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Category: Transgender Body & Soul
If you look at the trans community as an outsider you see a vast range of gender identities. There are people who claim no gender and their are people who are gender-fluid, going back and forth between binary poles. Feminine one day and later that day butch as a pro wrestler. It can be confusing and Christine Burr thinks is contributes a bit to the negative reactions conservative, judgemental people have when they read about or meet people from across the gender spectrum. Will the conservative mind ever be able to appreciate the beauty of the trans spectrum?
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In her ongoing battle with body hair Emyli Evyrling obtained a device that some liken to a medieval torture machine — an epilator. The epilator has spinning discs or springs that grab leg hair (or other body hair) and swiftly jerk it out of your skin. Longer lasting smoothness is one benefit of the epilator method of hair removal but is it worth the pain? Emyli tells us today about her new Phillips epilator and how it gets the job done.
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A recent report in The New Atlantis, a quarterly journal with conservative or skeptical tendencies was about a “study” done by two individuals, Mayer and McHugh, who oppose the idea that trans people are real. They ascribe trans behavior to mental illness or a phase of child development. Their “study” has been picked up and disseminated by right wing media outlets. Our own scientist in residence, Dr. Dana Bevan, has been going through the Mayer and McHugh “study” point by point and reveals how the authors cherry picked their data. Today she argues that the Mayer & McHugh Report seeks to bring about the end of gender.
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What’s the hardest thing you’ll ever do? Cate O’Malley believes that it’s coming out as trans. Today she blogs about a book and TEDx Talk by a straight man who, as an experiment, “came out” to his small religious community as a gay man. While he conducted his year-long experiment he was met with all of the reactions from friends and neighbors that you might expect, from being ignored to being the object of anger and scorn. All of that is pretty darned bad but Cate feels that it might just be harder to come out as trans. See what you think after you read her blog.
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Today Sophie reflects (some would say broods but that’s too harsh) on life as she approaches her 2016 birthday. As John Fogerty sang “Big wheel keeps on turning…” so go the years as we travel around the Sun on our small planet and Sophie looks back on the previous revolutions of the cosmic wheel and what she has done with those years. She also lets us know how she “pays the rent.” Today’s post is a moving column that will touch everyone — and it lets us know that we need to start planning her surprise birthday party.
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Amanda blogs about her eight day vacation in Denver. She flew out, with some trepidation that she might have an anxiety attack on the plane, and arrived in Denver with no problems. She was picked up at the airport by her ex-partner Jess and she stayed with her friends Joan and Mary. After adjusting to the high altitude air and settling down from the flight she got to do some fun activities, including the kind of thing you can do legally in Denver, and she writes about it all today.
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Julie Gaum is 91. She’s been crossdressing since she was 15, after an earlier incident at age 7. Now she has written a book to share her story with the world. The book is called “Never Climbed His Mountain.” Julie shares more of her crossdresser memories today with TGForum users as she takes you through her life telling about all of those years of having a secret joy.
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While Falecia runs her errands, walks the dog and then picks up some household items, she is subjected to compliments from people passing by. Did they mean it? Falecia dresses “androgynously” in women’s jean and booties with feminine touches in the accessories. Are people becoming more accepting of males who present themselves to the world in a more feminine look? See what compliments Falecia got and what she thinks about dressing androgynously as a substitute for going out completely en femme in her latest post.
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Last week a report was published in The New Atlantis, a quarterly journal with conservative or skeptical tendencies. It was about a “study” done by two individuals, Mayer and McHugh, who oppose the idea that trans people are real. They ascribe trans behavior to mental illness or a phase of child development. Their “study” has been picked up and disseminated by right wing media outlets. Our own scientist in residence, Dr. Dana Bevan, goes through the Mayer and McHugh “study” point by point and reveals how the authors cherry picked their data.
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Before TGF contributor Diane Hutchinson identified as a woman she identified as a nerd. She was the kind of nerd who memorized the dialogue from every Star Trek television show and carried novelizations of the series around with her. Another big part of her nerd identity was board games. Not Monopoly or Risk though. Diane was an expert in more serious games that called for tactics and strategy. When she decided to transition she stopped gaming for six months but then returned as a girl gamer. Today she tells us how that went.
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Today we’re honored to present the first post about how to express your true gender with your voice by Marc Mitnick, MS, CCC-SLP, Board certified and licensed Speech, Language and Voice Pathologist and Director at Your Speech Therapist, Inc. Marc is based in Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach, Florida. In this first post he discusses the differences between male and female voices and how voices can be modified. We’re happy to present his expertise to our TGF readers.
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In our mainstream gender binary world there are two genders and that’s it. You can be a man or you can be a woman. Society has settled into that system over many years and though the only important difference between a man a woman is that a woman can bear children, there are vast culturally imposed differences between the two sexes. Crossdressers take advantage of the differences by emphasizing the femme characteristics to fit in as females. But what if you’re not easily labelled as one gender or the other? What if you identify as a woman but people keep labelling you wrong?
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With the depathologization of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) expected in 2018, its time to tell the Mental Health and Medical practitioners that serve the transgender community what we expect of them. The rewrite of the ICD is expected to create a non-pathological section of the ICD which includes “gender incongruence for adolescents and adults.” Dana Bevan proposes a Transgender Bill of Client Rights.
