Differing Opinions

[ReineD]

Where does partial transition come in?

Transition is change, and there are people who modify their bodies through HRT. There has been a transition of sorts, in the literal sense of the word, from fully male to no longer fully male even if they don't have BA, FFS ... and we won't get into whether SRS is required to consider someone fully transitioned since opinions vary widely on the subject. Likely HRT will not be enough for most people to appear as a female, but it has been for a few people, even those who live full time, right?

Also, since full transition is a three part process (physical, full-social, legal), anything short of this then must be considered partial? If you don't like to use the term "partial transition" to define the changes to the body and to part of a person's social/family and/or work life, then what term might be more appropriate, since there has been a physical and a social change.

RD, you're making a distinction between part-timers and full-timers that I don't think anyone else has made.

I know. When I first became involved here years ago, it seemed the question was more black and white than it is now. There didn't seem to be so many people who wanted to be considered a woman in some circles but not others and I don't know whether this trend will continue and increase.

So I opened this discussion to new ideas, keeping in mind this is only discussion and not final proclamations. lol.

My opinion: I think that a full transition results in having changed from male to female (for MtF). A person who has fully transitioned obviously is considered a woman in every sense of the word, save for chromosomes and biological functions but these things are unseen. But a partial transition does not change a person, in the eyes of the world, from a male to a female. They are changed, in the eyes of the world, from fully male to somewhere in between male and female, even if the way they are seen (somewhere in the middle) is at odds with who they feel they are internally (fully female). But that's what happens when people don't make commitments to full transition.

Edit - in the past before there was HRT and the possibility of surgeries, among native Americans for example, what were the Two-Spirits considered - male, female, or a combination of both, even if they did appear as women to the maximum level possible at that time? And were there Two-Spirits who hunted with the other males and who wore male hunting gear when doing so, but who dressed as women at camp? If so, would they have been considered the same as the Two-Spirits who always wore female clothes? I don't know the answer, but I suspect that no Two-Spirits were considered male in the same sense as the other males in the tribe.