is a woman. That is her true gender identity. The word for that is transsexual. She is a transsexual, a transwoman, a woman, regardless of the changes she has or has not yet made, and no matter what she is wearing.

Words matter. Labels, properly applied, are just words that allow us to communicate an entire, complicated definition in a word or two. This area of the forum is labeled "transsexual" because that is who it is for.

[Dorit]

My name is Jeri Ann but that is not my identity. I am transgender, in particular a transsexual. It is a medical condition that causes an individual to have the mind and identity of one gender while being identified at birth as the other. Because I have transitioned I have moved from one identity and life to another. I have completely transitioned to a life and identity of a woman. Day to day I live life as a woman. Occasionally I come out as a transwoman, an activist fighting on the front of justice. However, none of these words "label" me.

I can identify with this also. It explains who I am from my earliest childhood memories. My transition has allowed me to be seen and accepted into the social life of other women as one of them and not an outsider. Recently I was asked to join a women's group in my village, a confirmation that I am accepted as one of them, something that could never have happened with a male exterior. My soul or spirit has always been female, now my body is also. And as Jeri Ann so rightly says, I am also a transgender, transsexual woman.

[Teresa]

Kelly,
That comment is very presumptious and I feel very insulted by it , I passed through the crossdressing stage a while ago , I choose to disregard labels because being in the RW they don't change my lifestyle . I'm not the total woman and never will be simply because being realistic my age is against me , I really feel I need an apology for your thoughtless comment .

Jeri Ann
If you have gone through everystage you needed to be the true person you wish to be , why do you need to hang onto labels as much as you do ? Surely the only label now that's relevant is your name , your name should be enough to the people you meet to designate your identity . I've only socially transitioned and my identity isn't proving to be a problem .

What I really can't understand is we all know where we are on the TG spectrum , we tend to use labels mostly within our community so please why do some people have to get so heated about them ? We all know what they mean but honestly how much do they really affect our day to day lives ?

[Nigella]

I don't wish to see the male side of me anymore but I'm not a woman and never will be ...

I can, to a certain degree understand this statement, if not being a woman in the literal sense is what you are implying, but it is not just about the body. Being a woman is a mental state, the body modifications required to present a naked female appearance are just cosmetic. Yes they do play a big part on quelling the dysphoria people feel, however, others have learnt to deal with the lack of body modifications for one reason or another. Rianna would have argued this point with you, she was, due to health reasons, unable to have surgery to correct her birth defect, however, she would never have said she was not a woman because she still had the "original body parts"

Society will never get rid of the need for labels, it is a necessary evil in this game we call life. No I don't need Mrs, Miss, Ms, Nigella, "F" on various documents etc, to feel and be a woman, society does.

Edit

Having reviewed your membership, I do now understand this statement, however, the majority of members who participate in this forum do identify as women and their use of certain words is in line with society. How you identify is your choice, how others identify is their choice, I don't want to see any further discussion in this thread regarding labels and who needs them and who doesn't.

[Jeri Ann]

Teresa,

Again, the language we use here are not labels. You are the only one in this thread calling the terminology labels. If you have a problem with the words being used here, and this dialog that Vanessa has attempted to start, then just don't participate. Simple.

Let Vanessa express herself and stop trying to take issue with the words she uses and stop trying to take this thread off topic.

[Nigella]

That's it folks, any more posts after this one that are not in line with the OP WILL be DELETED. If any member wishes to discuss previous posts/comments, take it to PM

Just a reminder, this is what I want to see responses to

I've been thinking a lot last months because I can't do face hair removal yet (now just waiting on insurer approval] and my face is not as femenine I'd like but I cc'deel I'm a woman.
I'm going go use an analogy. I grew up in a south American country. Spanish is the language, the mindset is different. Since a teenager I knew that wasn't my country. I had an uncle living on the states and he told me, one day you will leave this third world country and learn a new life, a real life here. That was true. I can't deny my origin, my accent delates me, my taste for food us different but I've learn to live a new life. No everybody accepts me but there's no return for me.
The same apply to trasgender, I can't deny I grew up as a man, my voice delates me, my face, my wheels body, it I know I'm a woman, but I'm not one, I'm not a man, so I'm a trasgender woman. It's a new reality that the world needs to learn as well we strive to show the world who we are.
I saw this interview on instagram and I think that I identify myself with it.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BtyJM2KF...d=t1lh8eim99f0