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Accentuate the positive! That’s Cate O’Malley’s message in today’s post. After a lifetime of problems related to being trans she’s arrived at a point in her life where she has accepted who she is and is enjoying her life to the fullest. She’s doing what she wants and being who she wants to be. What about people who look at her and judge? That’s their problem. Cate is just enjoying the ride.
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Julie Gaum is 91. She’s been crossdressing since she was 15, after an earlier incident at age 7. Now she has written a book to share her story with the world. The book is called “Never Climbed His Mountain.” Julie shares her crossdresser memories today with TGForum users about all of those years of having a secret joy.
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We’ve followed Amanda as she has wrestled with living in a strange place that is wonderful at times and oppressive at times. We have read about her anxiety and how it grips her so hard early in the day and eases off later on. We’ve seen her have fun times going out to dinner and seeing a concert. Today she wonders if she made the right decision when she took the blue estrogen pill and stepped fully into a new world. After six years she has questions. So many in the trans community don’t seem to have questions. They move ahead. Should Amanda move back into the Matrix? Read her blog today to see what she thinks.
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Sophie’ family is going on vacation. Without Sophie. On the ride to the airport Sophie’s daughter asks a question that while on one hand is about attitudes and actions within Sophie’s extended family is also a universal question about why people act the way they do. The answer is too long and complicated to tell her daughter during that airport ride so Sophie dropped of her family and went home to write her daughter a letter, a letter she will receive when she is 18. You can read Sophie’s letter to her daughter today. Have some tissues at hand.
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Our Hawaiian correspondent, Emyli Evyrling checks in with an update on her life circumstances. If you recall, earlier this year she was homeless for awhile. Now she has a roof over her head and through the kindness of a fellow human who was moving to the mainland and the Linux operating system she is back on the Internet with a real computer, not a tablet or smart phone. Things are looking up for Em.
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Last year around this time we ran a post from Josy C. Josy had always felt more feminine than masculine. From early childhood she was more interested in feminine pursuits, and a bout with polio made sure that she could not engage in the more manly sports. After her retirement she and her spouse moved to Florida where she found a new beginning. Then at the beginning of this year more changes began and launched Josy into new adventures. Read what happened in her post today.
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As always, our voice from the underground, The Artist D, offers a different perspective on the issue of safety and security. Her basic premise is that we live in a world of illusion and what we perceive as imminent danger, or as total security are both phantoms created in our own minds. As an infamous Secretary of Defense once said, “Stuff happens.” When “stuff” happens it’s good to not be in the general vicinity but we don’t have that kind of control. As a trans person, or LGBQ individual, is “stuff” more likely to occur around you because of who you are? Find out what The Artist D thinks in today’s post.
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Dana Bevan has been reading about the origins of the Prenatal Testosterone Theory of Being Transgender. That’s the theory that says you become trans due to different levels of testosterone exposure while you’re still in the womb. She finds the theory has roots in eugenics and “therapies” to “cure” homosexuality. The theory has been discredited but that doesn’t keep some people from still pushing for hormone therapy to “fix” gender and sexuality.
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Testosterone is not an Italian pasta dish. It’s a hormone most commonly associated with the development of male sex characteristics. At puberty the male body begins to produce more testosterone and with that body hair, a deeper voice, smellier sweat and larger muscles. And yes, a beard. For trans girls the advent of the changes brought about by testosterone can be a severe trial. Today Cate O’Malley talks about testosterone poisoning and how it affected her.
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Most of us who crossdress regularly and go out in public work at looking the most like any other woman as we can. Today we bring you the story of a new TGF contributor who goes out and interacts with the public in what she feels is an androgynous look. She wears women’s styles but only jeans, pants and tops that she feels fit the look of an androgyne. But, do open toed wedges and floral print tank tops really fit that bill? Falecia McGuire thinks so and she tells us all about what she wears, why she wears it, and how people react to her look.
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We all spend our lives going from one “first” to the next. When we’re little we use the potty for the first time. We take our first steps and say our first words. Trans people are often delayed in experiencing some of the “firsts” of their gender since the world believes they aren’t girls or boys. A young trans girl won’t get to wear her first bra at the same time her schoolmates are getting theirs. So the trans girl has to make her own first bra wearing experience. Sophie Lynne shares her first time wearing her mom’s bra and she invites you to leave a comment with recollections of your first time doing something typical to your gender identity.
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Decisions, decisions. Amanda has been living in northern California and trying her best to fit in. At heart she is a western Pennsylvania girl, more used to the muggy summer heat and lush greenery surrounding the confluence of the Allegheny and Manongahela rivers, where the Ohio river is born, than she is with the dry desert on the outskirts of San Francisco. She has days when she is convinced she needs to pack up and head back east. On other days she feels that she should stay in the west and make things work. Today she posts a question to everyone, should she stay or should she go?
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Our Retro Rerun today is from TGF in1998. Roberta Angela Dee wrote this column for TGForum on the importance of proportion. More people are outed because their proportions are wrong than are given away by an Adam’s Apple or large hands. A typical male body is wider at the top. Male hips do not, in most men, get as wide as the shoulders, and the male butt tends to be flatter than the female behind. In this article Roberta covers the differences and suggests safe ways to create a more feminine figure. Roberta Angela Dee passed away in 2003.
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