I need info.

[Kathryn Martin]

I was not aware of these strange theories and even less, of their tortuous history. My view is that it would be nice if people could be divided neatly into such clear categories, but they can't. On the other hand, I would like to think that someone in the learning stage, should be able to talk about what they are feeling, in all its raw phenomenological reality, without it "sicklied o'r by the pale cast of thought," first. But then as someone else said, I don't own this site.

These strange theories unfortunately inform much as it affects gender variant and transsexual persons. Blanchard and Zucker sat on the DSM 5 amendments committee and Zucker was actually the chairman. I am curious how you have come so far without even becoming aware of them. You don't strike me as someone who would not have done research.

I don't think anyone is preventing anyone else from talking about their feelings. Part of the phenomenon however is that you have someone who based on fetishistic compulsion or motivation dreams about extreme body modification. The question then becomes if this is the right place. If you pay close attention to what people report here on this site then developing a phenomenological approach to the classification of who it is you are talking to is not so far away. There is little or no "sicklied o'r by the pale cast of thought" in observing and developing concepts of the different phenomena.

As Misty says there is this tiny little place where we can talk about things that are really transition related and yet it is consistently flooded with whomever and their fetishistic dreams.

I have met a number of people over the last years who regretted having SRS, for some the ultimate fantasy and desire had become so strong they purchased their surgery clearance letter online. One of them hated what she had become the morning after the surgery and has never recovered from the trauma. Others find that their male sexuality cannot be transported across the divide and are unable to evolve simply because they are not women. Women are not constructed by some hormones, the knife of a surgeon. There is a reason that the surgery is called sex re-assignment or gender confirmation surgery . In either case it expresses the purpose, namely that the body is brought into alignment with the innate gender. This something I would point out to Reine. There is no such things as a re-assignment of gender and certainly not by surgical means. The utter loneliness that men in women's bodies, brought about by surgery that should not have been permitted in the first place, experience is very grave but there is no going back. So they seek another transperson in a similar situation just to be not so lonely anymore. But most don't. Because they cannot find a way to align the need to be with the real object of their attraction and being with someone who clearly is not.

For me much of what fills these pages is like a peepshow. The fascination with trainswrecks rather than counsel, support and resource, and above all question those bold statements of "I am transsexual" rather than sing the "you go gurl" choir.