What is truth? The thinkers of this world have been trying to fathom this out since time immemorial. And we are no nearer the answer to the question than mankind was when it was first asked.Originally Posted by ReineD
I have had a modest career as an academic. My publications list is relatively small. One day, at a conference, I had an AHA! moment. I realised that the new terminology which was being bandied about, supposedly in an attempt to gain more insight into that (but more generally, any) particular phenomenon under scrutiny, was actually jargon! Nothing more than words created by the authors of papers, to create their own niches within that academic community! Their motives were selfish, rather than selfless. They were simply trying to impress their peers.
To return to this transgendered community ... if it were so that each new term created to help our community better understand itself, actually fulfilled that role, could we not expect greater harmony to emerge within our community, as we better came to understand one another?
In reality, the opposite effect happens. The terms become items to argue about, not to agree upon. This is precisely what tends to happen at any academic conference.
When I joined this forum, I eagerly sought a term which described me. I found none. What I did find, were behaviour patterns which were similar to mine and others which simply made no sense to me at all. After quite a bit of reading, I realised that what I do and how I think is completely unique to me. There is no label to describe me, no term to pigeonhole me.
Let's be absurd, for a moment ... let me conjure up a new word CLAYFISH which I claim descibes my kind of transgendered nature to a C. Suppose I were to then write not just a paper, but a whole learned book describing CLAYFISH. Suppose every member of this forum were to read the book. Some would see quite a lot of themselves in what they read; others would see less; yet others would see nothing at all which is in tune with their particular kind of transgenderism. Some would give the book rave reviews; others would slam it.
Every time I see a thread appear on the forum, focussing on transgender labels, I know we are in for, at best, a lively debate and at worst, a great big fight. It happens over and over again. We seem to be enslaved by the jargon.
