Tranny in the workshop:

[jrittenhouse]

A friend said on Facebook:

A Thought on Being Transgendered: So, when your body reacts in a good way to hormones from the other side of the gender binary, you should probably consider, that even thought you think you are male or female something is telling you otherwise. It’s not about what parts you have. It’s about what makes you happy and sane.

Comments

[ann_totusek]

Of course. One should confine one's self to rabbits and squirrels. :)

[jrittenhouse]

I've done those, many years ago. Not much there to eat, either.

[shelleybear]

I consider myself female because estrogen broke a 46 year depression.

It shocked the heck out of me.
This idea that depression is NOT the natural order of things, and that my body was running on the wrong hormonal fuel all these years.
It still presents problems, because, even though I am female learning to be is a bitch.
Nevertheless it is who I am.

[cakmpls]

Most of this resonates. I feel much the same way about being female as you do about being male: not typical, but also solidly what I am. I have also said that I "don't grok" gender dysphoria, and I also am totally supportive of transgender folks. And I even dated someone who was identifying as male at the time and who is now female. I'm not at all squicked by the idea of sex with a woman, but I have never felt any physical attraction to a woman, either. So we have a lot of this in common.

[jrittenhouse]

Well...I can see how she's your sort of gal. And I gotta say that her partner is either the luckiest woman on the earth, or the most overwhelmed by Rachel's sudden stardom.

I will say that Rachel is also refreshingly goofy and down to earth.

[jrittenhouse]

Also, you don't talk all the....time...about...

Oh, heck.

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

It's nice of you to post about GLBT tolerance from the perspective of an ally.

>> I do the same over all sorts of stuff; never give me your manuscript to look over unless you want the unvarnished truth and can deal with it given in a kind and helpful way, because I won’t read it and lie about how wonderful it is. <<

You're welcome to provide feedback on any of the stuff I post. I've been putting put several poems a month from my Poetry Fishbowls. Ironically, the one my audience just voted to have published, "A Doe in Velvet," is a fantasy ballad about gender roles:
http://ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com/585664.html

Re: Thoughts

[jrittenhouse]

It's been a matter that I've kicked around a good deal; I've drawn up draft after draft of this sort of thing and none of them worked well for me. Part of the way I think things out in essays and writing is to poke around as to the basics, to understand why X is so, or why I have come to see Y. If I'm not clear enough, that's my fault.

Re: Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

I do that too, sometimes. It seems to be very popular -- people often say that I've managed to phrase something they were thinking about in terms better than what they had come up with. So it's nice to see other folks doing the same.