[Devi SM]

I'd said so many times there's so much wisdom in this website but the same sometimes doesn't let us to respect others opinion or view on an specific topic and I wouldn't like that this thread that I begin to read others experiences and opinions turn into to disqualifications.
Teresa I don't think that you are under HRT. For me, and I e see many others with similar experiences, hormones change my life 180 degrees. I'm not talking just the physical changes but the emotional ones.
I have a good friend in this website that told me we wouldn't talking because there was a huge abism between us, she crossdressing and I'm a woman, her words. She recognizes that get into hormones is to pass the Rubicon and nobody that has done it can understand all the implicancies of it. I'm not bragging of being more than you or disqualifiying you but for that reason I post this thread here, in the transexual section.
As my analogy about leaving my country, I found many American people that had been visiting my country and congrat me for what I did but that people can't understand how my life changed and this is the problem politics and many racist people have, to opine without experience is just and opinion and must be respected as an opinion but that people can't rule my life or label me as they do calling some African American, others Hispanics (even being born here), other asians, etc but they are Americans. When I oath as a American citizen, president Obama gave a discourse, I cried and several more cried too when he said, just you know what you had had passed to this day.
As Jeri said, who I appreciate as a friend that has open her heart for me, said that labels for us are very important. When swimming in a world with labels, is very important to clarify that I'm a trasgender and not a pervert on suffer a mental illness. People can try to understand all that Jeri has passed to be the beautiful woman that is today and for my view point she's a more valuable woman than any cis woman so is a transexual woman as I'm a trasgender woman.

[Megan G]

What is the meaning of Transgender? Honestly to me it is meaningless if it is used in the “Umbrella” context where it covers everyone from CD’s to TS’s and everything in between.

If it is used like in the interview and how 99.9% of people use it where it describes transitioning then obviously it has much more context. To transition to a happy, confident and authentic self...

I do not identify as transgender, i do not tell people i am a trans-woman, I don’t tell them i am transsexual...I’m a woman... that’s it. The only time the word transgender/transsexual ever comes up is when i am with my doctor or pharmacist... they are the only people in this world that i need to discuss my birth defect with... them and my sexual partner when i have to describe why i can’t have kids.

As for the comment above about hanging on to labels.... because they are needed, they simplify conversations. As a nurse it’s a lot easier and quicker to read in a chart that the patient is a type 1 diabetic than it is to read that the patient suffers from an autoimmune disorder where the body’s immune system destroys the beta cells in the pancreas and it can no longer produce insulin.

[Devi SM]

Megan, I remember when I found out that I wasn't longer a crossdresser because what others crossdressers were experiencing and talking about wasn't longer my experience but one more deeper, more changing that took me to HRT. Then I learn that the physical changes weren't the more important it the emotional that change my life completely I start asking myself and trying to find a referent to know who I am where I'm going.
For someone that more than a year ago had SRS, as your friends told you, there was nothing else to do, you're a woman. It's understandable that labels are not needed.
I did Everest. May 15 1992, first two teams of chileans there. Not many people has been there, compared with the millions of mountaniers, so after that I felt like there was no other mountain to do (there are actually others more difficult that I did too) the feeling of realizaction was different when in the plane coming back home than flying towards Kathmandu, Nepal. With the time I learned that I wasn't more than the others that had not been there. It actually gave me a sense of humbleness better than before.
So great for you but for me that's far yet if may be I never could do. I don't know, so for me is very important to know what I am, because even the name that I choose at the beginning, Vanessa, has lost meaning and I found that the nickname that always wife, just her, used has more sense and in English is female name.
So labels, for some are really important.

[LeaP]

Vanessa, I like the application of “transgender” in the video you linked. She uses the word, but as a descriptor denoting certain implications and not as a label. So she talks about (transition-related) “changes,” which seems to me to be semantically correct given the word’s derivation, as well as being simply one attribute out of many.

It helps to consider what labeling means in a social context: it is to intentionally reduce someone to a defining characteristic. (A side note: “reduce” should not automatically be taken pejoratively. One can intend an elevation via a reduction in terms as well.) Because such a label requires a social context, it cannot be assumed to a carry a particular connotation without one. This differentiates labels and definitions. That’s an easy concept when the label is symbolic, like calling someone, say, a “saint” or alternatively, a “turd.” But when the word being used is, in fact, an accurate attribute by way of its definition, things aren’t so clear.

“Transgender” can be - an is - used in a number of ways as a label. Unfortunately, it’s often pejorative. It’s fine to reject even a positive use of the label if you feel yourself constrained by it. But it can appropriately be used as a label in situations where such objections are petty and distracting, too. Much of the heat on CD.com regarding labeling falls into the latter category, IMO. I seldom see the term used here either pejoratively or in a defining manner, yet the complaints start early and loud.

I’m not fond of “transgender.” I know its definitions, history, politics, nuances, and uses. It’s a loaded, misused word. Even so, I USE IT! Where? Almost entirely in the narrow context of public discussions (including work-related) regarding transsexuals, and then usually in the context of transition, one reason being that most ordinary people understand the word to equate to transsexual. In that context, I have no problem using it to label myself. The context is narrow therefore any implications of the label are equally narrow. No harm, no foul. Apply it to me outside of that context, however, and you’ll get a semantic beat down!

So thanks, Vanessa! Regarding your own use of “transgender,” I particularly appreciate your use of it as an adjective and not an adjectival noun.

[Devi SM]

Leap, in a book where I used to look for wisdom says that in a multitude of opinions or concealer there is wisdom and the prove is this website and with opinions as yours that I think Express my feelings and for that hit the nail...
Thanks for taking the time...

[Sara Olivia]

My thoughts on this subject are in line with the comments Megan made. My gender identity has never been that of "transgender woman". Its only ever been "woman". That is who I present as in society and that is how I live my life now - as a woman, not as a transgender woman. The only meaning the "transgender" has for me is also in a medical sense and hence its only a relevant term to medical personnel. Even once all the surgery is done I will still have a prostate like other biological men. This means that certain medical tests will be relevant to me though not to biological women. The term "transgender" simply alerts my doctor that there may be things to check for in me that may not apply to other women. Period.

[Kaitlyn Michele]

For me personally, I ended up at transsexual.

I'm told today that's no longer a term...hehe....what's a girl to do?? Am I to understand my self identity offends people? yikes.

I do think everyone has the right to self identify but also has to accept that others may use terms that they themselves are comfortable with and mean no harm and it doesnt mean they don't understand you or invalidate you. In those cases, its a personal thing whether you set them right, but my experience is when I start talking about this in mixed company I can see the eyes glaze over...often the cis thought is

"jeez why so sensitive? why do you care so much??" and "if you all can't agree then how should I know what to think?"..

[LeaP]

For me personally, I ended up at transsexual.

...

Yup.

"jeez why so sensitive? why do you care so much??" and "if you all can't agree then how should I know what to think?"..

Yeah, just like politics ... crystal clear, simple, and easy ...



Yup.

[Teresa]

Sara,
Your comments sum it up for me , my GP knows about my situation , so I use certain words to convey my situation to her as she does with me , otherwise I've dropped them in my everyday life .

Kaitlyn ,
I don't get into those conversations unless the person I'm talking to approaches the subject but that aspect is one thing that has surprised me , the number of people that have told me about TG members of the family or close friends , yes I do listen and tactfully offer to correct them if the have some facts wrong . It's interesting how well informed most people are . The one great thing is not a single person has been been against the actions of the TG in question , it appears self identity doesn't offend people.